Robert Masello on H.G. Wells and WWI

 

In Robert Masello's novel The Haunting of H.G. Wells, a middle-age H.G. Wells receives a summons from Winston Churchill. Before he can answer it, a German zeppelin flies over his quiet country cottage. These zeppelins have been flying over Britain, and dropping bombs on towns and cities. But this one is aflame, and crashes in fields near Wells' country home. In a scene reminiscent of the Martians' arrival in H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds, the townspeople gather near the impact crater. Yet instead of an alien, a German soldier crawls from the wreckage. A local man kills the injured soldier, while muttering the epithet "Baby Killer."

Despite his wife's pleas to refuse Churchill's request, H.G. Wells leaves their country home and travels by train to London. There, in secret headquarters, Churchill explains that Arthur Machen's story "Angel Of Mons" has created a sensation in Britain. Because it was published in a London newspaper without being labeled "Fiction," readers believed that God had sent Saint George and the spirits of former warriors to aid British soldiers in the battlefields of WWI. Despite Machen's explanations that the incident originated entirely from his own creativity, the populace embraces this story as truth. 

While Machen holds a certain notoriety in literary circles, H.G. Wells is one of Britain's leading authors. So Churchill convinces Wells to join the soldiers in the trenches, and write inspiring accounts of British successes for the newspapers. Despite his wife's pleas, H.G. takes up Churchill's challenge.

Amid the duckboard wooden pathways, H.G. Wells observes how the British infantry live in the trenches in the dirt, while awaiting orders to "go over the top" and engage the enemy. He sees the deprivations the soldiers undergo. Nor is the high mortality rate a stranger to him, as he observes firsthand how soldiers are wounded, yet carry on serving their country. And then there are those who he interacts with, who he eats and chats with, who are not so fortunate.

Officers show him tunnels dug by soldiers in the hopes of carrying out sneak attacks from behind enemy lines. Despite the British officers' best intentions, H.G. Wells meets soldiers from different countries, who have been left behind amid the fighting, and have banded together to survive. These men, officially labeled deserters by their leaders, are also called ghouls. They are detested by those still fighting in the trenches, and usually shot on sight. 

 

H.G. Wells experiences more than enough to haunt him when he returns home. Yet he finds dangers aplenty in Britain. In his country home, it would seem that not all the Germans aboard the zeppelin died the night of the crash. And in London, a young Suffragette draws him into a mystery involving the mystic cult of Aleister Crowley, and a German terrorist intent on carrying out a biological attack on London. 

In The Haunting of H.G. Wells, Robert Masello intertwines plots that broaden our understanding of World War I. While we tend to think of this war as ancient history, he demonstrates own world of today faces many of the same dangers, societal struggles, and spiritual battles the British endured a century ago. Additionally, he shows a human side of H.G. Wells, a man whose stories continue to enthrall and inspire us. 

Dragon Dave

P.S. If you are an Amazon Prime member, you can download a copy of The Haunting of H.G. Wells for free this month, through the Kindle First Reads program.