Wells and his Work

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 426, 22 August 1947, Page 8

Wells and his Work

N one of the BBC series "The Written Word — Development of the English Novel," V. S. Pritchett paid a warmhearted tribute to H. G. Wells and his work. Some of Mr. Pritchett’s own turns of phrase were effective in describing his subject. For instance, when he said that many of Wells’s characters were "plain, ill educated, knockabout people," how many characters spring to mind! Pritchett also called Wells a "ruthless optimist" — forceful description of a writer who seemed to ss the conviction that will "burn the world clean,’.and we shall all lead happy and healthy lives in Utopia. Into the time at his disposal, the speaker packed as tight a portmanteau of Wellsian analysis as possible. Wells was presented to us as a writer whose didactic novels shaped the mind of the generation; one who caught what was in the minds of progressive people aiid was able

to give it to the common people through a great gift for storytelling; one who would plan everything anew, but got impatient when asked for details; who didn’t understand where in the mind of man the rational and irrational meet; who didn’t understand religion and publicly despised art; who, above all, time and time again warned his generation just where its policy was taking it. Mr, Pritchett drew no _ conclusions from these statements, but concluded his talk (surprisingly enough) with a rough comparison and contrast of Wells and Kipling, the internationalist and the patriot. The one point where they agreed, sai. the speaker, was that both describe lence with a certain gusto. "Both hav felt the first movements of our civilisqtion rising against itself."