Herbert George Wells was born in Bromley, Kent, a suburb of London, to a lower-middle-class family. Heattended London University and the Royal College of Science where he studied zoology.
One of hisprofessors instilled in him a belief in social as well as biological evolution which Wells later cited as theimportant and influential aspect of his education. This is how it all began. Maybe without this professorWells wouldnt be the famous author he is today. Most of Wells novels are science fiction and have a greatdeal of some kind of human society theme, or Darwinism in mind. It is a theme that is seen in his mostfamous science fiction writings.
H. G. Wells seems to convey a sense of Darwinism and change in thefuture of society in his major works. Wells has been called the father and Shakespeare of science fiction.
He is best known today forhis great work in science fiction novels and short stories. He depicted stories of chemical warfare, worldwars, alien visitors and even atomic weapons in a time that most authors, or even people for that matter,were not thinking of the like. His stories opened a door for future science fiction writers who followed thetrend that Wells wrote about. His most popular science fiction works include The Time Machine, TheInvisible Man, The War of the Worlds, and The Island of Doctor Moreau. His first novel, The TimeMachine, was an immediate success.
By the time the First World War had begun his style of writing andnovels had made him one of the most controversial and best-selling authors in his time. In the story The Time Machine, Wells expresses his creativity with images of beauty, uglinessand great details. In this novel Wells explores what it would be like to travel in this magnificent andbeautiful machine. The criterion of the prophecy in this case is influenced by the theory of naturalselection.
(Beresford, 424) He uses Darwins theory in the novel and relates it to the men living in thenovel. The men are no longer struggling to survive, they have all adapted and there is no termination ofthe weak. It had practically ceased. His fascination with society in biological terms is also mentioned,Shows Wells horizon of sociobiological regression leading to cosmic extinction, simplified fromDarwinism. (Beresford, 424) He took the idea from Darwin but instead of making it survival of thefittest, the weak have already died off and only the fittest are left, which leads to the extinction.
Hisfascination with Darwinism was one that had not been thought by many in that time, because there werequestions of ethics and religion. From The Time Machine on, it was generally recognized that no writerhad so completely or so perceptively taken Darwin to heart. (McConnell, 442) He wasnt the first man torealize and acknowledge the importance of Darwins theory for the future of civilization, but he is said tobe the first to assimilate that theory into his stories. Concerning society with the future, The Time Machine is said to be seen as a prophecy of theeffects of rampant industrialization on that class conflict that was already, in the nineteenth, century asocial powder keg. (McConnell, 438) Wells always touched upon the subject of society, the destruction ofit, and how it would become in the future due to this destruction and chaos.
His view on society was thatthe classes would clash and ultimately they might become two races, mutually uncomprehending andmurderously divided, (Suvin, 435) His predictions of future societies were all much alike, war-torn classproblems, much like what is seen now a days. The narrator of The Time Machine says of the TimeTraveler that he saw in the growing pile of civilization only a foolish heaping that must inevitably fallback upon and destroy its makers in the end. (McConnell, 439) This is another reference to societyssurvival of the fittest, as he depicts civilization tearing at each other, and in the end, doing away with theircreator. Not all of his predictions and social clashes were horrid and horrendous with violence.
In some ofhis foretelling of what society would do, he recommended things that could be done to avoid such thingsand maybe in the end reach some kind of peace or togetherness. That the human race, thanks to .
