The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman [Paperback]

H. G. Wells (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 16, 2004

1914. English novelist, journalist, sociologist, and historian, famous for his works of science fiction, Wells's best-known books are The Time Machine, The Invisible Man and The War Of The Worlds. The book begins: The motorcar entered a little white gate, came to a porch under a thick wig of jasmine, and stopped. The chauffeur indicated by a movement of the head that this at last was it. A tall young woman with a big soft mouth, great masses of blue-black hair on either side of a broad, low forehead, and eyes of so dark brown you might have thought them black, drooped forward and surveyed the house with a mixture of keen appreciation and that gentle apprehension which is the shadow of desire in unassuming natures. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Born Herbert George Wells in Kent in 1866, H. G. Wells was an outspoken socialist and pacifist, whose works caused some controversy. He is more widely known as a science fiction writer for the novels that he published between 1895 and 1901: The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, When the Sleeper Wakes and The First Men in the Moon. All, except for When the Sleeper Wakes, have been made into films. Along with Jules Verne, H. G. Wells is also known as 'the Father of Science Fiction'. His later novels were more realistic and he wrote many genres, including contemporary novels, history and social commentary. H. G. Wells died in 1946. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 532 pages
• Publisher: Kessinger Publishing, LLC (April 16, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1417911697
• ISBN-13: 978-1417911691
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,657,440 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An overlooked comedy by a great writer, April 7, 2007

By 

Anne Mini (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman (Paperback)

This is my absolute favorite of all amongst Wells' social novels. Yes, he's best known for his science fiction now, but he had a genuinely brilliant eye for social satire. In my opinion, The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman is his funniest, despite some indirect hints of anti-Semitism in his sometimes stereotypical portrait of Sir Issac himself.

He is not the main character, however: his wife Ellen is, as she gropes her way from a child-bride's terrified dependency upon her husband's will to finding a life and work of her own, with the help of a bumblingly romantic writer of domestic comedies. (Unlike several of Wells' other novels of women's intellectual growth, Ellen does not end up falling madly in love with a scientifically-minded iconoclast bearing a suspicious resemblance to Wells, thank goodness.) Occasionally, the writer character gets a trifle preachy, but who could resist a protagonist who suddenly declares herself a suffragette and smashes the nearest shop window because the time in jail means a holiday from her husband?

Well worth the read, in short.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Navigation, April 25, 2011

By 

James O. Smith (Minneapolis, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman (1914 Edition with ClicBrowz navigation) (Kindle Edition)

This is what it says it is: a public domain text with navigation that allows the user to easily navigate the entire book, providing forward, backward and cross links to every section of the book. Most public domain texts (and far too many new texts) are just plain texts rendered into the Kindle format. This text was carefully constructed to fit the structure of this book.