The Bulpington of Blup: H.G. Wells
May. 3rd, 2014 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloSilly title, lively book.
Theodore Bulpington is a fantasist- a Billy Liar avant la lettre- who comes up against the 20th century- its philosophies and horrors- is repeatedly defeated and after each shaming episode reimagines its history to his advantage. This is late Wells- and quite surprising in the liberties it takes; it has nocturnal emissions, whores, the Great War and a character called Wimperdick who is an unfriendly caricature of G.K. Chesterton.
If the critics hadn't decided to ignore everything Wells wrote after about 1920 this would be counted among his masterpieces.
Theodore Bulpington is a fantasist- a Billy Liar avant la lettre- who comes up against the 20th century- its philosophies and horrors- is repeatedly defeated and after each shaming episode reimagines its history to his advantage. This is late Wells- and quite surprising in the liberties it takes; it has nocturnal emissions, whores, the Great War and a character called Wimperdick who is an unfriendly caricature of G.K. Chesterton.
If the critics hadn't decided to ignore everything Wells wrote after about 1920 this would be counted among his masterpieces.
