Collected works of H G Wells

This combo product is bundled in India but the publishing origin of this title may vary.Publication date of this bundle is the creation date of this bundle; the actual publication date of child items may vary.1. The Crystal Egg 2. The Star 3. A Story of the Stone Age 4. A Story of the Days to Come 5. The Man Who Could Work Miracles.Chapter I - The Strange Man’s Arrival Chapter II - Mr. Teddy Henfrey’s First Impressions Chapter III - The Thousand and One Bottles Chapter IV - Mr. Cuss Interviews the Stranger Chapter V - The Burglary at the Vicarage Chapter VI - The Furniture that went Mad Chapter VII - The Unveiling of the Stranger Chapter VIII - In Transit Chapter IX - Mr. Thomas Marvel Chapter X - Mr. Marvel’s Visit to Iping Chapter XI - In the “Coach and Horses” Chapter XII - The Invisible Man Loses his Temper Chapter XIII - Mr. Marvel Discusses his Resignation Chapter XIV - At Port Stowe Chapter XV - The Man Who was Running Chapter XVI - In the “Jolly Cricketers” Chapter XVII - Dr. Kemp’s Visitor Chapter XVIII - The Invisible Man Sleeps Chapter XIX - Certain First Principles Chapter XX - At the House in Great Portland Street Chapter XXI - In Oxford Street Chapter XXII - In the Emporium Chapter XXIII - In Drury Lane Chapter XXIV - The Plan that Failed Chapter XXV - The Hunting of the Invisible Man Chapter XXVI - The Wicksteed Murder Chapter XXVII - The Siege of Kemp’s House Chapter XXVIII - The Hunter Hunted The Epilogue.Chapter I - Insomnia Chapter II - The Trance Chapter III - The Awakening Chapter IV - The Sound of a Tumult Chapter V - The Moving Ways Chapter VI - The Hall of the Atlas Chapter VII - In the Silent Rooms Chapter VIII - The Roof Spaces Chapter IX - The People March Chapter X - The Battle of the Darkness Chapter XI - The Old Man who Knew Everything Chapter XII - Ostrog Chapter XIII - The End of the Old Order Chapter XIV - From the Crow’s Nest Chapter XV - Prominent People Chapter XVI - The Aerophile Chapter XVII - Three Days Chapter XVIII - Graham Remembers Chapter XIX - Ostrog’s Point of View Chapter XX - In the City Ways Chapter XXI - The Under Side Chapter XXII - The Struggle in the Council House Chapter XXIII - While the Aeroplanes were Coming Chapter XXIV - The Coming of the Aeroplanes.The enterprise of Messrs. T. Nelson & Sons and the friendly accommodation of Messrs. Macmillan render possible this collection in one cover of all the short stories by me that I care for any one to read again. Except for the two series of linked incidents that make up the bulk of the book called Tales of Space and Time no short story of mine of the slightest merit is excluded from this volume. Many of very questionable merit find a place; it is an inclusive and not an exclusive gathering. And the task of selection and revision brings home to me with something of the effect of discovery that I was once an industrious writer of short stories and that I am no longer anything of the kind. I have not written one now for quite a long time and in the past five or six years I have made scarcely one a year. The bulk of the fifty or sixty tales from which this present three-and-thirty have been chosen dates from the last century. This edition is more definitive than I supposed when first I arranged for it. In the presence of so conclusive an ebb and cessation an almost obituary manner seems justifiable. I find it a little difficult to disentangle the causes that have restricted the flow of these inventions. It has happened I remark to others as well as to myself and in spite of the kindliest encouragement to continue from editors and readers. There was a time when life bubbled with short stories; they were always coming to the surface of my mind and it is no deliberate change of will that has thus restricted my production. It is rather I think a diversion of attention to more sustained and more exacting forms. It was my friend Mr. C.L. Hind who set that spring going. He urged me to write short stories for the Pall Mall Budget and persuaded me by his simple and buoyant conviction that I could do what he desired. There existed at the time only the little sketch “The Jilting of Jane” included in this volume—at least that is the only tolerable fragment of fiction I find surviving from my pre-Lewis-Hind period. But I set myself so encouraged to the experiment of inventing moving and interesting things that could be given vividly in the little space of eight or ten such pages as this and for a time I found it a very entertaining pursuit indeed. Mr. Hind’s indicating finger had shown me an amusing possibility of the mind. I found that taking almost anything as a starting-point and letting my thoughts play about it there would presently come out of the darkness in a manner quite inexplicable some absurd or vivid little incident more or less relevant to that initial nucleus. Little men in canoes upon sunlit oceans would come floating out of nothingness incubating the eggs of prehistoric monsters unawares; violent conflicts would break out amidst the flower-beds of suburban gardens; I would discover I was peering into remote and mysterious worlds ruled by an order logical indeed but other than our common sanity.1. The Door in the Wall 2. The Star 3. A Dream of Armageddon 4. The Cone 5. A Moonlight Fable 6. The Diamond Maker 7. The Lord of the Dynamos 8. The Country of the Blind.NANAAs I sit down to write here amidst the shadows of vine-leaves under the blue sky of southern Italy it comes to me with a certain quality of astonishment that my participation in these amazing adventures of Mr. Cavor was after all the outcome of the purest accident. It might have been any one. I fell into these things at a time when I thought myself removed from the slightest possibility of disturbing experiences. I had gone to Lympne because I had imagined it the most uneventful place in the world. “Here at any rate” said I “I shall find peace and a chance to work!” And this book is the sequel. So utterly at variance is destiny with all the little plans of men. I may perhaps mention here that very recently I had come an ugly cropper in certain business enterprises. Sitting now surrounded by all the circumstances of wealth there is a luxury in admitting my extremity. I can admit even that to a certain extent my disasters were conceivably of my own making. It may be there are directions in which I have some capacity but the conduct of business operations is not among these. But in those days I was young and my youth among other objectionable forms took that of a pride in my capacity for affairs. I am young still in years but the things that have happened to me have rubbed something of the youth from my mind. Whether they have brought any wisdom to light below it is a more doubtful matter.