Experiment in autobiography :H.G. Wells

威爾斯

Wells, H. G. (Herbert George), 1866-1946 書名/作者 Experiment in autobiography : discoveries and conclusions of a very ordinary brain (since 1866) / by H.G. Wells 出版項 London : V. Gollancz : The Cresset Press, 1934

PR5776 A5 1934 v.1

PR5776 A5 1934 v.2

Published: June 6, 1993

Meanwhile Wells enjoyed many less public conquests. Much is revealed in his third, posthumous volume of autobiography -- too hot to be published until 1984, fifty years after Experiment in Autobiography, when it appeared as H.G. Wells in Love. Numerous mistresses are relentlessly named, sometimes as many as four to a page.

H(erbert) G(eorge) Wells was born on September 21, 1866 in Bromley, England. He was the fourth and last child of Sarah Neal Wells and Joseph Wells. Born before Herbert George were Frances, Frank, and Fred. Unfortunately, Frances died at the age of nine, before Herbert George was even born. The Wells were not very rich, and Wells used to often joke that while he may not have been born in a manger, his rise to fame was almost miraculous. His mother was a maid in the houses of the upper class of Sussex and his father was a shopkeeper in Bromley.

H.G.'s career may have started entirely by accident. When he was eight years old, he broke his leg and spent a lot of time reading and discovered an intense interest in it. Also, he was enrolled in the Thomas Morley's Academy at the age of eight. At the age of eleven, his father fell from a ladder and fractured his thigh. Joseph Wells never fully recovered and money was even tighter after this. So at the age of thirteen, H.G. was withdrawn from the Thomas Morley's Academy and apprenticed to a draper, for which he worked long hours. He hated it and was delighted when he was dismissed from the draper's because of all the mistakes he had been making. After this H.G. went to work for his uncle, as a part-time tutor and a part-time student. However, this job was soon ended when authorities closed down his uncle's school. After this he went through another series of apprenticeships and finally won a scholarship to the Normal School of Science in London. He also worked as a journalist during this time.

In 1891, Wells and Isabel, a daughter of one the Wells family's in-laws- making her his cousin, were married. By this time he was working as a tutor again. However, the marriage didn't last long, partly because of Well's adultery, and in 1894, he left Isabel for Amy Catherine Robbins (nicknamed Jane), a pupil in one of Well's classes. Jane and Wells were married not long after Wells and Isabel's divorce.

In 1895, Wells' first major work was published- Select Conversations With an Uncle. However, it was his next book that started Wells on his road to success- The Time Machine, which was also published in 1895. This was followed by The Island of Doctor Moreau (which has been made into several different successful movies), in 1896, The Invisible Man, in 1897, and War of the Worlds, in 1898. In 1901, Jane Wells gave birth to George Philip, H.G.'s first son. In 1903, their second child, Frank Richard, was born.

In 1902, Wells became actively involved with the Fabian Society, a influential club of evolutionary socialists. He left the society in 1906 due to some arguments with other members. Wells continued to write and in 1909 had an affair with Amber Reeves, who had a daughter by him. Jane knew about this but they didn't get divorced-they were married until her death in 1927. The public was shocked and many of his works were boycotted. But it wouldn't be the first time- starting in 1913 and lasting for ten years, Wells had an affair with Rebecca West, also a writer. Rebecca also had a son by Wells.

Wells continued to write up until the year before his death. Some of his other more famous works include The First Men in the Moon (1901), Modern Utopia (1905), The Shape of Things to Come (1933), and Mind at the End of Its Tether (1945). He died on August 13, 1946, only a few weeks short of his eightieth birthday, from cancer. However, even today, his works are still being read and made into movies. It was his War of the Worlds play that when broadcasted by Orson Welles in 1938, convinced the public that it was real and threw America into a mass hysteria. As recently as 1996, The Island of Doctor Moreau was remade into a feature film. H.G. Wells is definitely a classic.

赫伯特·喬治·威爾斯

早年生活威爾斯1866年出生於肯特郡的布朗利（Bromley）一個貧寒的家庭。父母都作過僕人。父親約瑟夫曾經是職業板球運動員，後來經營一家五金店鋪。母親尼爾則一直給有錢人家做僕人。

1880年，由於父親的店鋪倒閉，威爾斯只好輟學到溫澤的一家布店做學徒。但是他在這裡的工作沒有得到店主的滿意，1個月以後他就不得不離開，到薩墨塞特郡當了很短一段時間的小學教師。後來還在蘇塞克斯郡的一個小鎮上給一個藥劑師當助手。1881年4月，他又來到樸次茅斯的一個布店作了兩年學徒。令人無法忍受的學徒生活迫使他最終離去，在蘇塞克斯郡的一家文法學校得到一個助教職位。

1884年他得到助學金（每星期一個基尼），進入了英國皇家科學院的前身堪津頓科學師范學校。他在這裡學習物理學、化學、地質學、天文學和生物學。其中他的生物學老師是著名的進化論科學家托馬斯·赫胥黎（Thomas Henry Huxley），他後來的科幻小說寫作受赫胥黎的進化論思想影響很大。1890年他以動物學的優異成績獲得了倫敦大學帝國理工學院的理學學士學位。從1891年到1893年在倫敦大學函授學院教授生物學。

創作生涯
Bantam經典版《時間機器》封面從1891年開始，威爾斯為一些報刊撰寫文章。1893年患上了肺出血，休養期間，開始寫作短篇小說、散文和評論，同時也開始了科普創作，例如《百萬年的人》（The Man of the Year Million）中他大膽設想在自然選擇影響下未來人類的形象，巨大的眼睛，細長的手。

隨後《全國觀察家》發表了威爾斯關於時間旅行的設想的連載文章，後來在1895年把這些文章改為《時間機器》（The Time Machine）的小說發行。此書的出版引起轟動，也奠定了他作為科幻小說作家的聲譽。

此後，他又陸續發表了《莫洛博士島》（The Island of Dr. Moreau）、《隱身人》（The Invisible Man）、《世界大戰》（The War of the Worlds）、《神的食物》等科幻小說，還寫了大量的論文和長篇小說。

20世紀以後，除了科幻小說以外，威爾斯還從幽默小說《愛情和魯雅軒》開始，創作了一系列以《托諾-邦蓋》為代表的反映英國中下層社會的寫實小說，但是知名度不如科幻小說。

社會活動少年時學徒的經歷，使威爾斯形成了一種批判資本主義社會的意識，並且始終貫穿著他的一生。

他接受了空想社會主義的思想，他自稱“從學生時代起就是一個社會主義者”。他的科幻小說創作，也是他試圖通過教育和科學技術改造社會的一種嘗試和努力。但是他並不信仰馬克思主義，而是熱衷於改良主義，他稱自己是一個“保守的社會主義者”。他不贊成階級斗爭和暴力革命，但是認為有必要消滅資本主義社會裡無政府狀態。

1903年，威爾斯成為標榜改良主義的社會主義團體費邊社社員。對於費邊社溫和的、改良主義的社會主義思想他仍然認為過於激進。而他對年輕成員的影響和個人領袖欲的膨脹，使他和費邊社的領導成員肖伯納等發生不合，最後退出了這個組織。他的長篇小說《安·維尼羅卡》（Ann Veronica）和《新馬基雅弗利》（The New Machiavelli）反映的就是他在這段時期的生活經驗。

第一次世界大戰後，他用了1年時間完成了100多萬字的《世界史綱》（The Outline of History），這本著作展現了他作為歷史學家的一面。

威爾斯還在1920年和1934年訪問蘇聯，受到了列寧和斯大林的接見。他雖然不大理解蘇聯的社會主義制度，但是仍然作了比較真實的報道。這在當時是很少見的。

晚年1920年代以後，威爾斯轉向政論性小說創作，借科幻小說的形式，來宣傳他的改革理想，但整體上被認為缺乏藝術特色。

1946年威爾斯在倫敦去世。他晚年的作品轉向了靈魂、宗教、道德等一面。

作品風格威爾斯善於把科學知識通俗化，並通過小說將其突出出來，正是這種才能使他的科幻小說深受讀者歡迎。

他的科幻小說常常具有諷刺性，而顯現威爾斯一貫的對資本主義的批判意識，而且這也成為了威爾斯獨特的寫作風格。

威爾斯的科幻小說以軟科幻為 主，主要描寫各種先進的科學技術對未來世界的影響，以及這些科學技術所帶來的社會問題，政治沖突也就成為了他的小說中的一個重要方面。他的作品也展現了未 來科技發展的各種可能性，在他的作品中科技不僅給人類帶來了便利，也同時產生反作用，他認為科學並不一定是人類的伙伴。在他的作品中充滿了科學技術給人類 帶來的威脅：外星人入侵，社會暴政、戰爭、人種變異、太陽消亡。

威爾斯的創作方法對當時及後世英國和世界科學幻想小說的發展有重要影響。他的《當睡者醒來時》開創了科幻小說中重要的一支血脈：“反烏托邦”小說。後來俄羅斯（蘇聯）作家亞米扎京的《我們》、英國赫胥黎的《美麗新世界》，還有喬治·奧威爾的《一九八四》都繼承了這一傳統。他在許多小說中對“大腦袋”的外星人的描述成了科幻小說中歷來對外星人的“標准形象”。

他的科幻小說也遭到了一些科幻小說家的批評，他們認為應該把更多的信念放在人類的靈魂和精神之上。

主要作品《時間機器》（The Time Machine,1895年）《莫洛博士島》（The Island of Dr. Moreau，1896年）《隱身人》（The Invisible Man，1897年）《世界大戰》（The War of the Worlds，1898年）《當睡者醒來時》（When The Sleeper Wakes,1899年）《愛情和魯雅軒》（Love and Mr Lewisham,1900年）《最早登上月球的人》（The First Men in the Moon，1901年）《神的食物》（The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth，1904年）《現代烏托邦》（A Modern Utopia，1908年)《安·維尼羅卡》（Ann Veronica，1909年）《托諾-邦蓋》（Tono-Bungay，1909年)《波利先生的故事》（The History of Mr Polly，1910年）《新馬基雅弗利》（The New Machiavelli，1911年）《獲得自由的世界》（The World Set Free，1914年）《世界史綱》（The Outline of History，1920年）《未來互聯網紓》 （The Shape of Things to Come，1933年）

參考文獻艾德譯，赫伯特·喬治·威爾斯，《世界大戰》，中國戲劇出版社，1999年，ISBN 7104009779