Maps of utopia : H.G. Wells, modernity, and the end of culture / Simon J. James.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 197-219) and index.

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 aesthetics 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.

Print version record.

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.

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