The Short Stories of H.G. Wells
H.G. Wells composed numerous short stories during his lifetime. Select story entries are highlighted with comments to note significant details. Click on the READ HERE button to enjoy a digital copy of the story.
A Family Elopement (1884)
The St. James's Gazette, Mar 3, 1884
"Five days after the last of these remarkable conversations Gabbitas found himself on the Southampton platform of Waterloo Station with a large pile of boxes, masculine and feminine, in his care, and an exhilarating sense of wrong-doing in his heart. Miss Hawkins mingled timidity and self-possession delightfully."
A Vision of the Past (1887)
Science Schools Journal, Jun 1887 | Signed S.S. for “Sosthenes Smith”
A vision of reptilians in the distant past: they have three eyes and believe the world was made for them, "the noblest of all being who have ever existed or ever will exist." When the time traveller points out to them that this cannot be so for they will soon become extinct, they attempt to refute him with an argumentumm ad stomachum. But he saves himself from being eaten by waking up.
The Chronic Argonauts (1888)
Science Schools Journal, Apr/May/Jun 1888
First published by the Royal College of Science in 1888, it predates Wells's more famous time traveling novel, The Time Machine, by seven years. Although Wells is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel by using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposefully and selectively, "The Clock that Went Backward" by Edward Page Mitchell was published in 1881 and involves a clock that allows a person to travel backwards in time.
The Devotee of Art (1888)
The St. James's Gazette Nov-Dec 1888
TV Adaptation | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5441412/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_3
The Pure and Natural Man (1893)
The Pall Mall Gazette, Oct 16 1893
Wells's hero, a rigid logician, recognizing that "the essence of all civilized ills" is man's "entirely artificial life," retires from society, goes nudist, and abstains altogether from the use of soap, an alkali.
The Flowering of the Strange Orchid (a.k.a. “The Strange Orchid”) (1894)
Pall Mall Budget, Aug 2, 1894
Available in the story collection - The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents (1895)
TV Adaptation | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3289034/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_34
In the Avu Observatory (1894)
Pall Mall Budget, Aug 9, 1894
Available in the story collection - The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents (1895)
TV Adaptatipon | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3288890/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_34
The Stolen Bacillus (1894)
Pall Mall Budget, Jun 21, 1894
Available in the story collection - The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents (1895)
TV Adaptation | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3289046/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_34
TV Adaptation | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1805037/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_21
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