Love and Mr. Lewisham

Abstract

Apropos Love and Mr. Lewisham Wells confided to his friend Elizabeth Healey: There is really more work in that book than there is in many a first class F.R.S. research, and stagnant days and desert journeys beyond describing.’ It was begun in 1896 in a mood of immense seriousness but not completed until January 1899, when he was living at Beach Cottage, Sandgate. Again and again it was laid aside while Wells pressed on with other projects— The War of the Worlds, When the Sleeper Wakes and Tales of Space and Time. He was determined that Love and Mr. Lewisham should not be published until it was as good as he could make it, and he resisted the temptation to let it leave his hands until he was satisfied it was a polished and complete work of art. Of all his books (including Tono-Bungay, over which he lavished great pains) it is the most consciously ‘written’; it was planned to conform to a carefully worked out scenario and read aloud to his wife Jane to ensure the utmost symmetry and grace of style.