Just Finished Reading: Kipps by H G Wells (FP: 1905)

At the tender age of 14 young Kipps begins his apprenticeship in drapery. The future it would seem is set. With luck, diligence and hard work he might just be able to own his own store some day and train his own apprentices. But Kipps wants more. He is a self-improver and begins taking art classes in a local library. He wants to be able to appreciate the finer things in life. But out of the blue everything changes forever when a drunken acquaintance show him a newspaper advert looking for him with the promise of a reward if he comes forward. Kipps dreams of as much as £100 which could see him take the time to find a better position without the fear of being homeless and hungry. Nothing had prepared him for the size of his sudden windfall. He is suddenly immensely rich with a yearly income from the capital of over £1000 a year. Suddenly everything is open to him, a life of leisure, a life of Continental travel, marriage into the minor aristocracy, a purpose built house. The sky is quite literally the limit if only he could make the right decisions, dress the right way, know the right sort of people and most of all speak properly in refined company. In other words if only he knew how to fit in. Only then would everything be perfect just as he always imagined it would be.

Billed as H G Wells’ comic masterpiece I found it to be quite the opposite. Oh, I did chuckle a bit as Wells pokes fun at Kipps’ working class ignorance (at one point he thought that having £27,000 would get him an invitation to meet the Queen) and his middle class aspirations but when it becomes clear that Kipps is unable to adapt to his new position and he is equally shunned by those of the class he tries to move into as well as those of the class he tries to leave behind then tragedy rather than comedy is the result. Kipps, until he comes to his senses that is, is trapped by his own preconceptions of what is proper behaviour for a gentleman of his standing. Led astray by his new found friends who, almost universally, turn out to be anything but he is left adrift in a social milieu he knows almost nothing about. Only when he realises that his first love who he met prior to his apprenticeship years previously and her brother who was his best friend are the people he really wants to be with, despite everything his so-called new friends tell him, can he finally become grounded and happy. Ironically it is a final tragedy that ultimately saves him from himself and leads to even greater happiness.

Whilst not exactly the best Wells book I’ve ever picked up this did have its moments. Despite that nothing really happened to speak of I did find it engaging enough and was pleased the way things turned out for Kipps and his family which must mean something. Reasonable but one for Wells collectors I think.