The Passionate Friends

by H.G. Wells

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Romance, British Literature, Novels

372 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1913

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

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not an author known for his flair for stories of explosive human emotion, Wells struggles to ignite this novel of complicated amour without resorting to lachrymal melodrama. Composed around the same time as Ann Veronica and The New Machiavelli, this 1913 novel explores similar New Woman (i.e. proto-suffrage) themes, such as Mary’s frustration at having to accept marriage to and possession by a male, trying instead to live an independent life by exploitatively marrying a rich dude and taking our narrator as a quasi-lover. This was a common practice among the English upper classes, and usually worked out well for them, as most upper-class men of the period were repressed homosexuals. A tormented story of English stuffiness follows, where fear of scandals, bucking conventions, and lightly deviating from aristocratic rules plagues our two unhappy passionate friends. Wells was lightyears ahead in his liberal attitudes, and his annoyance and frustration is clear across this rambling novel, a work that frequently waffles into Wellsian theories of World States, questionable stances on Empire, and fairly bland travelogues.

[Jim Dooley · Rating 4 out of 5]

My rating for THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS shifted back and forth several times while reading from 3-stars as I bemoaned Wells breaking into philosophical discussions instead of moving the story forward to 5-stars as I realized the scope of what he was trying to accomplish … and how well he achieved that! Ultimately, two things pulled down my enthusiasm: the ending was referred to a few times in the book (taking away some of its impact), and the physical ending of the story was abrupt. (Was that intentional? If so, I haven’t read anything else from Wells with such an overwhelmingly melancholy conclusion.)

I had never heard of this book prior to seeing the 1949 film version featuring Claude Rains and Trevor Howard. It didn’t seem like a Wells story at all, although social commentaries often appeared in his writings. Well, the entire movie comes from the final two chapters of the book … and they are greatly changed. I do wish that I hadn’t seen the movie first because it led me to believe that the book would be very different. (That undoubtedly initially influenced my shifting ratings.)

THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS is the story of a father who wants to leave his young son with an idea of what the father’s life had been like when his son reaches adulthood. It is a tale of idealism, war, politics, a desire to change the world for the better … and a most all-consuming romance. Throughout the tale, Wells shows how cultural and societal “norms” slowly (and steadily) grind individuality into conformity. Of course, there are punishments for stepping too far out of line.

To enjoy the book, I think it is very important to remember that this is a tale of a life … and life’s lessons learned. The “departures” from the story’s progress into philosophical considerations may play havoc with the pacing, yet they are crucial to how the central character’s beliefs and behavior are formed. The structure is very carefully designed.

When I finished, I easily spent an hour or so imagining what my thoughts would be if my Father had left me such a record. I can understand why mention is made multiple times about whether or not to destroy the work. I especially imagined knowing my Father’s mental state and life-view if the ending would have happened to him. It is powerful and disturbing.

[Rachela Muracka · Rating 1 out of 5]

Where to start? Spoilers may or may not follow as the author himself does that dirty deed at the beginning of the book.

First, this is not really to be compared with David Lean's beautiful film, which it only resembles in the most skeletal fashion. Going from either one medium to the other of this story is going to incur mental whiplash, if you expect the one to be faithful to the other.

Second, the book is framed as a letter from father to son, that his progeny may see his sire not as a patriarch to look up to, but as an equal, by writing a semi-autobiography and an account of a love affair that would embarrass any child to read about his father or mother. The lack of self-awareness here kept me chuckling through the prologue. What's more, there's an interesting to some, dreary to me, trudge through his childhood and early adolescence wherein he illustrates how he was morally superior to every one around him apart from his own father and Mary.

Third, ah, this is classic H.G. Wells! It's as much a flight of fancy as any of his science fiction. In my opinion, it actually strives towards the deepest description of science fiction: take the world and reality as we know it, and tweak one aspect we take for granted, then see how the chips fall.

This reality that H.G. Wells wants to tweak is of course sexual ownership. Like the typical 19th century 'progressive' male, he writes about how he would love to have as much sex as he wants with anyone he wants and disguises it as concern for female emancipation. Wilkie Collins would have been proud. Now of course, some women would appreciate the notion. Most certainly his obnoxious, entitled, err, heroine? If you liked the giving Sybil from Downton Abbey, then you'll hate this spoiled, pampered brat, who only takes, takes, and takes. Listen to this as an audiobook, and her dialogue is even more grating than it is read on paper.

But what of the idea, you ask? Wouldn't we all be better off without fidelity and just shunning jealousy and possessiveness and all that? Well, I believe in forming laws to reality, not the other way around. Realism is better than idealism. Good deeds are better than good intentions. Social mores should follow natural passions, not the other way around. Also, children deserve the stability of solidly married parents. H.G. Wells is of course pro-infanticide when the notion suits him, but that kind of self-absorbed barbarity is self-evidently wrong.

All right, but isn't it at least well-written? Sorry, but preachy morality tales (yes, that's what it is, Wells's pulpit) are always a drag. As Flannery O'Connor pointed out, preaching, propaganda, and pornography cannot be art, because they are excesses. Wells still employs his talent here and there. The protagonist's first sight of a soldier's corpse in the Boer war is vivid and unsettling. The moment when Justin discovers the lovers was hysterically funny and awkward (though I'm not sure that that was the intention). However, the love scenes themselves are sans pathos and boring, with the narrator being an irredeemable dullard.

The worst crime in this book is that one is constantly being told, instead of shown, what is 'right' and that irritates me even when my sympathies align with the author's. When I find his notions repugnant, it makes me want to throttle him. Preachy, long-winded, and unsympathetic. Go tinker with a time machine, Wells.

[Tina Tamman · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am quite angry about this book, this edition. It may not be H.G. Wells's best but it was totally ruined for me by the printing. For the first time in my reading life I ended up with a book with no page numbers. Or actually, page numbers were mostly there, but in the middle of a sentence, in brackets. The whole book has been published as if by amateurs - self-publishing? It all made my reading a displeasure and I gave up after 50 pages or so.
How does it happen? There is no publication date, only the date when it was first published - 1913. And the publisher is Amazon Fulfillment, printed in Poland!

[Vivien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love sucks. But how gloriously, how magnificently, how tragically! Nevetheless... love will mostly bring pain and torment, so keep it in your pants. I think that's the theme of this book- I haven't read it in a while, but I remember adoring the angst, so I shall probably re-read it.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been reading a lot of Wells back to back recently. This book was a real gem. It was so nice to have a break from Wells’ views on Socialism and trying to incorporate that into a story line.

Here we have two people, Mary and Stephen, childhood friends, potential romance, Chance and love lost. They grow up, move apart and get married.

If for nothing else, it did end too abruptly, but, was a very charming story and a refreshing change. I enjoyed the fact that Wells was writing in the style that Dickens established in David Copperfiled of a man of age looking back.

The chapters where Wells was covering Stephen in Africa and India, I felt I could easily hav3 been reading Kipling. So, very enjoyable seeing another side to Wells.

[Klaudia Kulińska · Rating 3 out of 5]

Momentami bardzo ładna, czasem trochę nudna. Czytałam ją ponad rok, więc pewnie trochę straciłam na odbiorze.

[eleanor*ೃ༄]

what´re ye doing here ye big ol´ sasquatch

[Joy H.]

Added 4/15/12.
I haven't read this novel but I did watch the film, which I streamed from Netflix. The film was adapted from: Passionate Friends (first published in 1913) by H.G. Wells. I gave the film 4 Netflix stars out of 5.
FILM: "The Passionate Friends" (1949)
Cast: Ann Todd, Claude Rains, Trevor Howard

IMDb description:
"The Passionate Friends were in love when young, but separated, and she married an older man. Then Mary Justin meets Steven Stratton again and they have one last fling together in the Alps."
FROM: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041735/
[IMDb lists the movie as "One Woman's Story"; "The Passionate Friends" was the original title.]

Netflix description:
"While staying in the Swiss Alps, Mary finds herself torn between the convenience and financial comfort of her marriage to Claude, who is much older, and the passion of her old flame, Steven."
FROM: http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/The_P...

The following dialogue from the film was impressive. Mary's husband (powerfully played by Claude Rains) says to Mary:
"You gave me love and kindness and loyalty but it was the love you'd give a dog and the kindness you'd give a beggar, and the loyalty of a bad servant."

Below are some interesting comments from Librarything.com about the novel:
===============================
"The Passionate Friends (1913) is one of three books Wells wrote about social justice and feminism, along with Marriage (1912) and The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman (1914)."

"The Passionate Friends explores the relationship between Stephen and Mary. Mary's desire for independence leads her to reject marrying Stephen, since he's below her in stature. She can't see who [how?] she could have the freedom she craves if she were to become a housewife ... Mary marries a rather bland but wealthy man, who is willing to cede her the freedom she craves. ...when Mary and Stephen are discovered in an affair her huband revokes her privileges."
...
"Stephen, like many of Wells' characters, is deeply flawed in his blindness to her motivations. Though he is the narrator (the novel is written as a memoir for Stephen's son to read and learn from), it is obvious he is not a reliable narrator when it comes to Mary."
FROM: http://www.librarything.com/work/110493
=====================================
NOTE: The movie presents the wife as the narrator, not Stephen.

Some reviews of the movie can be found at:
http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/reviews.p...
http://homepages.sover.net/~ozus/pass...

[Shaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've noticed a pattern in some of Wells' lesser works: pages and pages of pontification on socialism and other issues of the day. This is fine-the best types of art engage with the world around it. The problem is, especially in Wells' case, it doesn't exactly make for compelling stories.

The Passionate Friends is a wonderful exception to this rule. Wells manages to nicely balance thoughtful social analysis with a great (and prescient) story. And ultimately, Wells shows that all your high ideals do not mean anything if you don't also understand what drives people.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-passionate-friends-by-h-g-wells/

Stephen Stratton and Lady Mary Christian have a love affair immediately before and after she marries someone else; eventually Mary’s husband Justin finds out and they part, leaving Stephen free to marry the much less stressful Rachel, while he carries on his important work of Changing The World; after a few years Mary and Stephen strike up a deeply friendly but chaste correspondence; and then the novel ends in unexpected and somewhat jarring disaster.

I liked a lot of this, in particular the idea that your former lover can actually become a good friend who does not threaten your current relationship, a rather positive model for transcending one’s emotional history; so I felt rather betrayed by the tragic ending, which seemed to suggest that Wells himself didn’t actually think this is really possible in real life. Wells probably had a lot more experience of trying this sort of balancing act than most people, so I guess that he was writing about what he knew. I note that of the two film adaptations, one (1922) keeps the tragedy and one (1949) does not.

There’s also a brief section set in Ireland, where Stephen goes in search of Mary at one point, which I think is maybe the first time I have seen any serious mention of Ireland in Wells’ writings. It rains dismally throughout that one short chapter. Stephen spends more time, more vividly described, in South Africa during the Boer War.

A subplot is Stephen’s plan to create a single World Government, apparently the first time that Wells set this idea out so clearly. I was a bit bored by the lengthy discourses on political theory and society, though interested that Wells mainly puts these in Mary’s mouth rather than Stephen’s.

[Yooperprof · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard to give an honest review of The Passionate Friends without plot spoilers aplenty. Suffice it to say that IMHO the ending of this pre-WWI novel is tremendously disappointing.

Wells writes well [!] and he understands the way to structure "the narrative arc" in a novel of appropriate length. The Passionate Friends is not too long, nor too short. There are a lot of elements in the novel that are interesting from the perspective of a historian - it provides a coherent, cogent perspective upon the point of view of a progression non-orthodox socialist in 1913, its year of publication, on the eve of the cataclysm of World War I. And it serves as a reminder that while Wells was in many way a prophetic visionary, he is also identifiable as a man of the lower middle classes born in 1866, unable to escape the semi-misogynistic views of his youth and young adulthood.

The paperback edition I read - from the Hogarth Press released in 1986 - contains an excellent introduction by Victoria Glendinning. She "gets" Wells, I think.

[KaruzelaNaKoparce · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ło matko, co za ramota.
Pan Wells chciał dobrze, ale za nic nie rozumiał kobiet. Pisze o potrzebie emancypacji kobiet, ale nie potrafi się w nie wczuć, spojrzeć na problem z innej perspektywy niż perspektywa białego mężczyzny.
Wells potrafił wymyślić machinę czasu, niewidzialnego człowieka i inwazję marsjan, ale brakuje mu wyobraźni, by wczuć się w prawdziwą kobietę, a nie wymyśloną groteskową kukłę.

[Pádraic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perfectly fine romance set amongst changing social mores and being constricted and hounded by patriarchal norms, but for my mind I prefer Wells when he's writing about mad doctors on islands turning beasts into men and men into beasts.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It is incredibly dated, but reading how affairs and divorce were viewed back then, as well as what it was like to be a man and a woman were absolutely fascinating.

[Emma Ennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely stunning. Moving, thought-provoking, mind-blowing. Beautiful.

[Robin Paull · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very rarely do I stop a book in the middle, but this one was breaking my heart. Maybe if times were better, I could bear the heartache in this book. It’s quite a painful read, terribly sad.

[Ilona · Rating 1 out of 5]

Porażka. Jakie to było straszne.

[Dominika · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[kinga · Rating 4 out of 5]

„Nigdy nie byłem w stanie zadecydować, czy jesteśmy najlepszymi czy najgorszymi z ludzi.”

[Deandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave it three stars simply because I enjoyed reading about a woman who won't be owned. However, the story was longer than it deserved, and the title was misleading. I expected more details about these passionate friends rather than his life and struggles. Perhaps if the title demonstrated that it is more of a self-biography or a journal of sorts, then it might have been clearer.
I particularly didn't appreciate how he spoke of his undying love for another woman who was not the son's mother. If the author really intended for his son to get to know him, I thought it would be something that, if told, would be smoothed over. I finished the books because I wanted to know what the strong, independent woman would be driven to do in the end. However, it was disappointing.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is definitely one of Wells' best. The book is a love letter and apology to the non-conventional woman from a man who was unable to go beyond society's notions of love and relationship to come together with her on equal terms. As he said he wanted to possess her and failed to understand that she wanted to be free. It was interesting to note that Straton thought the imbalance of power in Edwardian relationships seemed to come from a disparity in age. Older men who adored young women who had no ideas or opinions of their own, who were still living at home and had little education. They weren't given the opportunity to develop any either as as soon as they were married off they became embroiled in the house and babies. (As did Straton's conventional wife). This got me thinking a lot about the difference in relationships nowadays which seems to be that the men make so much more money than their partners, and as our society measures success by wealth this creates another imbalance. But in addition to the love story, it's dissatisfactory end leads Straton to start questioning all his assumptions about society and the world, from thinking that Imperialism is a good thing, to wanting to see society progress beyond nationalism to a world citizenship, bypassing all conformity and the ruins of civilisations past. It's a very Wellsian idea, and one of the nice things about this book is the non-conventional woman's critique of it later. This is a very touching story of doomed love. But also the story of how women are doomed and failed by the society of the time. I'm not sure things have gotten that much better since Wells' time and as such found it a fascinating and insightful book.

[emilia ! · Rating 4 out of 5]

pozytywnie mnie zaskoczyła i… wciągnęła.

pięknie napisana, pełna dojrzewających przemyśleń, z dramatyczną historią miłosną rozgrywającą się na tle wojny, odsłaniająca prawdy o świecie.

nowoczesna, wchodząca w kolejną epokę wersja lubianych dziewiętnastowiecznych powieści obyczajowych z wątkiem romantycznym.

zapowiedź przyszłych jej czasów, świeże spojrzenie i apel o zmianę. zakreśliłam w niej tyle cytatów!

[Anusha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was struck by the balance between Wells' profound understanding of the nature and passion of woman and his inability to share in it, without destruction.
The book is a letter to his child, his son, and I find this more touching than any other of the themes in this work.
He writes "If I could wish any future I would have you love some one neither older and stronger nor younger and weaker than yourself. I would have you have neither a toy nor a devotion, for the one makes the woman contemptible and the other the man. There should be something almost sisterly between you. Love neither a goddess nor a captive woman".

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised by how much I liked this as it is considered to be one of Wells' lesser novels. It's written as though it were a letter from a father to his adult son, explaining the path of his life and the affair he had. I found of the character of Lady Mary to be most interesting and perhaps the most radical of all Wells' heroines - a woman who didn't want to be a wife or mother, who wanted independence, her own money, space, beautiful clothes, and to make an impact. There was simply to place for her on earth in 1913 and there not be yet.

[Tabitha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I meant to give this book only two stars on account of Stephen's character being rather dull and naive, quite insufferable even, at times. But how could I, with such a credible, strong, amazing woman as Mary for a main character? Wells did a magnificent job at sketching the problem of women's oppression (in the Edwardian era, but not strictly in the Edwardian era) and the urgent need for feminism, for which I admire him greatly and thanks to which I can overlook the slow bits.

[Jeannie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised by this book. When I think of H.G.Well, I think of
"The Time Machine" and "War of The Worlds" . This book has a good story, enough twists and turns to keep it interesting ,and ends well.