Mr. Britling Sees It Through

Wells, H. G. (Herbert George), 1866-1946Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.2
Word count
797K words
Chapters
80

Tags

English Originals War and Military FictionForeign Literature Military StrategySocial ObservationFamily BondsHumanistic CareCivic AwarenessIntellectual EnlightenmentGrowing UpWorld Order

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Mr. Britling Sees It Through by H. G. WellsAuthor: Wells, H. G. (Herbert George), 1866-1946,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Nov 16, 2004

Editor's review

Mr. Britling Sees It Through is a novel H. G. Wells wrote during World War I. Through the perspective of an English gentleman, Mr. Britling, it traces an ordinary man's spiritual journey from optimism and confusion to painful reflection under the shock of war. Wells's narrative combines social observation with humanistic concern, interweaving family life, international events, and the collapse of personal belief, so that the book conveys both the immediacy of its era and reflections that transcend the specific conflict. It serves as a literary sample for understanding British social attitudes and the intellectual mood during World War I, and will appeal to readers interested in Wells's non-science-fiction works. While reading, note the stages of the protagonist's changing views and how the author handles issues such as wartime ethics and faith in humanity. As a public-domain eBook, it is easily accessible and suitable as supplementary material for thematic reading or literature-history courses.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Learn about British society in the early years of World War I before starting the text; this makes the characters' changing views easier to understand.
  2. While reading, note Mr. Britling's several key shifts in attitude and trace his spiritual trajectory.
  3. Read it alongside other World War I literature to compare how the war is written from different perspectives.
  4. If the original English is difficult, read chapter summaries first, then close-read key passages.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74
  75. 75
  76. 76
  77. 77
  78. 78
  79. 79
  80. 80

FAQ

Is this a science fiction novel by Wells? No. It is a social novel Wells wrote against the backdrop of World War I, focusing on the psychological and ideological changes of an ordinary family and intellectuals during the war; its style differs from science fiction such as The Time Machine.
Can I understand it without knowledge of World War I history? You can follow the main plot, but some background on British social atmosphere in the early war years will make the characters' confusion, arguments, and changes easier to understand and the reading experience fuller.
Is this book suitable as English-learning material? It can serve as extended reading, but the novel was written in the early twentieth century and has long sentences and much period vocabulary. It is not recommended as a beginner-level English reader; it suits readers with some foundation in English reading.

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About the author

Wells, H. G. (Herbert George), 1866-1946 Author

H. G. Wells (Herbert George, 1866–1946) was a renowned British author best known for his science fiction and socially engaged works. The collection holds 76 of his works, including The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Red Room, and The Door in the Wall, and Other Stories, as well as the historical survey The Outline of History. His science fiction often starts from scientific premises and explores technological loss of control, human weakness, and social crisis, with bold imagination and clear narration; The Outline of History reflects his approachable, well-structured writing for general readers. Public information is limited, so biographical details are not elaborated here, but his works show a mastery of novels, short stories, and popular history, and his influence on later science fiction is profound.