Vivian Gornick taught me something in her article The Beginning of Wisdom: On reading H.G. Wells: Wells was a randy little bugger!
In practice this meant that Wells, espousing the doctrine of free love, pursued women steadily and relentlessly for the whole of his adult life; the intensity of sexual renewal was his necessity, and he thought that neither he nor anyone else should do without it. Convinced that he was serving a principled article of faith, he conducted his many affairs with the knowledge and apparent consent of the sexually faint-hearted wife whom he had persuaded that his sleeping with other women need not disturb their firmly anchored family life.[via Backwards City]
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| Posted by John on Wednesday February 07, 2007 - 12:34 AM
| Category: Books
| © 2007 SF Signal
Whoa. Can't say I knew THAT about H.G. Wells. And, in point of fact, I'm not sure I needed to either.
I think that makes him a much, much braver man than I am. There is no way in hell I would try running anything like THAT by my wife. Not in a million years. Not even from a safe distance.
Posted by Pete on Wednesday February 07, 2007 at 1:19 AM
Interesting! Free Love -- one more philosophical connection between Wells and Heinlein. see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_love
Posted by Fred on Wednesday February 07, 2007 at 12:58 PM