The Spinster and the Prophet: Florence Deeks, H. G. Wells, and the Mystery of the Purloined Past

by A.B. McKillop

"In 1925 Miss Deeks launched a $500,000 lawsuit against Wells, claiming that in an act of "literary piracy," Wells had plagiarized her manuscript in the writing of his international best-seller The Outline of History."

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography

477 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Anita Dalton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not a big science fiction fan, so H.G. Wells, while I certainly read him and was socially aware of him, was not an author for whom I had any great affinity. But it was nevertheless disappointing to realize that he was a completely unlikeable, self-absorbed, trivial, priapic worm. Add to it that he may well have been a plagiarist who stole words knowing the person whose words he stole would likely have no recourse because she was not famous, had little money of her own, and most importantly, because she was a she and not a he, and it would appear H.G. Wells was a vile little man in many respects. Read my entire review here.

[Sylvain · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not know anything about the Deeks v. Wells case and I found the case itself to be very interesting. However, the author's description of the events are overly redundant. He starts by describing the facts initially (i.e., when Ms. Deeks realized that "The Web" had been plagiariazed), then, he goes over the facts a few more times when comparisons between books were done by "authorities", each time a trial takes place, ... Finally, in the last chapter "Voices", the author describes a sequence of events that could explain how Wells got to have "The Web" in his possession but he does not state that this is conjecture. In short, this is a good but bad book.

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Themes: intellectual rights, gender roles, marriage, women's rights, suffrage, sexism, free love, Canadian history, publishing, fame
Setting: Toronto and London, early 20th century

I picked this up because of the title, but I brought it home because I had just finished The War of the Worlds. The book is about an obscure female writer, Florence Deeks, who accused H G Wells of plagiarizing large portions of his World History book from her unpublished manuscript. The writer starts by profiling each party in the lawsuit, first Wells, then Deeks, then back to Wells for a bit, and so on. I certainly learned much that I had never heard before about Wells. I was really only familiar with his science fiction writing, although I had heard the titles of another book or two. But I had no idea what a ladies' man he was. He was a fervent advocate of free love and Fabianism, had at least one illegitimate child, and made his wife extremely unhappy by the way he couldn't stay away from other women. The worst part was the way that he wrote books about his affairs, only halfway hiding their identities, and then published them for the whole world to read. His regular publisher even had to refuse a couple of books as too racy to handle, thinking more of lawsuits and poor taste that actual content.

So what's the verdict? Did he steal her work? Well, sadly, that's where this book got boring. I really didn't care about the state of Canadian publishing at the time, the characters involved, or long passages comparing sections sentence by sentence. I also especially didn't care about the court cases. I just wanted a summary of that, and more of the personalities involved. It was interesting to learn about Canada at the time, but get on with the verdict! The court decided in favor of the man, naturally, but the writer and the reader will probably disagree.

If you are a fan of Wells, I think you might enjoy at least looking through this one. Otherwise, I would stay away. It was somewhat interesting, but would have been much better if the focus had stayed on the people and not strayed so far into details. 2.5 stars.

[Scott Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This account is a little known story of how H.G. Wells was accused of plagiarizing from the manuscript of a women from Canada in his Outline of the History of the World. While her accusation was never accepted by the courts, this tale chronicles the journey of both people and the conflict between them and the publishing house in the middle. The book is most interesting for its account a rarely mentioned historical fact. It however is longer than necessary and provides far too much unnecessary background, unrelated to the story at hand.

[Greg]

(I'm aware from various reader reviews that the case presented against Wells in this book is very weak but I'm interested in the story of this lawsuit and how Florence Deeks is now regarded - perhaps without justification - as a Canadian heroine to some (e.g. in 100 Canadian Heroines: Famous and Forgotten Faces).)

[Arlene Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting book as it reveals in detail how women were perceived and treated in the 1915-30s. An unknown, Toronto, female student of history seeks justice through the Canadian and British courts. She has little chance of success pitted against lawyers, a renowned publishing company, editors and the famous H. G. Wells.

[Art · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fairly ponderous story telling with a totally anti-climactic ending. You're left wondering why the author chose this topic. Some interesting period scenes save it from one star.

[Melissa Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. I got halfway through, and gave up. I love history and law, but it was so dry I couldn't keep my eyes open.
One thing I did learn is that H.G. Wells was a man-whore, emotionally abused his wife, (He told her change her name to Jane, from Catherine because she was supposed to be diminished as a person and her only duties were to fetch and carry for him. His lovers who gave him at least 2 children, were treated much better but, constantly believed him, when he said he would dump his wife. But he wouldn't. Too much of a mummy complex. When he wanted to party, he would leave Jane for weeks, with one of his girlfriends. Then when he got tired of that, he would flee back to Jane. (Sometimes all three, would live in the same house.)
As the years went by he got even insane. I believe he, (Macmillan London and Canada helped), plagiarized Florence's book. But she was screwed over because she was a woman. She had years of research between the two books. Her lawyers sucked.
I have never read an H.G. Wells book....never will.