The Theme of Man's Instinctual Life in Selected
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by Roger Bowon B.A. (~ons) Cambridge University, 1965 A TICSIS Srn~E'l'Trn IN PttPTIAL mmmn OF THE REQUIR@~I~SFOX TEE DEGREE OF NASTER OF iL9TS in the Department 0 f %lish 0 Roger Sowen 1968 SIMON FRASER UITIVXRSITY July 1968 Senior Supervisor &mining Connittee Wining Coimittoe PARTTAL COPYRIGIIT LICENSE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my thesis or dissertation (the title of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Sttldies. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Title of Thesis/~issertation: Author: (signature ) (name ) (date) In the General Introduction to the Atlantic Edition Wells defines his work as %xperinents in statementtt. This study works forward from a consideration of Wells as a tlphilosophe of the Darwinian &gelt (H.G. Wells and the World State, agar) and of his concept of the temporary texperimentt of evolution to a textual analysis of his literary experiment, which he assumed was doomed to a similar impermanence. The primary metaphysic which emerges from Wellsts scientific background, the philosophical meat and drink" (Magar) derived from Darwin and Hdey, is a recognition of the vulnerability of human nature, composed as it is of an acquired %oral senseI1, and a recognition also of an inbred instinctual life, a kind of biological stain with its source in mants animal origins. The artificial nature of human evolution therefore makes it imperative to face squarely the dangers of atavism and the spectre of devolution. Nells never can free himself from this realisation of a biological original. sin, and his consequent pessimism and doubt in fact make Wells more anti-Utopian than Utopian, as Van Myck Brooks suggested as early as 1915, and as Anthony West stated more precisely in a now seminal article written in 1957. 'The Literary experiment which Wells initiated to express this %rgency within* ranges from the early science-romances to the more patent allegories of the late Thirties. The three main texts chosen for discussion cover the entire period, and therefore emphasise a continuity of theme: The Island of Dr. Moreau (l896), &. Blettsworthy on Ramnole Island (1928), and The Croauet Player (1936). They also emphasize the general movement from metaphor to discourse, apparent as :Jells feels a more urgent need to transmit his mesnap and to educate. This selection, however, also makos clear the constant qualities of ?lells8sima,-inative writiryl;, the reliance on myth, and the variation of allegarical technique, and in this respect the last two texts - largely iflored by conmentators - are deliberately put before tho mad~rfor fresh consideration, as evidence that I.lellsls creative spirit did not necessarily die on dates specified by normative critics. Certain concepts recur throughout these works, and in related texts. For example there is the use of the island myth; of the psychic journey which uncovers man's primitive origins; and of the reality of a pre- historical threat in the present world of war and injustice. 3rief concluding reinarks indicate the further treatment of the theme of man's instinctual life, aside from the fantasy and the allegory. This treatment occurs in the roman & tnkse, in which contemporary man in realistic situations meets the same threat, unearthing the same damning evidence of his dual nature. Pa,~ei:o . 1. Introduc'iion a :;ells ' s A?-inay Xotclphysic and Literary ;Ix'~,criment. 1 (b) Ilr. 3lctis1rorl;hg on Iimpole Island; Trne Psychic Journo;r. 5 5 (c) Ex Ckoauet Player: The Tlieme of Pre-History. 3. Conclusion. 116 Appendix: Tono-%:-a; "An medition into tihe Realms of Undisciplined Xature." Bibli~~apliy:List of Vorks Consulted. (a) F'rirnaxy Texts, Critical Vorks, Siot~aphies,Background Souxes and Articles. 131 (b) Tneses and Dissertations. 143 (c ) Contemporary Reviews. 144 'he only fully authoritative edition of Wells's work is the Atlantic illition, published between 1924 and 1927 by Scribner in New York and by Umin in London, and personally supervised in all its stages by Wells, who wrote a General Introduction and a Preface to each volume. This Edition is used here but where more accessible editions of individual texts are available these are employed in preference. ... 1.L:C rrritcr confcr,r,cr, his profound disbelief' ii~311;' ~CT~CC~or pc~nancn'i work of art. All a11 science, and s'iill wrc cezta.nl;r all i talicg fantasy, fic%ion, ciiscunsion and statcd case, all openly an,?(Mi ~xrately e:cpe2ixcntnl, all in easencc d:c tchcs and Ixials. ?hi:: edition is a diary of ina~inationsan2 ideas nuch norc than a set dis- _nln;r, thc rocord of a life livcd in a tinc of ;;?.cat rcsd justmcnt rathcr t1::rn of creative ackiovcnent .A This illminatin~passap f;no:,l Vcllst s o:m revaluation of his career, written for thc collected edition of 1924-7, zoes a long way to explain the litsraq phencnenon of a najor twentieth century fibwe. It may be immediately reco~nizcdas one of nany such inpatient statenents, about the role o? thc writer as artist, expressed throuch caricature, banter and disciission in many of his fictional writings,2 and with nore precision and elaboration in an article like "The Contemporary Xovelft,3 but perhaps no roro succinctly than in his final letter to Henry Janest "I had rather be called a journalist than an artist, that is the essence of it ....114 Zeaders and critics nay well beg to differ on terns 5:ells uses to descrije his corpus, %ketches and trials", "diaryff, as they may seem to belittle individual works and groups within his very considerable literary remains. Despi5e Yells's confidence in ihc definition of his epitaph, here and on other occasions, the jud~enentcannot suffice. He seems unprepared and unconcerncd to segaraie the t'coldtl fro3 the "base a task which has been eacerly undertaken by a number of critics, with increasix rwe and scholarship, ainco his death in 1946. !hat which 11~311shimself valued' most in his own work, the novel of ideas - "must the characters in our British and American novels be forevermore cleaned of thought as a rabbit 6 is of its bowels, before they can be served up for consumption?" - grew increasingly o'osolete as the style of Joyce, Lawrence, and Virginia Noolf began to demand attention, and his own work of that kind is today generally regazded as of literary historical interest only. 7 Howevor unsatisfactory and unacceptable Wells's general state- ments about art and his particular comments on his writiq may seem to be, both at this tine of survey (1925), and subsequently to the end of his career, there still ramains one accurate and predictable definition of his own composition: I1eqeriments in statement". The "fantasy, fiction, discussion and stated case, all openly and deliberately experimental1' is adequately descriptive of his work to this date, and beyond. What he in fact produced, in toto, was a meltinppot of genres, an amazing range of prose narratives and expositions, each item in this range, in some particular, lfexperimentallf. And many, but by no means all, of these 'Isketches and trials" were doomed to the impermanence the terns suggest, and the impermanence Wells seemed to take for granted. The reasons for this attitude to his writing craft are bound up with his own scientific 8 training and his own cosmic He was a child of the age of Damin, and a student of Darwin's most prominent interpreter, T.H. hxley. His view of his om existence and that of his fellow man was primarily an acceptance of the accident of his being, and a Ifprofound scepticism about man's knowledge of final realitylf? 15s training and philosophical grounding were deeply embedded and remained a primary influence throughout his life, 10 as this examination will show with more application at a later point. Suffice it to say that the Wells who It... believed himself ... a temporary device of skin, bones, arteries and ganclia ... involving consciousness and with certain thini;s to do which no one else could do, but when they were done, he would dissolve into dust, finished beyond any hope of resurrection",ll could find no use for "the set and deliberate and dignified work of art ... the processional dipity of such a collection as that of the works of Henry James". The experimental nature of life as he saw it, and of his own existence, was reflected in his attitude to writing. It was, too, the quality of life, in the biological and anthrop- ological sense, and in the context of human social systems - a concern with evolution, with the possibility of devolution, and with the process of change in general13- which cons tituted the broad content of his "statement It . Professor Isaacs, in his evaluation of lt~lls~splace in twentieth century thought and literature, refers specifically to Experiment in Autobiof~raphg 14 as "the autobio~aphy,not merely of an individual, but of a process". This can apply to his work as a whole: a record of process,. viewed as such by the 'experimentert. The turning point in Wells's literary output is generally rewded as 1910, the year of The 'History of 1.k.