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Doce historias y un sueño
H.G. Wells no se contentó con imitar la Naturaleza o con narrar el reflejo de la Naturaleza en el Arte; su trabajo se orientó hacia la búsqueda de las posibilidades que ofrecía la realidad para ser imaginada por la Literatura. Y como resultado de esta búsqueda le cupo la gloria de haber inventado varios de los mitos futuristas del siglo XX: la máquina del tiempo, el hombre invisible, la exploración de la luna o la invasión de nuestro mundo por hordas extraterrestres...
En Doce historias y un sueño, el lector se encontrará con un Wells sorprendente que extiende su búsqueda hacia la recreación fantástica y humorística de personajes variopintos a los que une un lazo común: la irrupción en sus vidas de un suceso insólito, extraño, que los conduce a las situaciones más insospechadas y delirantes... el pícaro que se convierte en el dios de una tribu de salvajes, el flemático caballero inglés sorprendido por un fantasma en prácticas de «ronda», el investigador psíquico cuyo cuerpo es secuestrado por un ser de otra dimensión, los sorprendentes efectos de una droga denominada el «nuevo acelerador» o los denodados esfuerzos del obeso Mr. Pyecraft para «perder peso»...
En Doce historias y un sueño, el lector se encontrará con un Wells sorprendente que extiende su búsqueda hacia la recreación fantástica y humorística de personajes variopintos a los que une un lazo común: la irrupción en sus vidas de un suceso insólito, extraño, que los conduce a las situaciones más insospechadas y delirantes... el pícaro que se convierte en el dios de una tribu de salvajes, el flemático caballero inglés sorprendido por un fantasma en prácticas de «ronda», el investigador psíquico cuyo cuerpo es secuestrado por un ser de otra dimensión, los sorprendentes efectos de una droga denominada el «nuevo acelerador» o los denodados esfuerzos del obeso Mr. Pyecraft para «perder peso»...
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1906
73 people are currently reading
468 people want to read
About the author
H.G. Wells
5,349 books11.1k followersHerbert 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
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
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
September 25, 2017
En la actualidad es difícil sorprender al aficionado al género fantástico y de ciencia ficción, con la cantidad de ideas y medios con los que nos bombardean. Pero hubo una época en que el público se sorprendía ante la atrevida imaginación de ciertos autores. Este era el caso de H.G. Wells, todo un pionero que abrió el camino para muchos otros escritores dedicados a mostrarnos invasiones alienígenas, experimentos genéticos, viajes en el tiempo, a la Luna, y aventuras varias. Wells fue un adelantado a su tiempo, responsable de algunos clásicos de la literatura universal y un buen puñado de relatos, la mayoría de los cuales han sufrido bastante bien el paso del tiempo.
Estas son los trece relatos incluidos en ’Doce historias y un sueño’:
Filmer (Filmer) (***), que trata sobre un inventor de un artefacto aéreo y los apuros que ha de pasar en su primer vuelo. Buen relato.
La Tienda Mágica (The Magic Shop) (**), que nos cuenta la maravillosa visita de un padre y su hijo a la susodicha tienda. Regular.
La verdad sobre Pyecraft (The Truth About Pyecraft) (****), que habla sobre un particular método de adelgazamiento. Muy bueno.
El valle de las arañas (The Valley of Spiders) (****), que empieza como un relato de western fronterizo, y acaba siendo un buen relato de terror.
Mr. Skelmersdale en el País de las Hadas (Mr. Skelmersdale in Fairyland) (**), en el que se narra el extraordinario encuentro del protagonista con los elfos. Relato de corte céltico. Regular.
El fantasma inexperto (The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost) (****), en el que se narra el encuentro de uno de los personajes con un aparecido. Gran relato de terror gótico.
Jimmy Goggles, el dios (Jimmy Goggles the God) (***), que narra las aventuras del tal Jimmy para recuperar un tesoro. Bueno.
El Nuevo Acelerador (The New Accelerator) (*****), magnífica historia que narra el experimento de un doctor con una nueva droga que distorsiona el tiempo y el espacio. El mejor relato de la colección.
Las vacaciones de Mr. Ledbetter (Mr. Ledbetter’s Vacation) (***), que cuenta la estrambótica peripecia de un clérigo que se metió donde no debía. Bueno.
El cuerpo robado (The Stolen Body) (****), una historia sobre una proyección astral bastante buena.
El tesoro de Mr. Brisher (Mr. Brisher’s Treasure) (**), que narra las vicisitudes por las que pasa el protagonista para hacerse con un tesoro. Lo mejor, el final. Regular.
El corazón de Miss Winchelsea (Miss Winchelsea’s Heart) (**), que cuenta los pormenores de un viaje a Roma de la protagonista y sus amigas. Regular.
El sueño de Armageddon (A Dream of Armaggedon) (***), que narra los sueños premonitorios del protagonista sobre un futuro aciago. Buen relato.
Estas son los trece relatos incluidos en ’Doce historias y un sueño’:
Filmer (Filmer) (***), que trata sobre un inventor de un artefacto aéreo y los apuros que ha de pasar en su primer vuelo. Buen relato.
La Tienda Mágica (The Magic Shop) (**), que nos cuenta la maravillosa visita de un padre y su hijo a la susodicha tienda. Regular.
La verdad sobre Pyecraft (The Truth About Pyecraft) (****), que habla sobre un particular método de adelgazamiento. Muy bueno.
El valle de las arañas (The Valley of Spiders) (****), que empieza como un relato de western fronterizo, y acaba siendo un buen relato de terror.
Mr. Skelmersdale en el País de las Hadas (Mr. Skelmersdale in Fairyland) (**), en el que se narra el extraordinario encuentro del protagonista con los elfos. Relato de corte céltico. Regular.
El fantasma inexperto (The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost) (****), en el que se narra el encuentro de uno de los personajes con un aparecido. Gran relato de terror gótico.
Jimmy Goggles, el dios (Jimmy Goggles the God) (***), que narra las aventuras del tal Jimmy para recuperar un tesoro. Bueno.
El Nuevo Acelerador (The New Accelerator) (*****), magnífica historia que narra el experimento de un doctor con una nueva droga que distorsiona el tiempo y el espacio. El mejor relato de la colección.
Las vacaciones de Mr. Ledbetter (Mr. Ledbetter’s Vacation) (***), que cuenta la estrambótica peripecia de un clérigo que se metió donde no debía. Bueno.
El cuerpo robado (The Stolen Body) (****), una historia sobre una proyección astral bastante buena.
El tesoro de Mr. Brisher (Mr. Brisher’s Treasure) (**), que narra las vicisitudes por las que pasa el protagonista para hacerse con un tesoro. Lo mejor, el final. Regular.
El corazón de Miss Winchelsea (Miss Winchelsea’s Heart) (**), que cuenta los pormenores de un viaje a Roma de la protagonista y sus amigas. Regular.
El sueño de Armageddon (A Dream of Armaggedon) (***), que narra los sueños premonitorios del protagonista sobre un futuro aciago. Buen relato.
August 6, 2025
4.5. 🍿 Favorites rated below:
The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost: 5/5. Exactly what it sounds like. Very funny. 👻
The Stolen Body: 5/5. Culty. Creepy. 😱
A Dream of Armageddon: 5/5. Review aside, this is a 13 story book, and for superstitious reasons he does that on purpose, to give us 13 stories and pretend not to! Very much speculative fiction. ✈️
The Magic Shop: 4/5. Harry Potter vibes! 🧙🧪
The Valley of Spiders: 4/5. 🕷️I didn’t get the ending, what does it mean? 🧐
The others weren’t quite my taste, but I picked this up only for The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost and the others were icing on the cake. 🍰
The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost: 5/5. Exactly what it sounds like. Very funny. 👻
The Stolen Body: 5/5. Culty. Creepy. 😱
A Dream of Armageddon: 5/5. Review aside, this is a 13 story book, and for superstitious reasons he does that on purpose, to give us 13 stories and pretend not to! Very much speculative fiction. ✈️
The Magic Shop: 4/5. Harry Potter vibes! 🧙🧪
The Valley of Spiders: 4/5. 🕷️I didn’t get the ending, what does it mean? 🧐
The others weren’t quite my taste, but I picked this up only for The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost and the others were icing on the cake. 🍰
September 12, 2025
Wells gibi bir yazarın farklı yüzünü görmek ilginç bir deneyim oldu benim için.
Kitap, bilim kurgudan maceraya, hatta toplumsal eleştiriye kadar uzanan farklı türlerde on iki hikaye ve bir rüyadan oluşuyor, isminden de anlaşılacağı gibi.
Wells, her bir hikayede farklı bir konuyu ele almış, hayal gücünü ustaca kullanmış. Eğer klasik bilim kurgu seviyor ve Wells'in kısa hikayeciliğini merak ediyorsanız, bu eser işe yarar. Her hikayede farklı bir sürpriz bulacaksınız.
Kitap, bilim kurgudan maceraya, hatta toplumsal eleştiriye kadar uzanan farklı türlerde on iki hikaye ve bir rüyadan oluşuyor, isminden de anlaşılacağı gibi.
Wells, her bir hikayede farklı bir konuyu ele almış, hayal gücünü ustaca kullanmış. Eğer klasik bilim kurgu seviyor ve Wells'in kısa hikayeciliğini merak ediyorsanız, bu eser işe yarar. Her hikayede farklı bir sürpriz bulacaksınız.
June 5, 2021
I had almost forgotten how vivid and imaginative H. G. Wells could be. This book is a classic that forgot to get famous.
Each of the stories is a master piece in itself, fragments of brilliant storylines that netflix has not got to yet. Stories like "The Truth about Pyecraft" and "The New Accelerator" are uniquely original and authentic to the Victorian scientific fiction of late 1800s. Domain of science fiction heavily borrows themes from popular sci-fi classics, yet all missed the originality of twelve stories and a dream.
Each of the stories is a master piece in itself, fragments of brilliant storylines that netflix has not got to yet. Stories like "The Truth about Pyecraft" and "The New Accelerator" are uniquely original and authentic to the Victorian scientific fiction of late 1800s. Domain of science fiction heavily borrows themes from popular sci-fi classics, yet all missed the originality of twelve stories and a dream.
April 6, 2021
This is one of my favorite books, if only for the laughs of The Truth About Pyecraft, the mystery of The Magic Shop, and the tension of the Dream at the end. A must read for any HG Wells Fans.
January 12, 2018
Un compendio de historias con sus altos y sus bajos, pero que deja claro lo visionario que fue H.G. Wells. Mis favoritas fueron "Filmer", "Un nuevo acelerador" y "El corazón de Miss Wilchelsea".
Un genio.
Un genio.
September 25, 2025
(1903) A mix of fantasy and realism. As always with Wells, I get disappointed when I see it’s not a speculative tale, and then end up liking it as much if not more than the speculative tales. I’ve read about a dozen of his books now and the short stories are perhaps better than the novels, which, except for First Men in the Moon, are often short stories stretched too long or overstuffed. Wells, Doyle, Kipling, Stevenson, Crane—it was a good time for the form.
Here they are. The standouts were The Truth About Pyecraft, Jimmy Goggles the God, Mr. Ledbetter's Vacation, Mr. Brisher's Treasure, and Miss Winchelsea's Heart.
____
Filmer
“It came to Filmer that he was the most isolated person in the world.”
Variation on a favorite theme of Wells’. An inventor, a flying machine. The catch is that he’s afraid of flying. This was published two years before the Wright brothers’ inaugural flight, incidentally.
____
The Magic Shop
Hawthornian horror. The benign-seeming ending is ominous.
____
The Valley of Spiders
Classic horror. It’s one of those stories where one genre—very quickly established—collides with another, unexpected one. The fun is seeing familiar archetypes in an unfamiliar setting. Even in the new, outlandish situation their former enmities rear up.
____
The Truth About Pyecraft
A humor anthology staple in its day. Very amusing. You can tell Wells was annoyed by the euphemistic “weight loss” instead of the more “just and inglorious” term, fat loss.
____
Mr. Skelmersdale in Fairyland
One of Wells’ mysterious and wistful stories about yearning for another world. A sort of dry run for The Door in the Wall. Full of aching regret. Again I have to wonder what was eating him.
____
The Inexperienced Ghost
Story about a hapless apparition, à la Wilde’s Canterville ghost. Takes a suspenseful turn at the end when the storyteller is dared to repeat the magic motions that led the ghost to finally vanish.
____
Jimmy Goggles the God
A premise familiar to anyone who’s watched Gilligan’s Island. A man gets worshipped as a god by savages amazed by his diving suit.
“…and then whack I came with a kind of dull bang on the deck of the Ocean Pioneer, and the fishes that had been feeding on the dead rose about me like a swarm of flies from road stuff in summer time.”
Wells would’ve made a great adventure writer. Some of my favorite stories of his are in this vein. The exoticism, the surreal danger, like this underwater struggle:
"I saw young Sanders's face, over a naked black shoulder, and a spear driven clean through his neck, and out of his mouth and neck what looked like spirts of pink smoke in the water.”
____
The New Accelerator
Less a story and more an imaginative exercise. It’s about a chemist who invents an amphetamine that makes people go so fast they’re invisible. But in typical Wells fashion he envisions a novel effect: from the point of view of the drug-taker, everything seems in slow-motion. Indeed it becomes a Time Stands Still-story. Very well imagined, as usual. It’s painterly. A bee flying at a snail’s pace. A frozen puff of dust behind the wheel of a cyclist. Wells also remembers to imagine what it must look like for the drug to wear off: the person seems to appear out of nowhere.
Quotes:
“It seemed to me that so far Gibberne was only going to do for any one who took his drug exactly what Nature has done for the Jews and Orientals, who are… quicker in thought and act than we are all the time.”
“If the worst comes to the worst it will save having my hair cut, and that I think is one of the most hateful duties of a civilised man.”
“The attention of every one… was arrested by the amazing fact, and the still more amazing yapping and uproar caused by the fact that a respectable, over-fed lap-dog sleeping quietly to the east of the bandstand should suddenly fall through the parasol of a lady on the west—in a slightly singed condition…”
“In these absurd days, too, when we are all trying to be as psychic, and silly, and superstitious as possible!” Glimpse into how Wells felt about the spiritualist craze, despite The Stolen Body [see below].
“We shall manufacture and sell the Accelerator, and, as for the consequences—we shall see.” An abiding interest for Wells, the ethics of science.
____
Mr. Ledbetter's Vacation.
“And the falling night found Mr. Ledbetter—the Mr. Ledbetter who had complained that adventure was dead—sitting beside his cans of food, his chin resting upon his drawn-up knees, staring through his glasses in dismal mildness over the shining, vacant sea.”
Very entertaining. A mild-mannered man goes wild one night and breaks into a house, which happens to belong to real criminals.
More quotes:
“And here—here is half a sovereign's worth of silver. Do not waste that in foolish dissipation when you return to civilisation.” Hilarious that everyone keeps treating the narrator like a criminal.
“There is something very impressive to me in that slow beating of the hours. Time—space; what mysteries they are! What mysteries....” I notice Wells likes to give even his unsavory characters a touch of philosophy.
____
The Stolen Body
Wells does a spiritualist tale, which he makes into a story of demonic possession. The end is quite nice:
“He lay there for the space of about three hours before he was found. And in spite of the pain and suffering of his wounds, and of the dim damp place in which he lay; in spite of the tears—wrung from him by his physical distress—his heart was full of gladness to know that he was nevertheless back once more in the kindly world of men.”
____
Mr. Brisher's Treasure
Another humorous story about ordinary people getting mixed up in crime. I’m starting to see a Stevenson influence. Absorbing. The narration is full of comic little felicities.
____
Miss Winchelsea's Heart
Excellent. It’s a Roman holiday love story. Funny. Trollope could not have done better. Wells shows himself very good at female psychology.
Quotes:
“…if she had been Shelley's widow she could not have professed a keener interest in his grave.”
“…a very broad resolute man in a bright brown "touristy" suit walked all the way from England to France along the deck.”
“Fanny did not report Mr. Snooks as saying anything about Miss Winchelsea, nor as looking a little white and worn, as he ought to have been doing.”
____
A Dream of Armageddon
“"I couldn't get to her. She was there on the other side of the Temple—And then—"
"Yes," I insisted. "Yes?"
"Nightmares," he cried; "nightmares indeed! My God! Great birds that fought and tore."
This time instead of a fairyland, or a garden glimpsed through a door, or a moving picture inside a crystal egg, a man longs desperately for a world in a dream.
The idea is he lives an entirely different life while he sleeps. For him, reality is the dream. Wells makes it more strange by placing the dream life far in the future. He also explores the conflict between living for political causes or for beauty and love, which conflict was, judging by Wells’ output, soon to overtake him.
The dream storyline is a bit of a grandiose fantasy. But this romantic element forms a nice contrast whenever the protagonist “wakes” up again to his banal reality, and he’s a lawyer working on some tedious contracts while worrying about saving an as yet nonexistent world.
Here they are. The standouts were The Truth About Pyecraft, Jimmy Goggles the God, Mr. Ledbetter's Vacation, Mr. Brisher's Treasure, and Miss Winchelsea's Heart.
____
Filmer
“It came to Filmer that he was the most isolated person in the world.”
Variation on a favorite theme of Wells’. An inventor, a flying machine. The catch is that he’s afraid of flying. This was published two years before the Wright brothers’ inaugural flight, incidentally.
____
The Magic Shop
Hawthornian horror. The benign-seeming ending is ominous.
____
The Valley of Spiders
Classic horror. It’s one of those stories where one genre—very quickly established—collides with another, unexpected one. The fun is seeing familiar archetypes in an unfamiliar setting. Even in the new, outlandish situation their former enmities rear up.
____
The Truth About Pyecraft
A humor anthology staple in its day. Very amusing. You can tell Wells was annoyed by the euphemistic “weight loss” instead of the more “just and inglorious” term, fat loss.
____
Mr. Skelmersdale in Fairyland
One of Wells’ mysterious and wistful stories about yearning for another world. A sort of dry run for The Door in the Wall. Full of aching regret. Again I have to wonder what was eating him.
____
The Inexperienced Ghost
Story about a hapless apparition, à la Wilde’s Canterville ghost. Takes a suspenseful turn at the end when the storyteller is dared to repeat the magic motions that led the ghost to finally vanish.
____
Jimmy Goggles the God
A premise familiar to anyone who’s watched Gilligan’s Island. A man gets worshipped as a god by savages amazed by his diving suit.
“…and then whack I came with a kind of dull bang on the deck of the Ocean Pioneer, and the fishes that had been feeding on the dead rose about me like a swarm of flies from road stuff in summer time.”
Wells would’ve made a great adventure writer. Some of my favorite stories of his are in this vein. The exoticism, the surreal danger, like this underwater struggle:
"I saw young Sanders's face, over a naked black shoulder, and a spear driven clean through his neck, and out of his mouth and neck what looked like spirts of pink smoke in the water.”
____
The New Accelerator
Less a story and more an imaginative exercise. It’s about a chemist who invents an amphetamine that makes people go so fast they’re invisible. But in typical Wells fashion he envisions a novel effect: from the point of view of the drug-taker, everything seems in slow-motion. Indeed it becomes a Time Stands Still-story. Very well imagined, as usual. It’s painterly. A bee flying at a snail’s pace. A frozen puff of dust behind the wheel of a cyclist. Wells also remembers to imagine what it must look like for the drug to wear off: the person seems to appear out of nowhere.
Quotes:
“It seemed to me that so far Gibberne was only going to do for any one who took his drug exactly what Nature has done for the Jews and Orientals, who are… quicker in thought and act than we are all the time.”
“If the worst comes to the worst it will save having my hair cut, and that I think is one of the most hateful duties of a civilised man.”
“The attention of every one… was arrested by the amazing fact, and the still more amazing yapping and uproar caused by the fact that a respectable, over-fed lap-dog sleeping quietly to the east of the bandstand should suddenly fall through the parasol of a lady on the west—in a slightly singed condition…”
“In these absurd days, too, when we are all trying to be as psychic, and silly, and superstitious as possible!” Glimpse into how Wells felt about the spiritualist craze, despite The Stolen Body [see below].
“We shall manufacture and sell the Accelerator, and, as for the consequences—we shall see.” An abiding interest for Wells, the ethics of science.
____
Mr. Ledbetter's Vacation.
“And the falling night found Mr. Ledbetter—the Mr. Ledbetter who had complained that adventure was dead—sitting beside his cans of food, his chin resting upon his drawn-up knees, staring through his glasses in dismal mildness over the shining, vacant sea.”
Very entertaining. A mild-mannered man goes wild one night and breaks into a house, which happens to belong to real criminals.
More quotes:
“And here—here is half a sovereign's worth of silver. Do not waste that in foolish dissipation when you return to civilisation.” Hilarious that everyone keeps treating the narrator like a criminal.
“There is something very impressive to me in that slow beating of the hours. Time—space; what mysteries they are! What mysteries....” I notice Wells likes to give even his unsavory characters a touch of philosophy.
____
The Stolen Body
Wells does a spiritualist tale, which he makes into a story of demonic possession. The end is quite nice:
“He lay there for the space of about three hours before he was found. And in spite of the pain and suffering of his wounds, and of the dim damp place in which he lay; in spite of the tears—wrung from him by his physical distress—his heart was full of gladness to know that he was nevertheless back once more in the kindly world of men.”
____
Mr. Brisher's Treasure
Another humorous story about ordinary people getting mixed up in crime. I’m starting to see a Stevenson influence. Absorbing. The narration is full of comic little felicities.
____
Miss Winchelsea's Heart
Excellent. It’s a Roman holiday love story. Funny. Trollope could not have done better. Wells shows himself very good at female psychology.
Quotes:
“…if she had been Shelley's widow she could not have professed a keener interest in his grave.”
“…a very broad resolute man in a bright brown "touristy" suit walked all the way from England to France along the deck.”
“Fanny did not report Mr. Snooks as saying anything about Miss Winchelsea, nor as looking a little white and worn, as he ought to have been doing.”
____
A Dream of Armageddon
“"I couldn't get to her. She was there on the other side of the Temple—And then—"
"Yes," I insisted. "Yes?"
"Nightmares," he cried; "nightmares indeed! My God! Great birds that fought and tore."
This time instead of a fairyland, or a garden glimpsed through a door, or a moving picture inside a crystal egg, a man longs desperately for a world in a dream.
The idea is he lives an entirely different life while he sleeps. For him, reality is the dream. Wells makes it more strange by placing the dream life far in the future. He also explores the conflict between living for political causes or for beauty and love, which conflict was, judging by Wells’ output, soon to overtake him.
The dream storyline is a bit of a grandiose fantasy. But this romantic element forms a nice contrast whenever the protagonist “wakes” up again to his banal reality, and he’s a lawyer working on some tedious contracts while worrying about saving an as yet nonexistent world.
March 31, 2020
I had to check and double-check when this book was released.
1903.
I have read bits and pieces of Wells before, a short story here or there in other collections, but never really reflected on it like now.
This is as the title says, twelve stories and a, well, it's a story as well, about a dream, and that one is scary as hell since it describes a future he could not possibly know of.
Books from the beginning of the twentieth century tends to feel a bit aged, have a language that feels old and use stereotypes that might not have aged too well, there is a bit of that here as well, but not a lot, and most of the stories feels like they could just as well have been written today, some of them would make much more sense if they were written today.
And the language, I just love the language.
I really should have read more of H.G.Wells ages ago, but I was afraid I wouldn't like it as much as I wanted, if seems that fear was ungrounded.
I will read more from him, and so should you.
1903.
I have read bits and pieces of Wells before, a short story here or there in other collections, but never really reflected on it like now.
This is as the title says, twelve stories and a, well, it's a story as well, about a dream, and that one is scary as hell since it describes a future he could not possibly know of.
Books from the beginning of the twentieth century tends to feel a bit aged, have a language that feels old and use stereotypes that might not have aged too well, there is a bit of that here as well, but not a lot, and most of the stories feels like they could just as well have been written today, some of them would make much more sense if they were written today.
And the language, I just love the language.
I really should have read more of H.G.Wells ages ago, but I was afraid I wouldn't like it as much as I wanted, if seems that fear was ungrounded.
I will read more from him, and so should you.
July 12, 2023
Filmer 2.75⭐
The Magic Shop 3.5⭐
The Valley of Spiders 4.25⭐
The Truth About Pyecraft 3.5⭐
Mr. Skelmersdale in Fairyland 3.5⭐
The Inexperienced Ghost 4⭐
Jimmy Googles the God 4⭐
The New Accelerator 5⭐
Mrs. Ledbetter's Vacation 5⭐
The Stolen Body 5⭐
Mr. Brisher's Treasure 4⭐
Miss Winchelsea's Heart 3.5⭐
A Dream of Armageddon 4⭐
The Magic Shop 3.5⭐
The Valley of Spiders 4.25⭐
The Truth About Pyecraft 3.5⭐
Mr. Skelmersdale in Fairyland 3.5⭐
The Inexperienced Ghost 4⭐
Jimmy Googles the God 4⭐
The New Accelerator 5⭐
Mrs. Ledbetter's Vacation 5⭐
The Stolen Body 5⭐
Mr. Brisher's Treasure 4⭐
Miss Winchelsea's Heart 3.5⭐
A Dream of Armageddon 4⭐
May 28, 2019
An interesting collection of stories from H. G. Wells. This bunch offers a fairly wide example of the author's range and interests. As with any anthology some selections are stronger than others.
July 16, 2021
Debo aceptar que no disfrute mucho las historias y terminé leyéndolo por obligación y no por gusto :'(
December 5, 2016
An interesting collection of Wells' short stories, including my personal favorite, "The Truth About Pyecraft," a very humorous fantasy story about a man who wants to lose weight - and gets a lot more than he bargained for. Very funny. There's an excellent LibriVox recording of this story.
Another classic Wells story is "The Story of an Inexperienced Ghost," about a man who befriends a rather sad, pathetic ghost. The story starts out humorous, but has a surprising ending. I really wasn't expecting that.
"The Magic Shop" is about a man who takes his young son to a magic shop - only to find that a lot of the magic is very real.
"The Stolen Body" is about two psychical researches with an interest in what appears to be astral projection. Mr Bessel "commenced a series of experiments in conjunction with Mr. Vincey, of Staple Inn, in order to test the alleged possibility of projecting an apparition of one’s self by force of will through space." The story goes on a little long, especially the explanation, but is interesting. There's a good LibriVox recording of this story. Like the other stories, it has its share of humor.
Another classic Wells story is "The Story of an Inexperienced Ghost," about a man who befriends a rather sad, pathetic ghost. The story starts out humorous, but has a surprising ending. I really wasn't expecting that.
"The Magic Shop" is about a man who takes his young son to a magic shop - only to find that a lot of the magic is very real.
"The Stolen Body" is about two psychical researches with an interest in what appears to be astral projection. Mr Bessel "commenced a series of experiments in conjunction with Mr. Vincey, of Staple Inn, in order to test the alleged possibility of projecting an apparition of one’s self by force of will through space." The story goes on a little long, especially the explanation, but is interesting. There's a good LibriVox recording of this story. Like the other stories, it has its share of humor.
August 18, 2024
Clever and funny, perfect writing. I am amazed. I laughed out loud at some stories. I experienced a movie in my head reading some of the stories. I will read the The war of the worlds, just because of this writing, although I don't usually like science fiction.
November 8, 2021
Hola, lectores, ¿cómo están? ¿Cuál fue el último libro de ciencia ficción que leyeron?
Hoy les quiero traer mi opinión de “Dice historias y un sueño” de H. G. Wells de la colección de @delfondoeditorial
“En Doce historias y un sueño, el lector se encontrará con un Wells sorprendente que extiende su búsqueda hacia la recreación fantástica y humorística de variados personajes a los que une un lazo común: la irrupción en sus vidas de un suceso insólito, extraño, que los conduce a las situaciones más insospechadas y delirantes… el pícaro que se convierte en el Dios de la tribu de salvajes, el inalterable caballero inglés sorprendido por un fantasma, el investigador psíquico cuyo cuerpo es secuestrado por un ser de otra dimensión, los sorprendentes efectos de una droga denominada el “nuevo acelerador” o los incansables esfuerzos del obeso Mr. Pyecraft para perder peso”.
En este tomo de “doce historias y un sueño” se incluyen 14 relatos del autor. La verdad es que es el libro que más me sorprendió por que se puede ver mucho más el género fantástico y ese humor tan característico de Wells que atraviesa todos los relatos.
Mis favoritos fueron:
🖤 La verdad sobre Pyecraft que nos relata la historia de un hombre obeso, bastante arrogante, que cae en la magia para poder perder peso.
Es un relato que se lee rápido, que engancha desde el principio y que tiene un humor bastante particular.
🖤 El valle de las arañas ya que su narrativa es tan particular que te termina enganchando. Al inicio creemos que se trata de un relato al mejor estilo western pero termina con una mezcla de suspenso y terror que sorprende.
🖤 El fantasma inexperto (uno de mis favoritos) que investigando me enteré que era de terror gótico y nos narra el encuentro de unos de los protagonistas con un fantasma bastante particular.
🖤 El cuerpo robado que fue el que más me llamo la atención ya que habla de un cuerpo astral y es un tema que me interesa mucho.
Si nunca leyeron a Wells creo que esta antología puede ser una buena manera de descubrir al autor ya que son relatos cortos, que enganchan pero que todos tienen un lazo en común.
Hoy les quiero traer mi opinión de “Dice historias y un sueño” de H. G. Wells de la colección de @delfondoeditorial
“En Doce historias y un sueño, el lector se encontrará con un Wells sorprendente que extiende su búsqueda hacia la recreación fantástica y humorística de variados personajes a los que une un lazo común: la irrupción en sus vidas de un suceso insólito, extraño, que los conduce a las situaciones más insospechadas y delirantes… el pícaro que se convierte en el Dios de la tribu de salvajes, el inalterable caballero inglés sorprendido por un fantasma, el investigador psíquico cuyo cuerpo es secuestrado por un ser de otra dimensión, los sorprendentes efectos de una droga denominada el “nuevo acelerador” o los incansables esfuerzos del obeso Mr. Pyecraft para perder peso”.
En este tomo de “doce historias y un sueño” se incluyen 14 relatos del autor. La verdad es que es el libro que más me sorprendió por que se puede ver mucho más el género fantástico y ese humor tan característico de Wells que atraviesa todos los relatos.
Mis favoritos fueron:
🖤 La verdad sobre Pyecraft que nos relata la historia de un hombre obeso, bastante arrogante, que cae en la magia para poder perder peso.
Es un relato que se lee rápido, que engancha desde el principio y que tiene un humor bastante particular.
🖤 El valle de las arañas ya que su narrativa es tan particular que te termina enganchando. Al inicio creemos que se trata de un relato al mejor estilo western pero termina con una mezcla de suspenso y terror que sorprende.
🖤 El fantasma inexperto (uno de mis favoritos) que investigando me enteré que era de terror gótico y nos narra el encuentro de unos de los protagonistas con un fantasma bastante particular.
🖤 El cuerpo robado que fue el que más me llamo la atención ya que habla de un cuerpo astral y es un tema que me interesa mucho.
Si nunca leyeron a Wells creo que esta antología puede ser una buena manera de descubrir al autor ya que son relatos cortos, que enganchan pero que todos tienen un lazo en común.
Want to read
January 24, 2022🖤 La verdad sobre Pyecraft que nos relata la historia de un hombre obeso, bastante arrogante, que cae en la magia para poder perder peso.
Es un relato que se lee rápido, que engancha desde el principio y que tiene un humor bastante particular.
🖤 El valle de las arañas ya que su narrativa es tan particular que te termina enganchando. Al inicio creemos que se trata de un relato al mejor estilo western pero termina con una mezcla de suspenso y terror que sorprende.
🖤 El fantasma inexperto (uno de mis favoritos) que investigando me enteré que era de terror gótico y nos narra el encuentro de unos de los protagonistas con un fantasma bastante particular.
🖤 El cuerpo robado que fue el que más me llamo la atención ya que habla de un cuerpo astral y es un tema que me interesa mucho
Es un relato que se lee rápido, que engancha desde el principio y que tiene un humor bastante particular.
🖤 El valle de las arañas ya que su narrativa es tan particular que te termina enganchando. Al inicio creemos que se trata de un relato al mejor estilo western pero termina con una mezcla de suspenso y terror que sorprende.
🖤 El fantasma inexperto (uno de mis favoritos) que investigando me enteré que era de terror gótico y nos narra el encuentro de unos de los protagonistas con un fantasma bastante particular.
🖤 El cuerpo robado que fue el que más me llamo la atención ya que habla de un cuerpo astral y es un tema que me interesa mucho
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 15, 2022
A truly wonderful short story collection. It is written in a whimsical, sometimes self-amused style which lures the reader's attention easily. The stories, sentence by sentence, are refreshingly unpredictable. A sort of theme is magic, or unknowable science, which may or may not be real, but I believe the author implies them to be real most often. The final story, 'A Dream of Armageddon', feels as vivid as the dreamer describes, and the images are powerful, turning the story into an overlooked gem. It had the potential to be a fully-fledged novel, and may entail a film adaptation. This collection goes to show that we as readers can never at any point dismiss the potential of newfound tales to amaze us, we can never say we have read everything, or enough.
October 12, 2017
Fantastic collection of short stories, in both senses of the word. Entertaining twists on certain tropes, like a haunting from the afterlife's most clueless shade and a women who ultimately regrets her refinement.
But the big kicker is the "Dream" referred to in the title, A Dream of Armageddon. Pay of it takes place in the same universe as When the Sleeper Wakes & given the current state of the world (the US in particular), it is absolute nightmare fuel. When Evesham is first mentioned, see who he reminds you of. Then finish reading the story.
But the big kicker is the "Dream" referred to in the title, A Dream of Armageddon. Pay of it takes place in the same universe as When the Sleeper Wakes & given the current state of the world (the US in particular), it is absolute nightmare fuel. When Evesham is first mentioned, see who he reminds you of. Then finish reading the story.
November 25, 2021
En “Doce Historias y un Sueño” se nos presenta con 12 cuentos diferentes entre sí pero con toques humorísticos. Este libro no se parece a los demás que leí del autor, es diferente pero de una buena manera. Una de las historias que más me gustó fue “Filmer”. Todas me parecieron ingeniosas y muchas de ellas me parecieron cómicas. Si quieren leer algo diferente de este gran escritor entonces “Doce Historias y un Sueño” es para ustedes.
Este libro pertenece a la colección de Wells y por el momento no se encuentra disponible por separado.
Este libro pertenece a la colección de Wells y por el momento no se encuentra disponible por separado.
May 27, 2018
A collection of rather amusing short stories from H.G. Wells. My favorite, I think, is "The Truth about Pyecraft" - a short little story about a fat man who wants to lose weight, so he takes an ancient Indian recipe and becomes lighter than air (but still just as fat). As is usual for H.G. Wells stories, he misses the mark on the actual technology often, but it doesn't interfere with his stories being very entertaining.
September 22, 2018
Before I ran across this collection I had no idea Wells wrote short fiction. I was delightfully surprised. As much as I enjoyed his full length novels I found in some ways his short stories out do his longer novels. Those interested in the history of science fiction will find that many of our modern tropes were already being explored by the master way back in 1895.
Currently reading
October 20, 2024The Stolen Body is also printed in the Big Book of the Masters of Horror
The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost is also printed in the Big Book of the Masters of Horror
The Truth About Pyecraft is also printed in the Big Book of the Masters of Horror
The Valley of Spiders is also printed in the Big Book of the Masters of Horror
The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost is also printed in the Big Book of the Masters of Horror
The Truth About Pyecraft is also printed in the Big Book of the Masters of Horror
The Valley of Spiders is also printed in the Big Book of the Masters of Horror
April 26, 2021
Excelentes histórias! Adorei The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost, Jimmy Goggles the God, Mr. Ledbetter's Vacation e Miss Winchelsea's Heart ❤️ (as outras também são boas, mas essas foram minhas as favoritas! ☺️)
August 31, 2025
Una colección muy coqueta de cuentos fantásticos. Había un par que estaban bien, otros que exploraban ideas genuinamente interesantes (es Wells qué te esperas), en general bien. Un ratino agradable.
Y sí en efecto son doce historias y un sueño ni una más ni una menos.
Y sí en efecto son doce historias y un sueño ni una más ni una menos.
May 29, 2017
Algunas historias muy divertidas y otras un poco aburridas pero en general un buen libro.
April 18, 2020
Trece cuentos cortos. Para una lectura ligera, queda bastante bien. Mis preferidos: Jimmy Goggles el dios, Las vacaciones de Mr Ledbetter, El corazón de Miss Winchelsea y el Sueño de Armageddon.
October 4, 2020
The first story was hard to follow, but the following twelve were fantastic.
August 30, 2021
Una joya, muy muy divertido.
July 9, 2022
Sumamente entretenido. Lo disfruté mucho.
November 14, 2023
Escribe sobre los temas más diversos y de forma muy visionaria!
April 16, 2024
Very nice
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