fear. He lived through both World Wars, in 1905 his mother died, in 1910 his father died, in 1927 his second wife died. It is not surprising that some of this despair would be part of the mood of his novels, no matter what their topic. His novels before the turn of the century portrayed a very bleak outlook for the future. "Wells's visions of the future were apocalyptic, even terrifying, and he found the prospect of disturbing his readers very satisfying" (H. G. Wells: A Collection of Critical Essays: 3). After the turn of the century, Wells's interest in the future became much more positive. In 1905 he wrote his first famous Utopian fantasy, A Modern Utopia. Wells's new Utopian style of writing brought to the surface one of his long felt beliefs. He believed "that progress cannot be brought about by an individual, but that society needed to be completely restructured" into one World State (Borrello, Alfred: Back Flap). These feelings were fueled by World War I and the chaos which followed. And that is why he wanted to portray such perfected societies in his novels. Although Wells's interests were now focused on utopian worlds, there was still projections of a grim, destructive future in some of his stories, including When the Sleeper Wakes and A Story of Days to Come. In 1919 Wells decided to try something he had never done, to write a comprehensive world history. When The Outline of History was published in 1920, it sold a quarter of a million copies, more than any of his other novels. The novel opened up a whole new realm to Wells. It also gave credibility to Wells as one who is an authority on everything. With this new credibility he gained many more supporters to the growing genre of science-fiction. In retrospect H. G. Wells "almost singlehandedly invented modern science fiction, creating or refining most of its major themes,...Science fiction, better than any other art form, has wrestled with the risks inherent to our age, shown ...
