Physical description

Hard Cover Book. An English Man Looks At The World
Author: HG Wells
Publisher: Cassell & Co
Date: 1914
Further Information: Yellow Cloth hardcover with lettering and patterning to spine in black. The spine has a Library label with an inscription.

Publication type

fiction

Inscriptions & markings

The label on the spine with typed text PAT 824 WEL
Paste down front end paper has a sticker from Warrnambool Public Library covered by a sticker from Corangamite Regional Library Service. Front loose end paper has a stamp from Corangamite Regional Library Service

Summary

Published in 1914, this is a collection of essays by H.G. Wells consisting of journalistic pieces written between 1909 and 1914, spanning twenty-six pieces ranging from five to sixty-two pages in length. Roughly half of the essays were originally printed in the Daily Mail between 1904 and 1913, with ten more appearing in nearly as many weekly and monthly papers, and three others having had prior publication in volume form.
The subjects range widely flight and aviation with the opening with Blériot's Channel crossing, the monarchy, imperialism, labour and socialism, modern warfare, sociology, divorce, education, motherhood, the future of civilisation, and more. It's essentially Wells thinking aloud in print opinionated, topical journalism rather than fiction, reflecting a period when he was consciously stepping back from novel-writing to comment directly on contemporary affairs. A companion American edition was published the same year by Harper and Brothers under the different title Social Forces in England and America.