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David Copperfield is the story of a young man’s adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among the gloriously vivid cast of characters he encounters are his tyrannical stepfather, Mr Murdstone; his formidable aunt, Betsey Trotwood; the eternally humble yet treacherous Uriah Heep; frivolous, enchanting Dora; and the...

Although most famous for his sci-fi, Wells’ best work often deals with ordinary people having big thoughts in picturesque settings. „The Passionate Friends” is a fine representative example of this. Wells uses the changing relationships among childhood friends as the media for his thoughts on human relations on personal and global scales, and of what it all means. On the death of his father, Stephen...

Wells’s satire on literature, „Boon” was originally published under the pseudonym Reginald Bliss; a follow-up to the Fabian-savaging „The New Machiavelli”. It purports, however, to be by the fictional character Reginald Bliss, and for some time after publication Wells denied authorship. „Boon” is best known for its part in Wells’s debate on the nature of literature with Henry James, who is caricatured...

A romance of the fifth century, in which many of the scenes described in the ’Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’ are reset to suit the purpose of the author. Only two historical personages are introduced into the story,– the Emperor Honorius, and Alaric the Goth; and these attain only a secondary importance. Among the historical incidents used are the arrival of the Goths at the gates of Rome, the...