Maps of utopia : H.G. Wells, modernity, and the end of culture / Simon J. James.
2012
PR5777 .J345 2012 (Mapit)
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Title
Maps of utopia : H.G. Wells, modernity, and the end of culture / Simon J. James.
Author
James, Simon J.
ISBN
9780199606597 hardcover
0199606595 hardcover
0199606595 hardcover
Imprint
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2012.
Language
English
Description
xiv, 230 p. ; 23 cm
Call Number
PR5777 .J345 2012
Dewey Decimal Classification
823.912
Summary
"H. G. Wells is one of the most widely-read writers of the twentieth century, but until now the aesthetics of his work have not been investigated in detail. "Maps of Utopia" tells the story of Wells's writing career over six decades, during which he produced popular science, educational theory, history, politics, prophecy, and utopia, as well as realist, experimental, and science fiction. This book asks what Wells thought literature was, and what he thought it was for. H. G. Wells formulated a literary aesthetic based on scientific principles, designed to improve the world both in the present and for future generations. Unlike Henry James, with whom he famously argued, Wells was not content simply to let literary art be, for its own sake: he wanted to make art instrumental in improving the lives of its readers, by bringing about the founding of the World State that he predicted was man's only alternative to self-destruction."--Book jacket.
Note
"H. G. Wells is one of the most widely-read writers of the twentieth century, but until now the aesthetics of his work have not been investigated in detail. "Maps of Utopia" tells the story of Wells's writing career over six decades, during which he produced popular science, educational theory, history, politics, prophecy, and utopia, as well as realist, experimental, and science fiction. This book asks what Wells thought literature was, and what he thought it was for. H. G. Wells formulated a literary aesthetic based on scientific principles, designed to improve the world both in the present and for future generations. Unlike Henry James, with whom he famously argued, Wells was not content simply to let literary art be, for its own sake: he wanted to make art instrumental in improving the lives of its readers, by bringing about the founding of the World State that he predicted was man's only alternative to self-destruction."--Book jacket.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [197]-219) and index.
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Table of Contents
Of art, of literature, of Mr. H. G. Wells
The history of the future: the scientific romances
The uses of literacy: reading and realism in Wells's novels
The idea of a planned world: H. G. Wells's utopias
Education and catastrophe: the war and the world.
The history of the future: the scientific romances
The uses of literacy: reading and realism in Wells's novels
The idea of a planned world: H. G. Wells's utopias
Education and catastrophe: the war and the world.