Shadows of the Future: H. G. Wells, Science Fiction, and Prophecy

Liverpool Science Fiction Texts and Studies

by Patrick Parrinder

H.G. Wells - inventor of the concept of the time machine and the phrase the shape of things to come - described his life's work as one of critical anticipation. This book unravels the complex layers of meaning in The Time Machine, and shows how, throughout his life, he sought to exploit the potential of literary and cultural prophecy in new ways. Described by John Middleton Murry as the last prophet of bourgeois Europe, he was its first futurologist.

170 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1995

About the author

Patrick Parrinder took his MA and Ph.D. at Cambridge University, where he held a Fellowship at King's College and published his first two books on Wells, H. G. Wells (1970) and H. G. Wells: The Critical Heritage (1972). He has been Chairman of the H. G. Wells Society and editor of The Wellsian, and has also written on James Joyce, science fiction, literary criticism and the history of the English novel. His book Shadows of the Future (1995) brings together his interests in Wells, science fiction and literary prophecy. Since 1986 he has been Professor of English at the University of Reading.