Just Finished Reading: The New Machiavelli by H G Wells (FP: 1911) [396pp]

Even as a child he could see it – chaos everywhere he looked. The world was like an anthill without the co-ordinating effect of the queen at its heart. With each progressive step the world became a little grubbier, a little more poisoned, and a little less pleasant. Considering his future, especially after his father’s accident, there was only one career to pursue – politics. Not that his uncle approved. Oh, no. There was no money in politics and no real influence either. The future belonged to the businessman, the risk taker, the shaper of things in the real world. But Richard Remington was adamant and so, grudgingly, his uncle paid for his education. Making something of a name for himself Remington was elected to parliament for the Liberal party. Now, he thought, he could achieve things and start to fix the fundamental problems he saw that were deeply embedded in society. But politics, he discovered, is a slow process. He needed friends, political allies and, almost as important, a wife to support him. Slowly the contacts arrived, his articles gained approval and his reputation began to climb. Around the dinner table and in his London club the ideas still being formulated in his head began to take concrete shape – education above all else needed reform, the best of the best needed to rule, to guide the country forward into the modern age. But he was frustrated, with the speed of the political wheels, with the shallow nature of his fellow Liberals, with polemics and speeches that led nowhere. Then there was Isabel Rivers. The contrast with his wife, Margaret, couldn’t have been starker. Isabel was Richard’s biggest supporter, a tireless worker for his original election, vivacious, smart and both willing and able to argue the point with him late into the evening. Love and the subsequent affair seemed inevitable. Equally inevitable was the political fallout if the affair was discovered. They would have to end it – if they could.

I think this is only the 2^nd non-SF Well book I’ve read. I knew that it was (kind of) semi-autobiographical in that it was about a scandalous affair (of which Wells was very familiar with) but apart from that I had very little pre-knowledge. I had assumed from the title that it was more about political manipulation (House of Cards style) than the affair itself but I was dead wrong. The only link between this novel and Machiavelli was that both he and the main protagonist here retired to Italy after losing office to write a book. Such a lacklustre start didn’t fill me with a huge confidence for the rest of the book. But, as you can see, I finished it. Although it was a bit slow at times – I honestly skimmed several of the political monologues which stopped the narrative dead – overall I did find much of it interesting. The story itself was pretty straight forward – the politicians fall from grace because of a pretty face – but it was handled well. The main and many of the subsidiary characters were well drawn and especially so for Remington himself, his wife Margaret (who I did feel sorry for) and, of course, Isobel herself who was a complete delight. That alone would have made the novel at least readable (which it was). Whilst most of the Edwardian politics can be safely ignored this novel does provide some interesting insights to the thoughts of the upper echelons and to some of the major questions of the day – the place/future of women and the prospects of a future war with Germany. I found the debate around a future war particularly interesting. Not only were characters in the book actively discussing the possibility at least 3 years before the event itself – largely because of the diplomatic friction caused by the ongoing arms race of competitive ship building – but the main character thought that we’d be fighting in Europe alongside our French allies and that we would LOSE – and deservedly so! But the lost war would be a GOOD thing because it would wake up England from its present complacency and, therefore, propel the country into future greatness (once all the existing problems had been, of necessity, corrected). Overall this was an interesting experience. Naturally this is very different from his other SF works but might be worth a try to see how his more political novels compare to them. Reasonable.