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Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946), known primarily as H. G. Wells,〔 ("Wells, H. G." ). Revised 20 May 2015. ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (sf-encyclopedia.com). Retrieved 2015-08-22. Entry by 'JC/BS', John Clute and Brian Stableford.〕〔 was a prolific English writer in many genres, including the novel, history, politics, and social commentary, and textbooks and rules for war games. He is now best remembered for his science fiction novels, and Wells is called the father of science fiction, along with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback.〔Adam Charles Roberts (2000), ("The History of Science Fiction", page 48 ). In ''Science Fiction'', Routledge, ISBN 0-415-19204-8.〕〔.〕 His most notable science fiction works include ''The Time Machine'' (1895), ''The Island of Doctor Moreau'' (1896), ''The Invisible Man'' (1897), and ''The War of the Worlds'' (1898). Wells's earliest specialized training was in biology, and his thinking on ethical matters took place in a specifically and fundamentally Darwinian context.〔Robert M. Philmus and David Y. Hughes, ed., ''H. G. Wells: Early Writings in Science and Science Fiction'' (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1975), p. 179.〕 He was also from an early date an outspoken socialist, often (but not always, as at the beginning of the First World War) sympathising with pacifist views. His later works became increasingly political and didactic, and he wrote little science fiction, while he sometimes indicated on official documents that his profession was that of journalist.〔Vincent Brome, ''H. G. Wells: A Biography'' (London, New York, and Toronto: Longmans, Green, 1951).〕 Novels like ''Kipps'' and ''The History of Mr Polly'', which describe lower-middle-class life, led to the suggestion, when they were published, that he was a worthy successor to Charles Dickens,〔Vincent Brome, ''H. G. Wells: A Biography'' (London, New York, and Toronto: Longmans, Green, 1951), p. 99.〕 but Wells described a range of social strata and even attempted, in ''Tono-Bungay'' (1909), a diagnosis of English society as a whole. ==Life== ===Early life=== Herbert George Wells was born at Atlas House, 46 High Street, Bromley, in Kent, on 21 September 1866. Called "Bertie" in the family, he was the fourth and last child of Joseph Wells (a former domestic gardener, and at the time a shopkeeper and professional cricketer) and his wife, Sarah Neal (a former domestic servant). An inheritance had allowed the family to acquire a shop in which they sold china and sporting goods, although it failed to prosper: the stock was old and worn out, and the location was poor. Joseph Wells managed to earn a meagre income, but little of it came from the shop and he received an unsteady amount of money from playing professional cricket for the Kent county team.〔Smith, David C. (1986) ''H. G. Wells: Desperately mortal. A biography.'' Yale University Press, New Haven and London ISBN 0-300-03672-8〕 Payment for skilled bowlers and batsmen came from voluntary donations afterwards, or from small payments from the clubs where matches were played. A defining incident of young Wells's life was an accident in 1874 that left him bedridden with a broken leg.〔 To pass the time he started reading books from the local library, brought to him by his father. He soon became devoted to the other worlds and lives to which books gave him access; they also stimulated his desire to write. Later that year he entered Thomas Morley's Commercial Academy, a private school founded in 1849 following the bankruptcy of Morley's earlier school. The teaching was erratic, the curriculum mostly focused, Wells later said, on producing copperplate handwriting and doing the sort of sums useful to tradesmen. Wells continued at Morley's Academy until 1880. In 1877, his father, Joseph Wells, fractured his thigh. The accident effectively put an end to Joseph's career as a cricketer, and his subsequent earnings as a shopkeeper were not enough to compensate for the loss of the primary source of family income. No longer able to support themselves financially, the family instead sought to place their sons as apprentices in various occupations. From 1880 to 1883, Wells had an unhappy apprenticeship as a draper at the Southsea Drapery Emporium, Hyde's.〔 His experiences at Hyde's, where he worked a thirteen-hour day and slept in a dormitory with other apprentices,〔 later inspired his novels ''The Wheels of Chance'' and ''Kipps'', which portray the life of a draper's apprentice as well as providing a critique of society's distribution of wealth. Wells's parents had a turbulent marriage, owing primarily to his mother being a Protestant and his father a freethinker. When his mother returned to work as a lady's maid (at Uppark, a country house in Sussex), one of the conditions of work was that she would not be permitted to have living space for her husband and children. Thereafter, she and Joseph lived separate lives, though they never divorced and remained faithful to each other. As a consequence, Herbert's personal troubles increased as he subsequently failed as a draper and also, later, as a chemist's assistant. Fortunately for Herbert, Uppark had a magnificent library in which he immersed himself, reading many classic works, including Plato's ''Republic'', and More's ''Utopia''. This would be the beginning of Herbert George Wells's venture into literature. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「H. G. Wells」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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