Alive and kicking

This chapter begins with an account of H. G. Wells’s extremely autobiographical tendencies in his fiction, and discomfort with these elements. The World of William Clissold (1926), a late novel very close to “an” autobiography, is discussed early on. The chapter then examines Wells’s thoughts about the genre of biography, before moving on to his “formal” autobiographies: the two-volume Experiment in Autobiography (1934), and his posthumous autobiography H. G. Wells in Love (1984). The implicatory nature of autobiography and its impact on others is discussed, as well as the revision of autobiography, as Wells rewrote his life in official and more explicit, secret posthumous versions. The biographical circumstances around the writing of all three volumes, beginning in the spring of 1932, are explored in detail. Wells’s portrayals of Conrad, Ford, and James are also studied, as are his satirical “picshuas,” his notions of character, and his relations with women.