Week 10

Literary Context

H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds brings together several genres popular in late Victorian Culture: the structure of a serial novel, illustrations from penny dreadfuls, and a new interest in scientific advances (The War of the Worlds was first called a "Scientific Romance," which became the forerunner to science fiction), and a growing well-to-do suburban elite. Writer Iain Sinclair discusses how H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds disturbed the public by combining journalistic sensationalism, scientific fantasy, suburban mundanity and fears of invasion. For more CLICK HERE

Serial Novels

The serialization of literature began as early as the 17th century but it reached its zenith in Britain in the 19th century. For more on serialization, CLICK HERE

Penny Dreadfuls

In the 1830s, increasing literacy and improving technology saw a boom in cheap fiction for the working classes. ‘Penny bloods’ was the original name for the booklets that, in the 1860s, were renamed penny dreadfuls and told stories of adventure, initially of pirates and highwaymen, later concentrating on crime and detection. For more on Penny Dreadfuls, CLICK HERE

Scientific Culture

The 19th century saw rapid technological change, together with paradigm shifts in scientific understanding. How did authors respond to the new possibilities afforded by technology and science? For more on science, technological developments, and changing theories geology and the cosmos, CLICK HERE. Welles was as student of T. L Huxley, whose theories of human evolution (in addition to Darwin's) influenced his world view as well as the plot of War of the Worlds. For more on evolution, CLICK HERE.

Suburbia

Dr Matthew Taunton takes us through 19th-century suburbia, showing how aspirations to respectability led the Victorian lower-middle class away from political involvement. The homogeneity and apathy of the suburbs provided rich satire for writers, as well as a setting for dystopian and science fiction. For more CLICK HERE

H. G. Welles' Biography

From the British Library:

"Acclaimed as a scientific and social prophet, Herbert George Wells was a prolific novelist famous primarily for science fiction but also for comic realism.

He was born in Bromley, Kent, the son of shopkeeper who was also a legendary fast bowler until disabled by an injury, and a lady's maid, who worked at the Sussex mansion of Uppark (where Wells had the run of the library), pictured in Tono-Bungay (1909). After a brief apprenticeship to a draper, Wells became a student-teacher, eventually winning a scholarship to the Normal School of Science (later Imperial College) where his studies under the great zoologist T. H. Huxley inspired his science fiction writing. By now he was a socialist and a member of the Fabian Society, as well as a writer of textbooks, short stories and reviews." For more, CLICK HERE

Warwick Goble and Henrique Alvim Corrêa's illustrations for the 1896/1908 editions of Welles' War of the Worlds