Book description
Orphaned at an early age, raised by his aunt and uncle, and apprenticed
for seven years to a draper, Artie Kipps is stunned to discover upon
reading a newspaper advertisement that he is the grandson of a wealthy
gentleman - and the inheritor of his fortune. Thrown dramatically into
the upper classes, he struggles desperately to learn the etiquette and
rules of polite society. But as he soon discovers, becoming a 'true
gentleman' is neither as easy nor as desirable as it at first appears.
H. G. Wells was a professional writer and journalist, who published
more than a hundred books, including novels, histories, essays and
programmes for world regeneration. Wells's prophetic imagination was
first displayed in pioneering works of science fiction, but later he
became an apostle of socialism, science and progress. His
controversial views on sexual equality and the shape of a truly
developed nation remain directly relevant to our world today. He was,
in Bertrand Russell's words, 'an important liberator of thought and action'.
David Lodge is a novelist and critic and Emeritus Professor of
English Literature at Birmingham University.
Simon J. James is Lecturer in Victorian Literature at the University
of Durham. He has written on, and edited works by, George Gissing, H.
G. Wells and Charles Dickens.
