The First Men in the Moon is a scienti c romance published in 1901 by the English author H. G. Wells, who called it one of his "fantastic stories." The novel tells the story of a journey to the moon undertaken by the two protagonists, a businessman narrator, Mr. Bedford, and an eccentric scientist, Mr. Cavor. Bedford and Cavor discover that the moon is inhabited by a sophisticated extraterrestrial civilization of insect-like creatures they call "Selenites." Each RADLEY CLASSIC is a meticulously restored, luxurious and faithful reproduction of a classic book; produced with elegant text layout,...

The War in the Air, a military science ction novel by H. G. Wells, written in four months in 1907 and serialised and published in 1908 in The Pall Mall Magazine, is like many of Wells's works notable for its prophetic ideas, images, and concepts-in this case, the use of the aircraft for the purpose of warfare and the coming of World War I. The novel's hero is Bert Smallways, a "forward-thinking young man" and a "kind of bicycle engineer of the let's-'ave-a-look-at-it and enamel-chipping variety." The story was written in 1907 and depicts a war happening in the late 1910s - then a future...

The text of this novel of ideas presents itself as a book that has been written as the result of a promise to a dying man. William Porphyry Benham is a man who has lived a life devoted to a complicated, protean idea: "that he had to live life nobly and thoroughly." He has left behind him "half a score of patent les quite distended with papers] and a writing-table drawer-full," and the novel is by implication what his friend White, who has promised to "see after your book," has produced to acquit himself of the promise, since the papers themselves are "an indigestible aggregation." Benham is...

The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells, first published in 1904. Wells called it "a fantasia on the change of scale in human affairs. . . . I had hit upon the idea] while working out the possibilities of the near future in a book of speculations called Anticipations (1901)." There have been various B- movie adaptations. The novel is about a group of scientists who invent a food that accelerates the growth of children and turns them into giants when they become adults. Each RADLEY CLASSIC is a meticulously restored, luxurious and faithful...

The World Set Free is a novel published in 1914 by H. G. Wells. The book is based on a prediction of nuclear weapons of a more destructive and uncontrollable sort than the world has yet seen. A frequent theme of Wells's work, as in his 1901 non ction book Anticipations, was the history of humans' mastery of power and energy through technological advance, seen as a determinant of human progress. The novel begins: "The history of mankind is the history of the attainment of external power. Man is the tool-using, re-making animal. . . . Always down a lengthening record, save for a set-back ever...

Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul is a novel by H. G. Wells, rst published in 1905. Humorous yet sympathetic, this perceptive social novel is generally regarded as a masterpiece, and was the author's own favourite work. It was adapted into the stage and cinema musical Half a Sixpence. Kipps is a rags-to-riches study in class differences, and the novel's chief dramatic interest is how the protagonist negotiates the intellectual, moral, and emotional difficulties that come with wealth and a change of social station. Kipps is the only character in the novel who is fully developed, and all events...

Mr. Britling Sees It Through is H.G. Wells's "masterpiece of the wartime experience in England." The novel was published in September 1916, and tells the story of a renowned writer, Mr. Britling, a protagonist who is quite evidently an alter ego of the author. The novel is divided into three parts. Book the First, entitled "Matching's Easy At Ease," is set in June-July 1914 and is at rst narrated from the point of view of an American, Mr. Direck, who visits Mr. Britling's establishment in Dower House and falls in love with Cissie, the sister of Mr. Britling's secretary's wife. Book the...

Tales of Space and Time is a fantasy and science ction collection of three short stories and two novellas written by the English author H. G. Wells between 1897 and 1898. It was rst published by Doubleday & McClure Co. in 1899. All the stories had rst been published in various monthly periodicals and this was the rst volume to collect these stories. Included stories are as follows: The Crystal Egg, The Star, A Story Of The Stone Age, A Story Of Days To Come, and The Man Who Could Work Miracles. Each RADLEY CLASSIC is a meticulously restored, luxurious and faithful reproduction of a classic...

The Discovery of the Future is a 1902 philosophical lecture by H. G. Wells that argues for the knowability of the future. It was originally delivered to the Royal Institution on January 24, 1902. Before appearing in book form, it was published by Richard Gregory in Nature on February 6, 1902, and was also published as part of the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution. Wells begins by distinguishing between "two divergent types of mind," one that judges and attaches importance principally to what has happened in the past and one that judges and attaches importance principally to what...

The Door in the Wall, considered by both readers and critics, to be Wells's finest tale, examines an issue to which Wells returned repeatedly in his writing: the contrast between aesthetics and science and the difficulty of choosing between them. This collection also includes The Star, A Dream of Armageddon, The Cone, A Moonlight Fable, The DiamondMaker, The Lord of the Dynamos, and The Country of the Blind. Each RADLEY CLASSIC is a meticulously restored, luxurious and faithful reproduction of a classic book; produced with elegant text layout, clarity of presentation, and stylistic features...