This item cannot be shipped to your selected delivery location. Please choose a different delivery location.

Image Unavailable

Image not available for
Color:

To view this video download Flash Player

The World Set Free Paperback – April 15, 2007

by H. G. Wells (Author)

4.0 515 ratings

THE history of mankind is the history of the attainment of external power. Man is the tool-using, fire-making animal. From the outset of his terrestrial career we find him supple-menting the natural strength and bodily weapons of a beast by the heat of bu

Print length

233 pages
Language

English
Publisher

1st World Library
Publication date

April 15, 2007
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

1421839601
ISBN-13

978-1421839608
See all details

H. G. Wells
107
Paperback
$9.95
$12.77 shipping
Ursula K. Le Guin
7,076
Paperback
$10.83
$11.99 shipping
Richard Rhodes
3,844
Paperback
$17.59
$16.03 shipping

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ 1st World Library (April 15, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 233 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1421839601
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1421839608
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.9 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches

Customer Reviews:
4.0 515 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

Customer reviews

4 out of 5

515 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Customers say

Customers find the content interesting and important, while others find the story not well developed and tedious. They also describe the writing style as well written, descriptive, and thought provoking. However, some customers find the book not easy to read and has too much exposition.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Select to learn more

Content Writing style

27 customers mention "Content"17 positive10 negative

Customers find the book very interesting, covering big and important subjects. They say the view of the future is amazing and makes them look at their life style and wonder about their own beliefs. However, some customers feel the story is not well developed, boring, and tedious after awhile. They also mention that the book is not about 1 character and doesn't really have a plot.

"H.G.Wells view of the future is amazing...." Read more

"...He wraps these forecasts in an interesting tale...." Read more

"...a scientific and socio-political point of view, but I found it somewhat tedious." Read more

"I did enjoy the history lesson, as well as the division of labour for mankind...." Read more

7 customers mention "Writing style"3 positive4 negative

Customers are mixed about the writing style. Some find the book well written, descriptive, and thought provoking, while others say it's not easy to read, gets bogged down with details, and the font used is the worst they've ever seen.

"...I was shocked to see that the font used was about the worst I had ever seen. You would be hard pressed to find anything smaller...." Read more

"Well written descriptive thought provoking.An enjoyable story.One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve." Read more

"Good ideas but far too much exposition and not nearly enough story...." Read more

"H.G. Wells writes in such detail and from the point of view of a human protagonist. It is absolutely from his time period and that makes it wonderful." Read more

Reviews with images

See all photos

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Kindle Customer

What vision!

Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2023

Verified Purchase

H.G.Wells view of the future is amazing. It's hard to believe that this was written in 1913, yet he imagined nuclear war, the United Nations, Wikipedia and much more....

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Chheyden

The World Set Free but not by the Advent of the Atomic Bomb

Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2015

Verified Purchase

Although his stilted language style irked me as I read, it is to be expected from a nineteenth century educated author. Wells’ predictions of Mankind’s progress in the 20th century and beyond are if nothing else accurate and therefore all the more amazing since The World Set Free was finished in 1912. No one before him expounded in such detail and so deftly. He wraps these forecasts in an interesting tale. The professional narration by Eric Jones is well worth the 1.99 and contributes to the British mood in the story.

Wells ventures the untenable prediction that the horrific force of atomic power alone brings Mankind to the irrefutable conclusion that he must reform his ways and think only of his place as a part of the greater striving of Man as a whole, a concept which correlates to his bent towards socialism. Untenable if only because men have employed and enjoyed the use of force to subdue one another, conquer one another and convince one another of the correctness of their beliefs and desires over all others.

What I found truly astounding is, although Wells attributes it wrongly to the Atomic bomb’s unimaginatively coercive destructive force, he predicts the freeing of Man’s attention from the day to day grind for survival into a virtual aesthetic utopia. Forecasting, what I have observed in my life, that men, women, individuals will have the chance in the future, circa our times, to express their innermost creative urges and focus on making things, aesthetic creations.

Finally as the story closes he very simply and boldy affirms his immortal inheritance, in the waning moments via his final major charater Marcus Karinen, the world educator who has come to prominence in the New World Order that has been set free. And that inheritance and its freeing is the key to Man’s continued progress towards being set free.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Bob Wilson

The World Set Free by H.G.Wells

Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2014

Verified Purchase

Being in my 60's this story was written close to 50 years before I was born! Despite this, if you read it with an open mind and allow for the idea of different, possible futures, it presents an idea of the world advancing in a much different way that still shares a number of things with the world we have inherited and that we live in now. Wells had an imagination I find almost breath taking at times if you consider what he had to work with and what he imagined out of that setting.

He presents a world battling among nations for just as ridiculous of reasons as that we kill each other for today. The idea of the world running short of resources as the number of people on the planet increased was prescient and right on target. The thing that made the story pass slowly at times was Wells seems to have been preoccupied with the different political ideologies of his time. He's done this in a number of his books, almost drowning the story line. In his defense, many people of the early 20th century were either talking about, debating or involved in all kinds of political ideology experiments. No one had an "arm-lock" on which was the best way to govern, so maybe the story line Wells used was just a vehicle for him to hitch his "curiosity" to as he played the different ideologies off against each other.

Regardless, the language usage, semantics and phraseology also takes its toll for a part of the book in the beginning, until your mind adjusts to the differences between the properly used English of Wells' time and what English has transitioned to in the here and now. I also found Wells' automatic supposition that given a choice in a matter, all people would choose to do "the right thing;" that their "common sense" would come to the surface and make them decide on an answer of what is "good for all men," no matter who the people are or where they come from. Was he naive in thinking that what is good for someone in Great Britain, would be accepted with open arms by someone in the India or China or Turkey of his his time? Or, perhaps he was just as self-centered and self-assured in his beliefs of right and wrong, as so many of his fellow countrymen of the time were. Rule Britannia?

There are many other books by Wells that are much more enjoyable to read, but if you are up for a challenge and find the idea of a rather different world that is still very familiar and understandable, give "The World Set Free" a read.

Bob Wilson

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Freedom Fighter

A Prescient Work of Science Fiction

Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2018

Verified Purchase

This novel of science fiction is truly a classic, highly deserving of a five star rating. Written about the late first decade of the 20th century, it predicts a new, peaceful world with unlimited energy, as a result of nuclear (or more incorrectly, atomic) energy. A new world government is formed out of necessity, because atomic bombs have made war unthinkable and obsolete. The world remains devastated due to the Last War using atomic bombs, but a bright future awaits in an era of peace and unlimited energy. An eerily similar scenario was to become reality approximately 30 years later, with the the discovery of the nuclear pile in 1939, and the first nuclear bombs about six years later. Although the "new age of peace," unfortunately never materialized, the new atomic technology did prevent another world war. Leo Szilard, and other early atomic scientists involved in the Manhattan Project (the secret war time project the develop the atomic bomb), had read and been inspired by this book. Remember, this novel was written when the atom was merely a hypothesis, and the neutron was years away from discovery. Anyone interested in the history of nuclear energy and/or physics should definitely read this book.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

NVM

Such depth

Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2021

Verified Purchase

First recorded use of “atomic bomb”. Prophetic. I chose 5 stars because it spoke to my heart and I will read it again and revisit the end if I have the luxury of knowing when my end is near.

Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2023

Verified Purchase

The writer seemed to believe that nuclear power solves all the worlds problems. I guess he forgot human nature and didn’t read history.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

Juan F.

Sorprendentemente actual

Reviewed in Mexico on September 1, 2021

Verified Purchase

Leo los trabajos de Wells, recordando anteriores lecturas, y la relectura permite tener una visión de la situación actual, como un futuro que anticipó Wells. Me sorprende la visión del autor, da la impresión que la actual crisis biológica responde a una "conspiración".

Translate review to English

Hase1960

Gelehrte Gedanken - wenig Handlung

Reviewed in Germany on September 24, 2019

Verified Purchase

H.G. Wells entwirft (aus seiner Zeit heraus) ein "Zukunftsbild" einer Gesellschaft, die die Atomenergie nutzt und malt sich die Folgen aus. Gut gelungen und lesenswert sind m.E. die einleitenden Kapitel, in denen er die Fortschrittsgeschichte der Menschheit bis zur Entdeckung der Atomenergie beschreibt. Danach begibt er sich (notwendigerweise) auf das Feld der Spekulation und liegt größtenteils ziemlich daneben. Einzig die Gefahren von Atombomben hat er hellsichtig erkannt und beschrieben.

Man kann die Erwägungen des Autors als ein Stück "Zeitgeschichte" begreifen. Er stellte sich damals vor, dass nach einem katastrophalen Atomkrieg die Menschheit "zur Vernunft" kommen und (weitgehend) einig eine neue Welt-Gesellschaft aufbauen würde. Inzwischen wissen wir, dass es so nicht funktioniert (hat)...

Am ärgerlichsten fand ich an dem Buch, dass es (fast) keine Handlung aufweist. Wer eine durchgehende und spannende "Story" erwartet, wird enttäuscht sein.

One person found this helpful

Translate review to English

Saurajit Mallick

Wonderful!!!

Reviewed in India on February 12, 2019

Verified Purchase

An wonderful read.