The Wheels of Chance: A Bicycling Idyll (Breakaway Books Series) - Softcover

Wells, H. G.

3.51

484 ratings by Goodreads

9781558215641: The Wheels of Chance: A Bicycling Idyll (Breakaway Books Series)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1558215646 ISBN 13: 9781558215641

Publisher: Breakaway Books, 1999

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A classic novel of bicycles, gallantry, and irrepressible romance.

One of H. G. Wells's earliest novels, written before his great successes with The Time Machine and The War of the World, "The Wheels of Chance" is a whimsical romance between a Walter Mitty-like draper's assistant -- one Mr. Hoopdriver -- and the Lady in Grey. The entire story takes place as the characters travel by bicycle through the English countryside, in the brief halcyon era between the invention of the bicycle and the advent of the automobile.

The shy Mr. Hoopdriver perceives that the Lady in Grey is being seduced by her supposed protector, and over the course of several days and many miles of cycling, he gallantly comes to her aid. With hilarious descriptions of the early days of cycling, a romping plot of high adventure, and H. G. Wells's long-neglected writing of the finest order, "The Wheels of Chance" will find many happy readers in this automotive age.

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Review:

"The Wheels of Chance is both an early cycling classic and a picture of an era. In this long-overdue scholarly edition, Jeremy Withers provides an illuminating introduction to Wells's lively comedy." - Professor Patrick Parrinder, President, H. G. Wells Society "Wellss engaging comic novel becomes even more enjoyable in this welcome new edition of The Wheels of Chance. Jeremy Withers scholarly introduction and notes set the novel thoughtfully into the context of the authors life and times, with particular reference to the bicycle boom of the 1890s, presenting readers with a host of insights that are bound to enhance appreciation of the book." -Michael Sherborne, author of the biography H. G. Wells: Another Kind of Life

About the Author:

Born Herbert George Wells in Kent in 1866, H. G. Wells was an outspoken socialist and pacifist, whose works caused some controversy. He is more widely known as a science fiction writer for the novels that he published between 1895 and 1901: The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, When the Sleeper Wakes and The First Men in the Moon. All, except for When the Sleeper Wakes, have been made into films.

Along with Jules Verne, H. G. Wells is also known as 'the Father of Science Fiction'.

His later novels were more realistic and he wrote many genres, including contemporary novels, history and social commentary.

H. G. Wells died in 1946.

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