nce, London. There he studied biology under the well-known Thomas H. Huxley. In the early 1890s, Wells started teaching science classes, which led him to write a biology textbook. He also started writing articles in the popular magazines that were beginning to pop up everywhere. At the invitation of one of the editors, he began writing science-fiction stories in the mid 1890s. In 1893 Wells suffered a physical breakdown that forced him to abandon teaching forever. It is after this that he was determined to pursue a literary career. In 1895, he published his first science-fiction novel, The Time Machine. The Time Machine rose to instant success, and so did H. G. Wells. Over the next five years he wrote a number of romantic myhtical stories that are still popular today (all of which have been made into popular movies, some more than once. These include: The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds.) In writing his novels and stories, Wells had many influences. Two of them are his schooling and teaching as a biologist and the state of mind of Victorian society during his time. Many people of that era saw the wonders that modern science and industry were providing, and dreamed about a coming utopia in the next century. They had the belief that science would solve every problem that people had. His scientific outlook on life let him see science as a great benefit to mankind and he tried to point the way to the proper use of its techniques in many of his novels. But people at that time were hung up on the idea that science could solve their problems instantaneously. Wells, though, knew better. Under the direction of Huxley's teachings, Wells thought that there are things in nature and in the universe that are beyond the control of man, and not even science can control them (Costa, Richard Hauer: 33). Although many of his novels were scientific in origin, in his later years he was surrounded by destruction, hate, and ...
