Shows / The H. G. Wells Library
The H. G. Wells Library
A curious library stands open at the edge of time. Here, the worlds of H. G. Wells are not merely remembered but awakened, their voices carried once more across the invisible ether. The H. G. Wells Library presents complete readings of tales that peer into futures yet unborn, confront the machinery of progress, and question the destiny of humankind itself. From silent laboratories to distant planets, each episode invites the listener to wander as both observer and traveller, discovering…
Episodes
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Country of the Blind and Other Stories - The Obliterated Man
In which a shy and retiring man, newly appointed as a dramatic critic despite his lack of experience, finds himself increasingly consumed by the very…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Country of the Blind and Other Stories - The Plattner Story
In which the curious case of Gottfried Plattner, a modest schoolmaster whose bodily sides inexplicably invert following a fiery chemical mishap, is recounted…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Country of the Blind and Other Stories - The Red Room
In which a courageous visitor takes it upon himself to confront the sinister Red Room of Lorraine Castle, challenging the whispered superstitions of its…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Country of the Blind and Other Stories - Under the Knife
In which a man, lying on the brink of a perilous operation, contemplates his life and inevitable death with a detached serenity before succumbing to…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Country of the Blind and Other Stories - The Sea Raiders
In which the curious observer Mr. Fison encounters a peculiar and formidable species of deep-sea cephalopod along the Devonshire coast, leading to a perilous…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Country of the Blind and Other Stories - The Story of the late Mr. Elvesham
In which a young medical student with humble origins encounters an enigmatic old philosopher who proposes an extraordinary legacy, leading to events that…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Country of the Blind and Other Stories - The Cone
In which we find ourselves drawn into the sombre, industrial world of an ironworks at dusk, where the heavy, fiery machinery casts both a vivid glow and a…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Country of the Blind and Other Stories - The Jilting of Jane
In which the quiet domestic life of a household is subtly disturbed by the passionate and tumultuous courtship of their maid Jane, whose hopes and heartache…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Country of the Blind and Other Stories Introduction
In which the author reflects with gentle nostalgia on the rich and varied landscape of short-story writing from a bygone era, recalling the vibrant literary…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book Third Chapter Third Section 4
In which the narrator retraces the shadowy paths of his youth beneath the fading fires of Beltane, returning to the stillness of his mother’s chamber to find…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book Third Chapter Third Section 2-3
In which the narrator undertakes the somber task of disposing of discarded relics of a past era, unaware at first of the swift and final passing of his mother…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Epilogue
In which a reflective narrator examines a transformed humanity through the concluding words of a gray-haired gentleman, discerning a profound yet unsettling…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book Third Chapter Third Section 1
In which the narrator reflects upon the sudden loss of his mother amidst the stirring revival of the ancient Beltane festival, a grand symbolic cleansing of…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book Third Chapter Second Section 1-3
In which the narrator returns to Clayton to find a world newly brightened and a community swiftly reorganising itself for reconstruction, while tender…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book Third Chapter Second Section 4
In which a young man reflects upon the transformed industrial world and the gentle intimacies of life with his ailing mother, who recalls past sorrows and lost…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book Third Chapter First Section 2-3
In which a generous landlady speaks of a hopeful new era as friends gather beneath a rosy arbor, touched by the sunlight and the pleasant hum of bees, their…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book Third Chapter First Section 4
In which the intricate emotions of love and loyalty are laid bare in a tender and candid discourse among three souls, revealing their struggles with desire…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book Third Chapter First Section 5-6
In which the delicate struggles of affection and allegiance between three souls reveal the intricate ties of love, reason, and the human heart’s insistence on…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book Second Chapter Third Section 1
In which the narrator finds himself an observer within the rarefied and candid company of the British Cabinet, newly gathered under the unaccustomed light of…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book Second Chapter Third Section 2-3
In which a venerable assembly of statesmen, awakened from their customary slumber of routine and empire, confront their bewilderment at the absence of a common…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book Third Chapter First Section 1
In which the bright dawn of a transformed world rekindles old affections and brings Nettie back into the narrator’s vision, where love is enlarged by the…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book Second Chapter Second Section 3-4
In which a newspaper office caught amidst the upheaval of the Change clings to its usual operations even as men fall silent around the whirring machinery…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book Second Chapter Second Section 1-2
In which the arrival of a mysterious comet triggers a sudden, global suspension of consciousness, affecting all breathing creatures and casting a strange…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book Second Chapter Second Section 5-8
In which the narrator reflects upon the profound and silent arrival of a mysterious cosmic Change that awakens humanity to a serene new consciousness…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book Second Chapter First Section 1-2
In which the narrator awakens in a serene and glowing barley field, disoriented yet filled with a profound sense of peace and renewal, perceiving the world…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book Second Chapter First Section 3-4
In which the awakening of a transformed world is described with delicate clarity, as the narrator and others find themselves released from former passions and…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book Second Chapter First Section 5-6
In which a man, newly awakened from a long sleep of ignorance and muddled thought, confides in the narrator his bitter remorse and urgent resolve to end the…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book First Chapter Fifth Section 1-2
In which the narrator journeys from Birmingham into the eerie, luminous nights ruled by a great meteor, finding the ordinary world momentarily subdued by its…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book First Chapter Fifth Section 3-5
In which a man wanders restlessly through the streets and along the shore of a strange town, wrestling with faltering resolve and haunted by elusive glimpses…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book First Chapter Fifth Section 6
In which a solitary figure comes upon a whimsical seaside village fashioned from decommissioned railway carriages, where a strained and bitter undercurrent…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book First Chapter Fourth Section 1-3
In which a young man, tormented by a profound sense of injustice and personal despair, wrestles with dark and desperate thoughts beneath the eerie light of a…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book First Chapter Fourth Section 4-6
In which a heated debate unfolds between two men of differing convictions, revealing the tensions and contradictions of social and spiritual beliefs amid the…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book First Chapter Third Section 7
In which the narrator navigates a fraught encounter between social classes, witnessing the painful realities and rigid divisions that govern love and duty in a…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book First Chapter Third Section 3
In which a solitary afternoon of precise marksmanship gives way to the simmering tensions of a miners’ strike beneath the ominous glare of a great green-white…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book First Chapter Third Section 4
In which a sudden, violent confrontation unfolds beneath the eerie glow of a comet-lit night, leaving the narrator bruised and disheartened amidst the squalor…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book First Chapter Third Section 5-6
In which the sombre tides of national unrest and personal turmoil intermingle, as the clamour of impending conflict momentarily drowns out the quiet…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book First Chapter Second Section 3-4
In which the narrator embarks upon a weary yet determined journey through the bracken-lined park to meet Nettie, amidst the stirring confusion and tender…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book First Chapter Third Section 1-2
In which a troubled narrator, consumed by anguished jealousy and the fixity of his vengeful resolve, ventures resolutely to arm himself amidst a backdrop of…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book First Chapter Second Section 5-7
In which a tender but troubled exchange reveals the fragile tensions between young hearts and the chasms of misunderstanding that can swiftly open between…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book First Chapter First Section 3
In which two young men, burdened with the weighty discontents of their industrial world, wander the streets beneath the somber twilight, discoursing with…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book First Chapter First Section 4-5
In which a young man reflects with candour on his restless youth, his uneasy relationships, and the simmering discontent that colours his every thought amidst…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book First Chapter Second Section 1-2
In which the ever-brightening comet casts its pale, mysterious glow upon the troubled lives of young men grappling with the stark realities of economic…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book First Chapter First Section 2
In which a young man recalls the trembling sweetness and poignant complexity of his early affection for Nettie amid the constrained and often muddled…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Book First Chapter First Section 1
In which a reflective man, now in his seventies, embarks upon the task of recalling the stark and humble surroundings of his youth—a small, dusty attic room…
- The H. G. Wells Library
In the Days of the Comet Prologue
In which a solitary gray-haired man, ensconced in a tower with an expansive view, busies himself writing a manuscript of peculiar and portentous import…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Dream Chapter the Seventh - Love And Death Parts 5 to 7
In which a gentleman grapples with the intricacies of loyalty and love amidst the shadowed hardships of a troubled woman’s escape from a sordid past, aided by…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Dream Chapter the Eighth - The Epilogue
In which a group of contemplative souls wrestle with the vivid remembrances of a life long past, pondering the nature of memory, identity, and the suffering…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Dream Chapter the Seventh - Love And Death Parts 8 and 9
In which the narrator, caught unawares by the reappearance of a troublesome figure named Sumner, engages in a tense and calculating altercation that reveals…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Dream Chapter the Seventh - Love And Death Parts 1 to 4
In which a man reflects on the complexities of his married life, the bittersweet rekindling of a past love now marked by hardship, and the delicate but painful…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Dream Chapter the Sixth - Marriage in War Time Parts 7 and 8
In which a man reflects on the bitter and tangled aftermath of a failed marriage, marked by jealousy, pride, and misguided notions of honour that both wound…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Dream Chapter the Sixth - Marriage in War Time Parts 3 to 6
In which a tender and hesitant companionship kindles between two young souls on a day of gentle discovery, framed by the tranquil beauty of the countryside and…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Dream Chapter the Fifth - Fanny Discovers Herself Parts 11 and 12
In which the narrator reflects with a tender and sorrowful gaze upon the final days and complex character of his mother, unveiling the heavy burdens she bore…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Dream Chapter the Fifth - Fanny Discovers Herself Parts 9 and 10
In which a young man finds himself entering the bustling world of popular publishing, observing with keen interest the clash between the new, vibrant…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Dream Chapter the Sixth - Marriage in War Time Parts 1 and 2
In which the narrator reflects on his transformation from a youthful civilian to a soldier in the Great War, capturing the grim realities and shifting spirits…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Dream Chapter the Fifth - Fanny Discovers Herself Parts 4 to 6
In which the family confronts the unexpected and fraught letter from Fanny, a sister whose past choices cast long shadows upon their intentions and affections…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Dream Chapter the Fifth - Fanny Discovers Herself Parts 7 and 8
In which a young man navigates complex family tensions and yearnings for knowledge amidst the bustling life of early twentieth-century London, encountering…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Dream Part II The Loves and Death of Harry Mortimer Smith Chapter the Fifth - Fanny Discovers Herself Parts 1 to 3
In which a young man reflects with keen, if somewhat rueful, insight on the tender stirrings and secret yearnings of his early loves amidst the shadowed…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Dream Chapter the Fourth - The Widow Smith Moves to London Part 5
In which the daily rhythms and characterful occupants of a rather worn Pimlico boarding house are brought vividly to life through the keen narration of Matilda…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Dream Chapter the Fourth - The Widow Smith Moves to London Parts 6 and 7
In which a young aspirant, stirred by the promise of knowledge and spurred by the encouragement of a spirited acquaintance, contends with the weighty…
- The H. G. Wells Library
The Dream Chapter the Fourth - The Widow Smith Moves to London Parts 8 and 9
In which a young man’s earnest quest for knowledge and self-improvement struggles against the strictures and misunderstandings of a prudish and suspicious…