عجلة الحظ

by H.G. Wells

Although H G Wells is best known for his science fiction stories he was also a serious commentator on the political scene surrounding World War I. H G Wells (1686 - 1846) wrote both fiction and non-fiction. He worked in many genres including novels, history, and social commentaries. The Wheels of Chance a Bicycling Idyll was written when the bicycle was beginning to become very popular. The years 1890 -1905 saw bicycles becoming a part of social changes in England. People could move quickly and rigid class structure was beginning to crumble.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Humor, Cycling, Ebooks, Adventure, Romance

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1896

About the author

Herbert George Wells was born to a working class family in Kent, England. Young Wells received a spotty education, interrupted by several illnesses and family difficulties, and became a draper's apprentice as a teenager. The headmaster of Midhurst Grammar School, where he had spent a year, arranged for him to return as an "usher," or student teacher. Wells earned a government scholarship in 1884, to study biology under Thomas Henry Huxley at the Normal School of Science. Wells earned his bachelor of science and doctor of science degrees at the University of London. After marrying his cousin, Isabel, Wells began to supplement his teaching salary with short stories and freelance articles, then books, including The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898).

Wells created a mild scandal when he divorced his cousin to marry one of his best students, Amy Catherine Robbins. Although his second marriage was lasting and produced two sons, Wells was an unabashed advocate of free (as opposed to "indiscriminate") love. He continued to openly have extra-marital liaisons, most famously with Margaret Sanger, and a ten-year relationship with the author Rebecca West, who had one of his two out-of-wedlock children. A one-time member of the Fabian Society, Wells sought active change. His 100 books included many novels, as well as nonfiction, such as A Modern Utopia (1905), The Outline of History (1920), A Short History of the World (1922), The Shape of Things to Come (1933), and The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind (1932). One of his booklets was Crux Ansata, An Indictment of the Roman Catholic Church. Although Wells toyed briefly with the idea of a "divine will" in his book, God the Invisible King (1917), it was a temporary aberration. Wells used his international fame to promote his favorite causes, including the prevention of war, and was received by government officials around the world. He is best-remembered as an early writer of science fiction and futurism.

He was also an outspoken socialist. Wells and Jules Verne are each sometimes referred to as "The Fathers of Science Fiction". D. 1946.

More: http://philosopedia.org/index.php/H._...

http://www.online-literature.com/well...

http://www.hgwellsusa.50megs.com/

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells

Reviews

[Katie Lumsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe 4.5. I really thoroughly enjoyed this. Funny but thought-provoking, with great characterisation and a sort of coming of age element, this was another H.G. Wells triumph for me.

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tale of social uneasiness, a comedy of ill-manners, H.G. Wells’s fourth published novel is a long-forgotten little shiner, set in the Golden Age of the bicycling craze, sweeping Victorian England with the fervour of the late-nineties Furby. The insecure hero, a piddling draper with cringeing class awareness, intercepts in a uncouth affair between a bounder and a damsel, and begins a biking romp that will shake his perceptions of the Established Order. The damsel, one of these New Women, turns him on to Socialism and the notion that learning might liberate him from wage-slave lowliness as the mild-mannered romp wambles to a tart conclusion. Among other neglected early-period Wells include The Wonderful Visit, a slight tale of an angel falling to earth in late-1800s Middle England, and having to tolerate the awful people therein, and The Sea Lady, an early mermaid fantasy, and a notable inspiration to Half Man Half Biscuit.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an odd little story! Begin with one J. Hoopdriver, a draper's assistant who lives for nothing but spare opportunities to ride his bicycle -- or rather, to crash repeatedly on his bicycle, banging up his legs but still delighting in sheer momentum. Mr. Hoopdriver, at the novel's beginning, is finally embarking on his yearly vacation: a cycling tour in England. Immediately he spies a beautiful woman, crashes dramatically, and earns her pity and his own chagrin. He chances to see her again, later on, and this time in the company of another fellow who claims to be her brother. His love-sickness not withstanding, Hoopdriver can tell that something's amiss, especially after the "brother" accuses Hoopdriver of being a detective. Delighted at having a game to play, Hoopdriver pursues the odd couple, eventually changing roles to that of a clumsy knight- errant once he and the woman (Jessie) realize the other chap is a genuine cad. (A rogue, a fiend, even!) Eventually the gig is up for everyone, but Hoopdrive ends the tale most invigorated, having gone on a quest and discovered a friend who could put a little steel in his soul and allow him to dream of doing greater things with his life.

Although the story is nearly inconsequential, there's much charm. Wells' writing is often fun (one passage remarks that while Hoopdriver was in the throes of indecision, gravitation was hard at work and thus the man found himself on the ground with a bleeding shin, still wondering what to do), and sometimes beautiful, as when he's describing the landscape or the dreams of these two. Still, there were two reasons I picked this book up: bicycles and H.G. Wells -- and that, in the end, was the reason I finished it.

[Denis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cycling is important to me. When I tell someone: I like to ride my bike, I have to clarify that I mean bicycling not motor cycling. I have to do the same thing when I tell someone that I live in London-London, Ontario, Canada, not England. And further, I have to explain that I don't mountain bike on challenging trails in the wilderness or am hunched over a slick titanium or graphite frame with multiple gears, feet clipped to the pedals while dreaming of doing the tour de France. No, my cycle is the heavy curved Schwinn frame with fenders, the rack at the back and a comfortable seat, not quite Peewee Herman... I often dream of riding an antique penny-farthing (large front wheeled cycle) but fear that I might look a little ridiculous perched on such an apparatus while failing miserably getting on and off the thing... But one can dream.

This gem of a novel was written in 1895, a time when cycling had just become mainstream. It had become a relatively cheap accessible way of travel for all.

"The Wheels of Chance" is not a futuristic "Scientific Romance" by H.G. Wells, but rather a book set in the current time of its writing, featuring a new technology that would soon greatly affect society to come. In this case the bicycle merges all social classes on the road (sauf those few elites who were already subscribed to the even newer technological gadget: the motor car (which was not yet conventional as Henry Ford was just setting up shop at that time.) Also featured here are modern women's issues, "Most editing is actually performed by women these days..." is an example of a point made. It is a novel is a great document anticipating things to come in the 20th century.

Had the world focused on the development of the bicycle rather than the petrol powered motor car, imagine what a bike might look like today after a century of the refinement applied to it that the car had; and what physical condition the average human being might be in, and how clean our air would be, and how much oil we would still have in reserve, ready to use in a most efficient, responsible and clean fashion. 60 million years to produce that reserved of stored energy and we use it all up in a couple centuries, in the most destructive and wasteful way... Sorry. Got carried away.

[J.J. Garza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me dijeron que esta novela (escrita al mismo tiempo que Wells desarrollaba viajes en el tiempo) iba a ser tan graciosa como Tres Hombres en una Barca. Y no.

[G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Favorite passage:

So many people do this -- and you never suspect it. You see a tattered lad selling matches in the street, and you think there is nothing between him and the bleakness of immensity, between him and utter abasement, but a few tattered rags and a feeble musculature. And all unseen by you a host of heaven-sent fatuities swathes him about, even, maybe, as they swathe you about. Many men have never seen their own profiles or the backs of their heads, and for the back of your mind no mirror has been invented. They swathe him about so thickly that the pricks of fate scarce penetrate to him, or become but a pleasant titillation. And so, indeed, it is with all of us who go on living. Self-deception is the anesthetic of life, while God is carving out our beings.

And I also like the term "insufficient mustache".

If I read this again I'd likely give it four stars. Not quite there yet, however.

[Thom Swennes · Rating 4 out of 5]

H. G. Wells is best known for his science fiction writings and their popularity has overshadowed his other works. Wheels of Chance is a romantic adventure that deserves more notoriety than it has. The hero of this tale is hardly the juggernaut of his dreams but when the beautiful lady in gray crosses his path, his life changes. Jesse Milton, an eighteen year old girl, flees from her home and stepmother to pursue her dream of becoming a writer. She soon falls prey to a married man that had designs on compromising her but the hero; Mr. Hoopdriver comes like a knight in shining armor, to her rescue. This is a surprisingly refreshing story that should please the masses; I certainly enjoyed it. I can recommend this to all who are looking for a light, humorous love story.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would never have dreamt of Wells writing a story as such. He was always the serious Sci fi guy in my mind. But this book completely changed my perspective.

I guess it takes a lot of skill to write a book like this. There's a lot of sarcasm, hilarious moments and using the language of THAT time, producing such a writeup is not something everyone can do. There's a lot to think about. The gradual expansion of the characters and the unexpected turns of the plot is definitely commendable.

I wonder why I haven't heard about this much. Now, I'm curious about his non Sci fi writings. For sure it'll be worth spending some time on them.

Book #21 of 2023
H G Wells Book #05

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

"To ride a bicycle properly is very like a love affair; chiefly it is a matter of faith. Believe you do it, and the thing is done; doubt, and, for the life of you, you cannot."

"Many men have never seen their own profiles or the backs of their heads, and for the back of your own mind no mirror has been invented."

"Self-deception is the anesthetic of life, while God is carving out our beings."

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Wheels of Chance comes as my first step into Wells's non-SF works, and... uh, it's actually probably my favorite of what I've read from him so far. I suppose I was never truly too big on science-fiction or fantasy in my youth, beyond the simple fact of many video games and anime falling loosely into those genres, and enjoying them because they were broadly appealing to boys my age. So I would grow into a pretentious mindset of disliking such genres for being "juvenile," then age further into a period of immense Nostalgia (in which I still operate today) where I enjoy e.g. Tolkien as raw "escapism," as, of course, there is nothing of interest or merit in the real world at all. So I was enjoying pre-Tolkien spec-fic in recent months, hitting Wells for his immense influence, running through his four "major" SF novels, and taking a mild detour into his comic-realism before diving into the lesser-known of his spec-fic. I think, actually, it's quite true I had an interest in reading some Dickens, so chose what I fancied to be a Dickensian Wells novel - not that I really know what that would entail, having read no Dickens before....

Wheels appeals to me much in the same way as Nabokov's Pnin, which I prefer over his more famous, more explicitly "postmodern" works: this is a humorous little novel giving us a "slice" of the life of an average, if perhaps somewhat unfortunate, young man (well, the title character of Nabokov's book isn't "young," but still...). Mr. Hoopdriver is a draper's hand, attempting bicycle lessons in his wee free hours, intending on a cycling tour of England on his next holiday. The novel thus wastes little time in getting to said holiday, over which course Hoopdriver makes some small fool of himself along his questionable attempts at riding his bicycle, before eventually he crosses paths with a Young Lady in Grey and another Man in Brown, who are soon revealed to be part of a subplot which eventually overtakes Hoopdriver's own story, while he is roped into the Young Lady's adventure. The Young Lady, Jessie Milton, is seeking a life of Freedom from her stepmother, ironically inspired by a novel written by the same stepmother.

Hoopdriver appears not to be immediately able to understand Jessie's libertarianism, but he is at least prone to flights of fancy partly retarding his awakening of class-consciousness, which ends up being a useful sort of ignorance for Jessie, who implants into Hoopdriver's mind new fantasies of breaking from his caste, re-educating himself, and claiming a Romantic-masculine drive non-existent, or at least strongly pooh-poohed, in industrial society. I believe there was something about Wells writing this novel based on his experiences courting his would-be second wife, so there's a degree of "romance" mixed with the "Romance," but it's humorous to look back with the cynical eye of a twenty-first-century American and see in Jessie the DNA of today's fictive "manic pixie dream girls," as well as (even worse, in my opinion) this idea of the Affluent being the only ones truly Free to engage in stepping from the path of the Ordinary, leaving us working-classmen to merely dream - indeed, there's actually a moment near the end when Jessie realizes Money is quite necessary for her own dreams, though I think it's not made clear her household could have the requisite Status, per her stepmother's fame among literary circles. Certainly, she will fare better than Hoopdriver, making it more than a little bittersweet Wells ends his novel with his hero's return to work, rather than give us any hint as to what will become of his future (especially melancholic when Wells elsewhere had a happy ending for the narrator of a tale of Martian annihilation of London and thereabouts...).

[Allen Pisani · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sci-fi writer H. G. Wells tries his hand at humor. It really did not work for me.

This novel takes place in the 1880's when a new craze called the bicycle is taking over England.
Mr. Hoopdriver (yes, that is his name) is a simple man, not or high intelligence or social standing. He decides to go on holiday with his new bicycle and bike across England. While on his excursion, he encounters a young couple also biking. He is instantly infatuated with the girl. They never quite say her age, but do say she is under age.

Hoopdriver does not know if the man she is with is her husband or brother, but he does see him treating her badly. He devices a plan to "save" her.

I am not going to give away any more, just to say that it may be the time period it was written, or British humor, but other than a couple of smiles, I did not find it all that funny. Also, at just under 200 pages, it was not a long novel, but it still seemed to drag in spots.

It is not Wells' best. I would pass on this one unless you are a big H.G. Wells fan.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very enjoyable story to read. It brings into subtle focus class discrimination and women's issues at the turn of the twentieth century. We follow the escapades of a twenty three year old assistant draper on his holiday bicycling tour where he becomes a knight errant to a young lady in gray (English spelling - grey). The writing is so well done that it stirs a desire in this reader to get on a bike and find a countryside adventure of my own.

[Rachel Stevenson · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I've got a bike, you can ride it if you like."
Bicycling is freedom, especially in the Edwardian days, when a young, suburban, respectable gal could meet on equal terms a lower middle class man of the trade sort, and quibble with each other as to who has it the worse in terms of societal expectations whilst riding through Surrey to Sussex.

[Gopal Vijayaraghavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an enjoyable romance from H.G. Wells wherein he pits the snobbery of an elitist society against he spirit of an ordinary working class man who strives to be a gentleman in spite of his low position in society.

[TRP Watson]

I greatly enjoyed this book
It is H G Wells in Draper's Assistant mode rather than Leading Progenitor of Science Fiction mode.

If you'll excuse the shameless plug, I mapped out young Mister Hoopdriver's journey on my TimsTooManyBooks BookTube channel

Link here (if they allow it)
https://youtu.be/x78Uk6Oq03Q

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took me over a year to get through on and off despite its relative brevity, not Wells’ best, I know. But it was worth it, really.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

An early Wells (1894), comedy rather than technically SF; it does deal with the social consequences of a new technology, but it's one that actually existed at the time (something William Gibson would eventually replicate more than 100 years later). I picked it up because I was reading the Wikipedia article on Three Men in a Boat , which I read immediately prior, and it mentioned that this book was partly inspired by that book. Rather than a boat trip by three friends, this is a cycling trip by one man, Mr. Hoopdriver, a lowly draper's assistant, at the time when the affordable bicycle has newly granted geographical mobility to the common people, and before cars join bicycles on the roads.

What I found fascinating about it was how Wells seemed to write himself into it both as the hero and the villain. He had been an uneducated draper's assistant like Mr. Hoopdriver, but by a combination of hard work and seizing his opportunities had gained some education and become a teacher. He then, around the time this book was written, fell in love with one of his students, left his wife and lived with, and later married, this woman five years his junior. (He subsequently had many affairs while married to her.)

In this book, the hero is Hoopdriver, who has an innocent morality and the remnants of a religious upbringing, and helps a young woman disentangle herself from the clutches of the villain - an educated man in something of a mentor relationship with her, twice her age, who is married but wants to seduce her, having convinced her that she should leave her despised stepmother in his company. (They are also on bicycles, going in the same direction as Hoopdriver, and he keeps encountering them and gradually comes to understand the situation, eventually intervening.)

While the parallels aren't exact - the age gap is much greater in the novel, and the woman is unwilling, apparently unlike Wells' second wife - it does feel to me as if, perhaps, Wells was showing some regret for his actions in the light of what his younger self would have thought of them.

The other theme that interested me in the book centers around how the zeitgeist, or things we've read and imagined, can take the place of original thought. At the beginning, when we see Hoopdriver at work in the draper's shop, Wells points out how the phrases he uses to the customers are as automatic as the way he rolls up the cloth while thinking of something else. He has been reduced to a machine, and ironically it's a machine - his bicycle - that frees him and enables him to find self-determination and choices. He endures what would otherwise be an unendurable existence by fantasizing, using books he's read - mostly popular adventure novels - to cast himself as a hero, while living a completely mundane and unremarkable life, like a milder version of the later comic writer James Thurber's Walter Mitty. But when he does get the opportunity to act, this fantasizing has functioned as a kind of mental practice for being brave, decisive, and a "gentleman" - in his actions if not in his social position. Not only does he intervene to protect the Young Lady in Grey, but he (eventually) tells her the truth about who he is, something he finds much harder, but which he is compelled to do by his essential honesty and his regard for her.

The other side of the coin is seen in Jessie, the young woman, and her would-be seducer Bechamel. The narrator remarks of them that they are essentially hollow people with a shell formed out of the zeitgeist. Jessie, in particular, has (against her stepmother's wishes and without her knowledge) read her stepmother's novels, which are considered somewhat risque, though her stepmother is in fact entirely conventional apart from her literary affectations; this leads Jessie to a naïve determination to Live Her Own Life, something which was barely dawning as a possibility for women at the time and, as Jessie eventually realizes, required them to have money to start with. Here's the relevant passage:

"And when we open the heads of these two young people, we find, not a straightforward motive on the surface anywhere; we find, indeed, not a soul so much as an oversoul, a zeitgeist, a congestion of acquired ideas, a highway's feast of fine, confused thinking. The girl is resolute to Live Her Own Life, a phrase you may have heard before, and the man has a pretty perverted ambition to be a cynical artistic person of the very calmest description. He is hoping for the awakening of Passion in her, among other things. He knows Passion ought to awaken, from the text-books he has studied. He knows she admires his genius, but he is unaware that she does not admire his head. He is quite a distinguished art critic in London, and he met her at that celebrated lady novelist's, her stepmother, and here you have them well embarked upon the Adventure. Both are in the first stage of repentance, which consists, as you have probably found for yourself, in setting your teeth hard and saying 'I WILL go on.'"

Part of what makes this a comedy, and much of what makes it enjoyable to me, is that although the narrator makes it clear that the characters are practicing a great deal of self-deceit and taking most or all of their ideas unexamined from other people, he also normalizes this as something that everyone does in order to deal with life. He treats mundane, unremarkable, forgettable Mr. Hoopdriver sympathetically; Hoopdriver may have been made into a machine by society, but the narrator deals with him as a human being with worth and dignity, despite his mild delusions of self-importance. He's an everyman hero, which is a kind of hero I particularly enjoy (I'm so sick of Chosen Ones). In the final chapter, Wells makes it explicit that making such a man sympathetic is his goal:

"But if you see how a mere counter-jumper, a cad on castors, and a fool to boot, may come to feel the little insufficiencies of life, and if he has to any extent won your sympathies, my end is attained."

The book isn't without its minor flaws. There are a few inconsistencies in the ages of the characters, for example. Chapter XV describes Jessie as a girl of 18, but everywhere else in the book says she's 17; it also describes Bechamel as 33 or 34, but Jessie says 35 elsewhere, and he doesn't contradict her. Jessie's stepmother is described as only 10 years older than Jessie, but then a couple of pages later her age is given as 32, which is 15 years older. Hoopdriver's age is consistently given as 23. (Wells was 28 in 1894, for context.) The Project Gutenberg edition also contains some coordinate commas that don't belong (probably original) and some obvious uncorrected scan errors that I will pass on to them for correction.

These small issues are thoroughly outweighed by the masterful way in which Wells takes a man who seems to have no potential as a hero whatsoever and shows how, by his basic decency and honesty, he becomes one, if only in a small way. As in most comedies, it's entirely populated by foolish characters. Hoopdriver is a self-deceiving fool who thinks others think more of him than they do; Jessie is a naïve fool who has no idea how the world works and doesn't even realize that; Bechamel is an egotistical fool who thinks his lust for Jessie is love, and that it justifies forcing himself on her; the stepmother is a hypocritical fool who writes novels in which women are unconventional while being thoroughly conventional herself; her male friends are an officious fool, a pompous fool, and a callow fool; the clergyman they recruit along the way is a narrow-minded fool. But as with, say, Joseph Andrews , the portrayal of their foolishness is often not cutting and condemning, but affectionate and understanding, especially when it comes to Hoopdriver (and, to a lesser extent, Jessie). It's not a dark comedy; although, for reasons of realism, the ending isn't the traditional lovers-united comedy ending, it holds out a good deal of hope. And while it's class-conscious in the way that only an English novel can be, and especially an English novel written by a Cockney man born to an unsuccessful shopkeeper who has nevertheless managed to gain an education, by that same token it's hopeful about social mobility, while never denying the power and weight of the class system. As Wells' career went on, he became more cynical and strident about these issues, but here he is neither of those things, gently but firmly bringing class into prominence as a theme of the novel without overstressing it or allowing it to push the characters out of the foreground.

Structurally, it's in some ways a picaresque, again like Joseph Andrews , one of those English comic novels that wanders around a good deal rather than having a particularly strong plot structure, and what structure it has is partly provided by the physical journey (as with its model, Three Men in a Boat ). But there is also a strong character arc for Hoopdriver, which follows his relationship with Jessie, from not knowing she exists at the beginning through spotting her at a distance to meeting her, rescuing her, travelling with her and getting to know her, and separating from her at last, but with some promise of eventually reuniting, when they will have become different people with different options available to them.

I went into it with some trepidation, having not always enjoyed Wells' other novels, mainly because they're not like this one. But in the end, it turned out to be one of the best books I've read this year.

[Brian Hutzell · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is fun to see this different side of H. G. Wells. The Wheels of Chance is a bit of fluff, entertaining for the most part, and a fascinating look at the leisure sport of bicycling at the end of the 19th century. I wish Wells had provided a better ending for us; the one we get feels a bit like a cop-out.

[Jeremy Hollingshead · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had read Science fiction by Mr. Wells, but had not read any of his non-Sci-fi novels. This book is a treasure. It was like reading a genesis of Steinbeck. It was absolutely beautiful. Through most of the novel it felt a little like reading a more adventurous Jane Austen text, but its conclusion was far more beautiful than it was happy. H.G. really was one of the greatest novelists ever in any genre he chose to write. Wells' two page discourse on moonshine and Endymion is unparalleled. What a book...What an author

[Bill Jenkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Wheels of Chance is a comic novel. At least this is what they say. I suppose if you study the descriptions to a great extent, then perhaps the scenes would paint a humorous picture.

The story centers around a young man, Mr Hoopdriver. Mr Hoopdriver is a draper clerk at a store. Hoopdriver has a vacation coming and he decides to take a tour south on his bicycle. I found myself trying to picture what Wells was describing about Hoopdriver's inability to ride very well. Was this one of those Penny-farthing high wheel bikes? After looking this up, these bikes went out of favor by the late 1880s so, no, he was describing a two wheeled bike. Anyway, Hoopdriver is essentially incompetent to ride or seems to have just learned how to ride and frequently falls off the bike and injures himself. He can't even turn his head to look over his shoulder (highly unlikely) since the bike would continue to go forward and be steady regardless of how he positioned himself above same.

So Mr Hoopdriver takes his vacation and is described during the whole sojourn to be wearing a brown suit. Can you imagine biking for a week in the same clothes? Wow. After a while Hoopdriver meets a lovely young woman who it seems is traveling with a male companion who is also wearing a suit of brown. All along Hoopdriver's path, he seems to encounter the two. I have to admit that I could see myself thinking the same things Hoopdriver thinks about the young woman. Hoopdriver seems to have quite a bit of nervousness regarding the opposite sex even though he interacts with woman as a draper.

Soon during his journey, he comes across the pair (the lovely young woman in grey and the man in brown) and the lady is crying. Hoopdriver asks if there is anything he can do. He is put off by the man and later along the way, Hoopdriver is given an opportunity to save the young woman by the other man in brown who turns out to be a cad.

We find out the young woman's name is Jessie Milton. She's only 18 but she is unhappy with her step mother and refuses to go home. She describes her step mother as someone akin to Cinderella's step mother.

Jessie's mother is worried about her daughter and asks three of her male friends who act like The Three Stooges to help her find her daughter. So from here we have one ridiculous thing after another occur and Hoopdriver and Jessie escape time and time again. Eventually, they are caught and sadly Hoopdriver and Jessie go their separate ways.

Typical of English literature, because Hoopdriver and Jessie are from different classes, they are forbidden to interact. I wonder if this is the same thing today. Money is the separator in America; a person's pedigree means nothing.

I did find myself thinking a tour like this on my own bike would be wonderful if I could only find places to stay and nice places to refresh myself as is described here.

[Michael Neno · Rating 4 out of 5]

H.G. Wells' fourth novel is a celebration of the bicycling movement of the 1890s, when safer and cheaper versions of the relatively new invention presented traveling freedom for all classes. Wells' protagonist, a young Mr. Hoopdriver, looks forward to and plans longingly for his annual ten-day vacation, in which he'll take a touring ride to the southern coast of England and back.

Hoopdriver coincidentally crosses paths along his journey with an independent young woman, Jessie, influenced by new feminist literature and determined to both break free from her tyrannical and hypocritical stepmother, and to make a profession of writing somewhere, somehow.

The odd couple eventually travel together, encountering or tangling with an uncouth seducer, a patronizing clergyman, and a coterie of enablers of Jessie's stepmother. The physical journey encompasses real historic sites throughout the region. Hoopdriver, out of his element - though surviving travails through pure bluster - can't help creating a false past for himself, a version of himself he believes will appeal the young lady above his social station.

The Wheels of Chance (1896) is considered to be a comic, satirical tale, but it's bittersweet, even sad, in its presentation of social stations difficult to break free from and in its autobiographical description of the drapery profession Wells found himself in, one that was more like indentured servitude than a job. It's debatable, in the end, whether our heroes will be able to substantially better their lives through the experience of the story and Wells determinedly gives few clues in that regard.

The Sussex Academic Press version of the novel, edited by Jeremy Withers, includes an introduction, a map of the journey, a bibliography, and is heavily annotated with editorial notes, a welcome help for understanding the references to obscure or outdated English words and phrases, obscure and forgotten authors and far-flung locales.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-wheels-of-chance-by-h-g-wells/

This is one of H.G. Wells’ earliest novels, published in 1896 between The Island of Dr Moreau and The War of the Worlds, and I think his first non-genre novel. I thought it was a little gem. The protagonist, Mr Hoopdriver, working unhappily in a draper’s shop, goes on a cycling holiday across southern England, and finds himself acting as saviour to a teenage girl who has run away from home with a much older man. Often I find Wells’ portrayal of the lower middles classes annoying and patronising, but here I felt there was enough characterisation in the portrayal of Hoopdriver and self-deprecation in Wells’ own tone that the brief story hung together perfectly well. It’s not quite up to the level of Love and Mr Lewisham, the next non-genre novel that Wells wrote, but I enjoyed it all the same.

[Mathieu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful book! With some nice illustrations of women's issues and class issues. I like the optimism of the setting (a pair of young people going on a bicycle adventure during summer vacation) and the style of the author sometimes addressing the reader directly.

I particularly enjoyed how society and various situations are presented as systems, whose mechanisms are made up of people with incomplete or misguided information, and the likely consequences. As an example, this fairly poignant moment, when the young Jessie realizes that society constrains people not just with expectations, but also financially:

"Money," said Jessie. "Is it possible--Surely! Conventionality! May only people of means--Live their own Lives? I never thought..."

[Glenn Oldham · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of HG Wells early novels written and set in the 1890s when the bicycle ruled the road. This is a glorious, sunny, comical and touching tale, with Wells clearly enjoying the ease and rich inventiveness with which he writes. Mr Hoopdriver is a draper's assistant aged 23 who works grindingly long hours but has one 10-day holiday a year. He learns to ride a bicycle and sets off for the south coast down what is now the A3 road (passing through places familiar to me - Guilford, Godalming, Milford, amongst others). He ends up having a surprising, exciting, challenging, and heart stirring adventure, with a great deal of cycling involved! Great fun! The novel is something of a precursor to the masterpiece by Wells that is The History of Mr Polly. 

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

H. G. Wells again his proves his creative genius with this brief bicycling saga of a young man who meets up with a young woman but the result is not the predictable encounter that current literature has. Picture bicycles of the big wheel - tiny wheel sort that you literally have to run along side of and then hop on. The hop on and off are not always with grace or without total tumbling of the bike! Even though the saga is brief - probably less than two weeks - the characters are plentiful, fun, dangerous, self serving, good Samaritans (and not!), relatives, strangers, etc. A delightful read that kept me entertained with the story and I loved Wells' landscape descriptions. They took me through the summer English countryside and I could almost smell the flowers, farms and fresh air!

[Tell Tale Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not SF or Fantasy, Wells’ third novel is a social comedy. The basic story is the protagonist buys a bicycle and goes for a long bike ride through the English countryside. At this time bikes were expensive and so only the rich were riding around this way. He overspent in order to be able to join with the upper class. Along the way he becomes attracted to a woman bicyclist and they keep crossing paths.
It is a fun novel and a fairly fast one to read. I like his science fiction better than this one, but still completely enjoyed it. I recommend this to anyone looking for a lightly funny and lightly romantic novel about the society of the time.
-Gregory Kerkman

[Madalene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recommended out of a list of older bicycle tour books - this is a fictional tale of a young English man in the 1890s who indeed, takes time off from work in order to bike tour - but gets distracted by a mysterious couple also bike touring (and ends up being a somewhat progressive hero in a strange maiden in distress tale). Still, there's some neat moments where Wells identifies both the difficulty of managing these early and heavy bikes; and the pleasure of dreaming of biking when one is biking all day on tour. A good early piece of history as to why people around the world fell in love with the bicycle.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

With more than a passing nod to "Three Men In A Boat" Wells's, light novel examines the sudden craze for bicycling at the end of 19th century. A man on a touring holiday of southern England gets involved in a young woman's elopement and together the two try to evade the clutches of her conservative family and friends - and that's basically it. Wells's hero Mr Hoopdriver is a dry run for his own Arthur Kipps and Alfred Polly and the gently satirical tone is typical of the author - when he isn't in sci-fi mode. It's pleasant enough and totally undemanding even if it does examine issues such as social mobility and the rise of feminism.

[Algirdas Kraunaitis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A man goes on a holiday with his new 'device' - a bicycle. Ends up falling in love, helping a young woman escape from a devious man and finds there is more to life than work. Reading this book I kept thinking what a silly affair this story is. Every now and then there would be a flash of interesting prose, among the clutter of odd detailed descriptions of nothing very interesting. This book could serve as a historical document of what it was like 'back in the day' (early 20th century Britain), with its mannerisms, social respectability rules etc. By the end of the book I can admit that H.G.Wells did try to say something more meaningful with this story, and the message is quite uplifting.

[Ashley K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Torn between 3 and 4 stars. I read this for my Victorian book club and in some ways it was a delightful distraction from real life-- nothing of great consequence happens. Our protagonist, a draper with the unlikely name of Mr. Hoopdriver, goes for a bike riding holiday, back in the days when that was quite a new and exciting kind of adventure to partake in, and he falls in love with a cycling Young Lady in Grey who is in the clutches of an unscrupulous scoundrel. Hijinks ensue. Before reading this, I only knew H.G. Wells as a sci-fi author, so this was refreshing, but I struggled to really get into it.