Cosy

[poliphilo]

 The Invisible Man was the first thing I ever read by Wells- (in my early teens, in the dormitory at school, in the short period of grace we were allowed before the lights went out, with the nice, friendly maths master wandering up and down putting the prettier boys at ease and telling them they didn't have to call him "Sir" at the conclusion of every sentence. Did we have his number? Oh, yes, the older ones did and the younger ones soon caught on) I had remembered it as a grim SF fable- and am surprised to find that it's actually quite funny- less War of the Worlds, more History of Mr Polly. It's dark, of course, but we English like our humour that way. And now I think of it, Mr Polly (possibly Wells's best book) is pretty dark as well....

It's raining, it's misty, I'm still adapting myself to the long dark evenings. "Cosy" I tell myself, but as yet I'm not wholly convinced.....

Comments

[paserbyp]

The prettier boys and celibate?

[poliphilo]

I believe so.

The rumour was that he'd gotten rather too close to one of his pupils and had been told that he'd better back away or else he'd be losing his job.

As it happened he stayed at the school all his working life. And retained a close link with it in retirement.

He was a very good maths teacher.

[paserbyp]

Love and sex… how separate it?

[poliphilo]

It depends what you mean by "Love"

You can desire someone sexually without caring for them in the least.

And you can care for someone deeply without wanting to f**k them.

[paserbyp]

I mean by “Love” that sex is benefit for love and you can have it or not it all…

For example, friends with benefits.

[cmcmck]

I also think Mr Polly is his best work.

[poliphilo]

Considered all ways round I think it is.

But Tono-Bungay is considerably more ambitious- and certainly a masterpiece.

And a lot of his later novels are unfairly neglected. I am particularly fond of Christina Alberta's Father, The Dream and Secret Places of the Heart.

[halfmoon_mollie1]

I recently binged watched Warehouse 13 and one of the more interesting themes was that the stories of HG Wells were really written by his sister- that he had no imagination to speak of. Now, I know it's fiction but I kind of liked the idea. (her name was Helene and she started out as a 'bad guy'.

[poliphilo]

Looks like a fun series.