Rupert Owen reviewed Apropos of Dolores by H. G. Wells
Review of 'Apropos of Dolores' on 'GoodReads'
5 stars
A thoroughly enjoyable read, H.G.Wells always precisely manages to deliver the natural consciousness of relationships within changing eras. The narrative is finely told in a diarist method, allowing for hypocrisies to be revealed through written bias against scenarios and actions.
One of my favourite passages from this book, first published in 1938.
"I am, I realize, muddy-minded. My mind is not comprehensive enough and it is too congested by minor issues and impulsions, to take a clear view of existence. It is encumbered like a crystal trying to form in a magma loaded with irrelevant matter. But nevertheless it has a considerable apprehension of potentialities. The shape of the crystal, the form of this world is perceptible to me. It is common lot to be muddy-minded; I am muddy-minded, you are muddy-minded, he is muddy-minded; past, present and future indicative you can conjugate it; nevertheless I believe, that by getting …
A thoroughly enjoyable read, H.G.Wells always precisely manages to deliver the natural consciousness of relationships within changing eras. The narrative is finely told in a diarist method, allowing for hypocrisies to be revealed through written bias against scenarios and actions.
One of my favourite passages from this book, first published in 1938.
"I am, I realize, muddy-minded. My mind is not comprehensive enough and it is too congested by minor issues and impulsions, to take a clear view of existence. It is encumbered like a crystal trying to form in a magma loaded with irrelevant matter. But nevertheless it has a considerable apprehension of potentialities. The shape of the crystal, the form of this world is perceptible to me. It is common lot to be muddy-minded; I am muddy-minded, you are muddy-minded, he is muddy-minded; past, present and future indicative you can conjugate it; nevertheless I believe, that by getting numbers of people to think as hard as they can and state as clearly as they can, and then by bringing their results together, gradually, steadily, a clearing-up is possible."
Just one of the many brilliant passages of which I chewed heavily through one of my bookmarks with the usual tagging of pages with phrases and thoughts that inspired me. Although heavily bound in a narrative that focuses on the character of Dolores, this novel is actually more about the second level of adulthood, reaching forty and what that means to someone who has experienced what H.G.Wells describes as a 'hybrid' life, a modern life, full of divorces and changing wants for existence.
Worth reading, especially if you are only accustomed to H.G.Wells speculative fiction.