https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3846282.html

I've read a couple of other books about Wells - David Lodge's novel A Man of Parts and Adam Roberts' H.G. Wells: A Literary Life. This is better than either of them. Tomalin goes into considerable detail on Wells' childhood and early youth, and takes the story up to roughly 1911; both Lodge and Roberts looked at the way in which Wells' love life is reflected in his novels, but Tomalin takes it in the right order, explaining the history of Wells' many relationships, and then turning to the writing to explain how he used the raw material of his own life for his fiction, most obviously in Tono-Bungay, Kipps and Ann Veronica (of the books I have read so far).

A couple of other points that jumped out at me. First, that Wells' love of reading was boosted by a couple of spells of prolonged ill-health as a teenager and young man; his parents were not bookish and didn't really understand what he was up to, but lying in bed all day for months, books gave him an escape route which he retained access to for the rest of his life.

The success of The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine was a complete game-changer. He and his wives had struggled economically until then; after that, his struggle was with maintaining his delivery on his various writing commitments. Poor Jane got to do all the typing up of his handwritten manuscripts while he went out with other women.

Tomalin comments a couple of times on the incredible energy he showed in the first decade of the twentieth century - continuing his output of fiction and non-fiction, heavy engagement in the Fabian Society and nascent Labour movement (while also cultivating friendships with Balfour and Churchill), and still pursuing numerous emotional entanglements (if we are being polite about it). Some of his behaviour was frankly foolish.

There's a lot here, with some pleasing pen and ink illustrations of the buildings where Wells lived as well as the usual clutch of photographs. I'd be hard pressed to choose a favourite of the Claire Tomalin biographies I've read (Samuel Pepys, Jane Austen, Mary Wollstonecraft) but this is certainly their equal. ( )

Claire Tomalin’s biography of the ‘young’ Wells offers a complicated man. His rich imagination gave us iconic novels. He developed his own political and social philosophy and lifestyle. He was a man who tried to do too much, curtailing his work from perfection, and he was a man I often did not like.

He had my sympathy when reading of his early years, the problems in his family and his struggles with ill health. Like so many of his generation, he took up socialism as a vehicle for reform, and also ideas of equality and free love. And there is where I did not care for him, his seeking personal sexual satisfaction without responsibility to his mistresses (and resulting children). Yet, he seemed to be irresistible to women of intelligence and social standing, attracted to his fame or personal charisma.

Unlike other biographies I have recently read, I did not feel the author demonstrated an attachment to her subject. His life is competently laid out, the details of his writing and publishing life, his relationships with family, fellow writers, and women, his internal life and thoughts are all there. I did not feel the love and respect some writers allow to show about their subject.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased. ( )