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A review by dee9401
Ann Veronica by H.G. Wells
5.0
H.G. Wells is widely known for his speculative science fiction work, but he also published across a variety of topics, both fiction and nonfiction. I struggled through his expository style in his first novel, The Time Machine (1895). Instead of showing the reader, he told the reader, in long, drawn-out sequences. I liked the ideas he was exploring, but I didn't enjoy the execution.
By 1909, Wells absolutely excelled at storytelling while still keeping a penetrating eye on the larger issues of the day, especially social relationships. In Ann Veronica, he writes about a young woman who is breaking out of old social norms by getting a postsecondary education and trying to live her life her own way. Her father, aunt and a suitor try to keep her "respectable," as they would define that term. To them, a respectable woman should be on a pedestal, kept unawares of the larger world about her and be worshiped until she is married and then she must fade back into the shadows. Bohemians, writers and theater people must be avoided at all costs.
Ann Veronica is strong-willed, intelligent and willing to take a stand. But Wells doesn't idealize or romanticize the situation. Her choices have consequences, both good and bad, throughout the story. She excels, she stumbles, but in the end, she is allowed to make those decisions for herself. She is allowed to become fully human, including having male friends who are not just relatives, suitors or husbands.
To read something like this in 1909 would have pushed so many people's boundaries. Interestingly, and sadly, you could change the 1 to a 2 (i.e. 1909 to 2009) and the story still works. Political and religious conservatives are still trying to push women back into the shadows and to demote them to living property, possessions not partners. Wells's words still ring true:
"She was never able to trace the changes her attitude had undergone, from the time when she believed herself to be the pampered Queen of Fortune, the crown of a good man's love..., to the time when she realized she was in fact just a mannequin for her lover's imagination, and that he cared no more for the realities of her being, for the things she felt and desired, for the passions and dreams that might move her, than a child cares for the sawdust in its doll. She was the actress his whim had chosen to play a passive part..." (p. 298)
I highly recommend this book.
I also enjoyed this book on a physical level. It is my second oldest book, clocking in at almost 96 years old when I read it (printing from September 1917). It's also the first time I read one of my Modern Library books that I've become addicted to and acquired over the last four months.
By 1909, Wells absolutely excelled at storytelling while still keeping a penetrating eye on the larger issues of the day, especially social relationships. In Ann Veronica, he writes about a young woman who is breaking out of old social norms by getting a postsecondary education and trying to live her life her own way. Her father, aunt and a suitor try to keep her "respectable," as they would define that term. To them, a respectable woman should be on a pedestal, kept unawares of the larger world about her and be worshiped until she is married and then she must fade back into the shadows. Bohemians, writers and theater people must be avoided at all costs.
Ann Veronica is strong-willed, intelligent and willing to take a stand. But Wells doesn't idealize or romanticize the situation. Her choices have consequences, both good and bad, throughout the story. She excels, she stumbles, but in the end, she is allowed to make those decisions for herself. She is allowed to become fully human, including having male friends who are not just relatives, suitors or husbands.
To read something like this in 1909 would have pushed so many people's boundaries. Interestingly, and sadly, you could change the 1 to a 2 (i.e. 1909 to 2009) and the story still works. Political and religious conservatives are still trying to push women back into the shadows and to demote them to living property, possessions not partners. Wells's words still ring true:
"She was never able to trace the changes her attitude had undergone, from the time when she believed herself to be the pampered Queen of Fortune, the crown of a good man's love..., to the time when she realized she was in fact just a mannequin for her lover's imagination, and that he cared no more for the realities of her being, for the things she felt and desired, for the passions and dreams that might move her, than a child cares for the sawdust in its doll. She was the actress his whim had chosen to play a passive part..." (p. 298)
I highly recommend this book.
I also enjoyed this book on a physical level. It is my second oldest book, clocking in at almost 96 years old when I read it (printing from September 1917). It's also the first time I read one of my Modern Library books that I've become addicted to and acquired over the last four months.