The Influence of Science on the Thought of HG Wells By Roslynn D. Haynes, B.Sc. Hons.

558 Pages·2015·62.61 MB·English

The Influence of Science on the Thought of
H.G. Wells
By
Roslynn D. Haynes, B.Sc. Hons. (Syd.) M.A. (Tas.)
Submitted in fulfilment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy.
University of Leicester
1973
UMI Number: U641665
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Acknowledgements
My thanks are due to the Commonwealth Scholarship
Commission for the award of a Scholarship for two years'
research in Britain, during which time the material for
this thesis was assembled and the first drafts written.
It is e very real pleasure to thank my supervisor.
Dr. P.J. Keating, for his unfailing enthusiasm during the
period of my reading for this thesis, and for his critical
comments on the manuscript. I am deeply appreciative of
his interest and stimulating discussion.
I wish also to record my gratitude to my husband
and my parents for their cheerful encouragement and for in­
valuable assistance in checking the final copies.
My sincere thanks are also due to Miss Frances
Parsons who read and commented on the manuscript and to
Miss J.G. Mulhallen who typed this final version of the
thesis.
This thesis contains no material which has been
accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in
any other university, and to the best of my knowledge and
belief contains no copy or paraphrase of material previously
published or written by any other person, except when due
reference is made in the text of the thesis.
This thesis is the result of work done mainly during
the period of my registration f>r the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy in the University of Leicester.
Table of Contents
Preface i
Introduction; Wells's Predecessors 1
Section I. Wells's Scientific Background
Chapter 1. The Major Influences on
Wells's Thought. 85
Chapter 2. Scientific Method and Wells's
Thinking. 129
Section II. The Rôle of Science in Society
Chapter 3. Science and Technology. 178
Chapter 4, Science and Government:
the Wellsian Utopia. 202
Chapter 5. Waste and Disorder: Order
and Uniformity. 258
Chapter 6. Free Will and Predestination:
Freedom and Limitation. 286
Chapter 7. Science as Myth and Mysti­
cism. 314
Section III. The Influence of Science on Wells's
Approacli to Characterization
Chapter 8. Wells's Concept of the
Individual. 349
Chapter 9. The Character of the Scientist.426
Section IV. The Influence of Wells's Scientific Training
on his Techniques and his Concept of Art
Chapter 10. Techniques of Persuasion and
Presentation. 460
Chapter 11. Art, Science and Structure: the Debate
with Henry James 494
Conclusion 508
Bibliography 516
Preface
Wells was one of the first professional writers of
literature to have had a scientific training and the first
for whom the rôle of science in society was a primary
question. As such, his work forms a unique contribution
to literature, not only in the way he approached the
novel's traditional themes of personal relationships and
the social order and in the view-point from which he assessed
traditional values, but also in the scope of his interests
and the issues which he judged appropriate for inclusion.
In 1912, Wells delivered what was in effect a mani­
festo of his intention to enlarge the scope of the novel,
asserting the right of novelists to 'have all life within the
scope of the novel'. Inevitably he did not succeed in in­
cluding 'all life* within his compass; nevertheless the sheer
volume of his output presents a formidable task for the
critic since the breadth of his concern necessarily brought
a wide range of material to his notice. I propose therefore
in this thesis to concentrate specifically on Wells's attempts
to incorporate science and the concerns of scientists into
the fabric of literature, since even from this aspect alone
his work has been of increasing importance in the developing
understanding of the means whereby apparent fantasy becomes
an integral part of the mainstream of literature.
It is the contention of this thesis that, contrary to
the belief of many critics, Wells's thought was considerably
influenced by his scientific training, and that those principles
which form the basis of scientific method and experimental
procedures informed his intellectual development in almost all
the areas to which he turned his attention, imparting a strong
unity to his work despite its apparent diversity of themes.
ii
His characteristic habit of relating any newly acquired fact
to the entire body of his previous thought makes it diffi­
cult to classify his work validly or even to determine with
finality the boundaries between his fictional and non-fictio-
nal writing. It is possible of course to distinguish
between the categories of scientific romance, novels of
character-development and humour, and the more journalistic
discussions of his later years, but the frankly propagandist
intention of many of his novels has continued to irritate
critics of the novel form, while at times his journalism
soared through flights of allegory in an expression close to
poetry and mysticism. Even the scientific romances are by
no means homogeneous; they include tales of the future (dis­
asters, alien invasions), utopias and prophecies, fantasies
of the present (including evolutionary fantasies) and fan­
tasies on themes from the new physics, and there is con­
siderable overlap between these categories. Some of the
more simple tales may be fitted adequately into a angle class,
but many have compound themes and contain elements from se-
veral genres. Thus 'The Time Machine» which begtas as a
fantasy based on the 'new physics» of a proposed fourth
dimension, contains as essential ingredients a prophecy
of the future and a description of an anti-utopia, with con­
sequent sociological criticism of the present. Even the
short story 'A Slip Under the Microscope' is considerably
varied in content for it comprises a vivid evocation of science
students at South Kensington and their laboratory milieu as
well as a fragment of a Bildungsroman together with sociolo­
gical comment both explicit and implied. The War of the
Worlds and The First Men in the Moon combine elements of
the scientific romance and the tale of the future with much
iii
sociological discussion, while the novel When the Sleeper
ÿWakes may be seen as either a tale of the future (whether
as utopia or anti-utopia), or as satire on the present. It
therefore seems more profitable to trace the development
of several themes and intellectual convictions throughout
the whole Wellsian opus rather than to consider individual
works chronologically, always bearing in mind that the themes
are themselves closely interwoven and still arouse consider­
able dispute as to their real significance.
Rarely, before Wells's time, had a consideration of
science been deemed suitable material for fiction, and it
will be seen that Wells was relatively little influenced by
his predecessors in this field. Where he did adopt themes
from earlier literature he almost invariably transcended Us
models in the depth, immediacy and imaginative variety of
his treatment. Although the scientific romances have
frequently been dismissed as sheer fantasy decked out in
scientific language, I believe a detailed examination will show
that they do in fact adhere closely to scientific principles;
they demonstrate Wells's innate respect for the sanctity of
facts as opposed to sheer fantasy, and the diligence with
which he confined himself to the realm of the theoretically
possible, however far he may have overstepped the probable.
The very term Scientific romance' apparently adopted from the
series of short stories published by C.H. Hinton during the
1890's, and so frequently associated with Wells's work, is
significant. ‘Romance' implies that author and reader alike
consider the events of the tale as non-factual, highly-
coloured and, above all, remote from everyday life, perhaps
even with overtones of actual distortion of the truth. Such
iv
a term appears ill-matched with the epithet 'scientific',
which carries all the contrary connotations of exactitude
and the careful, unbiased observation of facts. Hinton's
romances are far from scientific in this sense, being con­
cerned with philosophical extrapolations from mathematical
speculations; nor has Wells escaped critfcism on a similar
charge, as will be seen below. However, it is my contention
that in Wells's case, unlike Hinton's, the compound term is
highly meaningful, for it describes what Wells in fact did -
namely assert the scientific validity of the imagination.
ïVhen Wells in his romances induces a suspension of disbelief
it is not chiefly in order to trick the reader into believing
something which is false, but more usually to open his eyes
to what is probable, perhaps even within his grasp, if only he
can be brought to realise the possibilities.
When considering the question of Wells's ability to
write about science it has been customary to discuss only
the scientific romances, but I shall endeavour to show that
while these earlier works embody some of WeBs's best and most
original writing, they by no means exhaust the measure of
his scientific thought. His increasing preoccupation with
sociological interests arose largely ftom his stress upon the
relevance of sctntific principles to the lives, and particu­
larly to the thought of anyone attempting to participate
fully in modern Western society. Although it must be
remembered that Wells's contribution as a sociologist, both
of his own time and, through the 'prophecies', of our contem­
porary scene, was considerable, it will not be possible
within the limits of this thesis to consider all the diverse
sociological aspects of his wort, but only those emerging