H G Wells Primitive Modernity

Primitive Modernity: H. G.
Wells and the Prehistoric Man of the 1890s

Author(s): Richard Pearson
Source: The Yearbook of English Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1, From Decadent to Modernist: And Other
Essays (2007), pp. 58-74
Published by: Modern Humanities Research Association
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Primitive
Modernity: H. G. Wells and
Man of the I89os
thePrehistoric
RICHARD
PEARSON
Universityof Worcester
withWells's anthropologicaland socio

This essay isan attempttocome to terms
logical thinkingin the I89os,and to see thisas part of a culturalformationthat
Most
saysmuch about the transitionfromVictorian tomodern(ist) society.
readingsofWells in the I89os tend to foregroundhis scientificand prophetic
discourse inhiswork.Many of his novels and short
writings,and the scientific
storiesdealwith thepotentialdisastersof an unregulatedmodern science (stolen
bacteria,crashingaeroplanes),and a societyin transitionthroughthediscovery
or inventionof new technologies.I am arguing,however,forthe importanceof
his sense of culture,and thathis connectionswith the emergingdisciplineof
sociologyplace hiswork in a greyarea between literatureand science,just as
thatdiscipline found itselfso placed. Indeed,Wells foughta longbattle in the
press against thosewho called themselves 'scientificsociologists':Herbert
Spencer,Benjamin Kidd, and J. B. Crozier (Wellssoughta chair of sociology
forhimselfin theperiod around I904). 1He sawhisbrand of sociologyas related
toutopianism; thework of Comte, Spencer,Kidd, and Crozier,he said,were
interesting intellectual experiments of extraordinary littlepermanent value, and the
proper method of approach to sociological questions is the old, various and literary
way, theUtopian way, of Plato, of More, of Bacon, and not the nineteenth century
pneumatic style,nor by itsconstant invocation to biology and 'scientific'history and its
incessant unjustifiable pretension to exactitude and progress.2
Wells's 'sociological' fictionsare mostly rooted inmodern-day Victorian

himself to stepoutside of his
England, and neverpermit thesociologist-author
own frameof reference.I am always fondof pointingout to studentsthat it is
thePsychologistinWells's TimeMachinewho presses the littleleveron themodel
and sends it intothefuture;
Wells's futureis in factan analysisof the identity
of
modern-day man, who, likeGraham in When theSleeperWakes, is the real
constructoror originatorof thisfuture.
Wells always rejected theSpencerian promotionof progress for themore
As RoslynnHaynes
Darwinan cocktailof chance, coincidence,and contingency.
notes in a readingof The IslandofDr.Moreau,Wells bases his systemof natural
1 Letter to
Beatrice Webb, 29 April 1904, in The CorrespondenceofH. G. Wells, ed. by David C. Smith, 4 vols
(London: Pickering and Chatto, 1998), 11,25.
2 Letter to the editor of the
FortnightlyReview (c. September 1905), in CorrespondenceofH G Wells, 11,79.
RICHARD
PEARSON
59
evolutiononDarwin's trinity
of chance,waste, and pain, theworkingsof nature
being seen as without design, 'carelessof the type',and inducingsufferingin
thosecreaturesunfitor unable in the struggleforsurvival.3This recognition,
indeed, suffuses
Anticipations,
Wells's sociological analysisof modern society,a
book oftenrecentlycondemned forwhat is seen as aWellsian argumentfora
eugenic solution to the problems of theworking-classes.However, the book
needs to be seen as the culminationof his I89os researchesintoprimitivism,
which ledhim toa recognitionthatcultureneeds tobe planned inorder tooffset
thepainfulworkingsof instinct
and nature. (Wellswas pleased to receivea letter
fromSidneyLow suggestingthatAnticipations
was betterthanKidd's SocialEvolu
tion(I894), towhichWells respondedmischievously,'I could eat Kidd'.4) The
utopian or imaginativesociologyofWells appears toargue fora more cautious
relationshipbetween the sociologistand his subject: that in someways it is the
who has themost to learnand benefitfromany analysis
onlooker,thesociologist,
of theOther.Wells retainsa literarinessin his scientificthinkingthatcompli
In themid- to late I89os, as
cated, or even confused,his evolutionarythinking.
part of a group of writers and thinkersthat includedGrant Allen, Edward
Clodd, and George Gissing, and throughcorrespondencewith the emerging
novelistJoseph
Conrad,Wells foundhimselfdrawn intodebates thatembraced
new thinking
around theoriginsof man, prehistory,
primitivismand savagery,
ritualand culturalsurvivals,and thenew evolutionofman, which itselfestab
lisheda scientific
opposition to theChurch.
The relationshipbetweenWells and Clodd repayssome discussionforwhat
itcan tellus of an aspectofWells's work thatismuch neglected:his understand
ingof and imaginativeengagementwith theprimitivepast.Anthropologyin the
I89oswas a booming subject,and closely linkedto the excitingdiscoveriesin
archaeologyand thepopularityfornew collectionsof ethnographicalartefacts
inmuseums. Followingtheleadof Edward Tylor'sPrimitive
Culture
(I87I), inorder
tounderstand thepositionand characterof lateVictorian culture,researchers
travelledtheglobe tostudyprimitive'untouched'civilizations.
They were closely
followedby the novelistswho wanted to capture somethingof the spiritof
adventure in such explorations:Rider Haggard, for instance,went as far as
Mexico todiscussAztec culturewithJ.GladwynJebbbeforewritingMontezuma's
Frazer's ideas in
Daughter(I893). In a similarway,Grant Allen translatedJames
TheGoldenBough(I890) intonovelisticforminworks likeThe GreatTaboo(I890);
and painters likeGauguin began to consider the aesthetic interestof Pacific
All of thisoccurred asWells was beginningtocontemplatea future
primitivism.
inwriting,at thebeginningof the I89os.The interest
of all of thesewriters in
3
Roslynn D. Haynes, H. G. Wells, Discoverer of theFuture: The Influence of Science on his Thought (London:
Macmillan,
1980), pp. 27-32.
4
Letter to Sidney Low, 29 June 1902, in CorrespondenceofH. G. Wells, 1,401.
6o
H. G. WellsandTransitional
man
theconcept of taboo isparticularlyimportant,reflectedinWells, forexample,

in theEloi's fearof thewellswith towersand theirfearof thedark, a concept
he describes inA Storyof theStoneAge' as primitiveand instinctual.
Alongside thisanthropologyand the studiesof primitive
mythologiescame
thework on primitive
man and thearchaeological excavations inEurope and
England in searchof Hominid fossilsand remains.The most significant
publi
cation in thisfieldinEngland was probablySirJohnLubbock's Prehistoric
Times
of I865 (withrevisededitions in I869, I872, I878, and I890), but in themid
I89os a seriesof books appearedmaking thesubjectaccessible to the intelligent
general reader.Wells recalled somethingof thisperiod in 'TheGrisly Folk and
their
War withMen' (Storyteller
Magazine,April I921):
'Can these bones live?'
Could anything be more dead, more mute and inexpressive to the inexpert eye than
the ochreous fragmentsof bone and the fractured lumps of flintthat constitute the first
traces of something human in theworld? We see them in themuseum cases, sorted out
in accordance with principles we do not understand, labeled with strange names.
Chellean, Mousterian, Solutrian and the like [ ...] Most of us stare through the glass at
them,wonder vaguely for a moment at that half-savage, half-animal past of our race,
and pass on. 'Primitiveman,' we say. 'Flint implements. The mammoth used to chase
him.' [. . .] there are the soundest reasons forbelieving that these earlier so-called men
were not of our blood, not our ancestors, but a strange and vanished animal, like us,
akin to us, but different from us [.. .] Flint and bone implements are found in deposits
of very considerable antiquity; some inour museums may be a million years old ormore,
but the traces of really human creatures, mentally and anatomically like ourselves, do
not go back much earlier than twentyor thirtythousand years ago. True men appeared
inEurope then, and we do not know fromwhence they came[ . ].5
Wells here gives threeexamplesof earlyStoneAge man fromtheLower,Middle,

and Upper Palaeolithic periods: Homo erectus,Neanderthal, and Homo
sapiens, thusdisplayinghis knowledgeof the subject.He also tellsus that the
'grislyfolk'as he calls them,theHomo erectus,Chellean, largerhominidswho
made huge stone implements,'passed away before the facesof the truemen';
theywere displaced and died out by the arrivalof theSolutrians, theHomo
sapiens.But hismost importantcontributionis the imaginativeand creative
reconstruction
of primitivetimesthatthe story
unfoldsforthe reader,and how
this in turn forcesa reconsiderationof modern man's right to the epithet
'civilized'. 'Can thesebones live?': fromtheglass cases of themuseumsWells
transforms
the lifelessbones intofleshand blood humanswhose veryexistence
and thoughtpatternsdemonstrate(inWells's interpretations)
theirconnections
withmodernity.
Culturally,in themid-I8gos, prehistoricman and concepts of primitivism
became bound up with notionsof theplace of science in society,thedevelop
5 H.
G. Wells, The Short Stories ofH. G. Wells (London: Benn,
Wells's stories are to this edition and will be given in the text.
1927), pp. 677-78. All further quotations
from
RICHARD
PEARSON
6i
ment ofman, human intellect,

andmodern consciousnessand identity.
Edward
Clodd, whomWells knew fromsocialgatheringsatClodd's Strafford
House and
frominvitationsto attenddinnersat theOmar Khayyam Club (whereClodd
was President and Allen a member), was a wealthyVictorian banker who
became a leadingwriteron social evolutionand theoriginsofman. The Story
of
Creation:
A PlainAccount
ofEvolution
(I887),despite itsprovokingtitle,
was a survey
of evolutionarythoughtand application thatsoughtto explain themechanisms
of human societyto a general readership.As his biographerJosephMcCabe
described it,thebook,which sold 2000 copies in a fortnight
and 5000 in three
months,was 'amodel of thepresentationof science to thoughtful
but inexpert
readers'.6This approach would have undoubtedly appealed toWells, as a
novelistintenton popularizingnew scientificideas; and, given theclosenessof
the twomen, itwould be surprisingifWells did not knowClodd's work. In I895
Clodd published The Storyof 'Primitive'
Man inGeorge Newnes's 'Libraryof
Useful Stories' series.7This compact volume became a popular seller through
the I89os and was reprintedseveraltimesup to I909.He followedthiswith The
Pioneers
ofEvolution
(I896),whichwas readbyMeredith and Gladstone (thelatter
disapprovingof what he saw as itsanti-Catholicism),8
and TomTit Tot:An Essay
onSavagePhilosophy
inFolklore
(I898).
These textsformedpart of a sudden general cultural interestinprehistoric
man. The popularityof the topiccan be foundeven in thepoetryof Rudyard
Kipling, ever alert to thecurrentsof theday,who published twopoems on the
subject in I894-95: 'In theNeolithic Age' and 'The Story of Ung'. Kipling's
poems offera comic interventionin the imaginativerenderingof prehistoric
man. The firstuses first-person
monologues to recreatethemodes of thought
of a primitive
man, whose problemsand culturessound distinctly
modern. The
voice of the I895 'In theNeolithicAge' was 'singertomy clan in thatdim, red
Dawn ofMan'; but as thepoem unfoldsthesinger'sprimitivebarbaritybecomes
apparent, in a comic tone thatmirrors theBarrack-Room
Ballads of contempo
rarysoldiers:
But a rival of Solutre, toldmy tribemy stylewas outre
'Neath a tomahawk, of diorite, he fell.
And I leftmy views on Art, barbed and tanged, below the heart
Of a mammothistic etcher at Grenelle.
Then I stripped them, scalp from skull, and my hunting-dogs fed full,
And their teeth I threaded neatly on a thong;
6
Edward Clodd: AMemoir (London: John Lane, 1932), p. 73.
Joseph McCabe,
7 This
series, which ran from 1895-1904 an<^ was then collected by Hodder and Stoughton in 1908 as 'The
included books on natural history and the development of various aspects of
Library of Useful Knowledge',
human achievement, all entitled 'The Story of [. . .] '.Clodd also published The Story of the
Alphabet in the series
in 1900, and Grant Allen, The Story of thePlants in 1899.
8
McCabe,
pp. 78-79.
62
man
H. G.WellsandTransitional
And I wiped my mouth and said, 'It iswell that they are dead,
For I know my work is rightand theirs iswrong.'9
When theprehistoricsingeremerges thousandsof years lateras a relicof the

past, he becomes the subjectof a poem by 'aminor poet certifiedby Traill'
(H. D. Traill, themagazine critic).He findsthat theworld, however,is stillthe
same
'Stilla culturedChristian age sees us scuffle,squeak, and rage, I Still
we pinch and slap and jabber, scratchand dirk ... .]' (p. 355).Kipling reflects
theargumentalso propounded byWells at thistimethathumanityhas evolved
littlesinceprimitivetimes,despite themodernityof theage. 'The StoryofUng'
similarlyprovides a humorous analogy tomodern times,describinganother
prehistoricartist,a man who fashionsimages in snow and etchespicturesof
animals and hunterson bone. Having bewitched his tribe,theman suddenly
findsthe tribedoubting the truthof his images;appealing tohis fatherforhelp,
would do what thouhast done, I
he is told, 'If theycould see as thouseest they
what would become of my
And each man would make him a picture,and
son?'. The artisthas benefitedfromthe giftsthe tribehas broughthim and
cannot be anythingother thanpleased that 'thyTribe isblind'. 'Straighton the
glitteringice-field,by the caves of the lostDordogne' the prehistoricartist
whistles and sings as he goes back to scribing his 'mammoth editions'
(pp. 358-59). Kipling's poems not only demonstrate the pervasive cultural
impactof theircontemporaries'
writingson primitive
man, but theyreflect
how
far thedebates themselveshad permeatedmodern thought.Kipling uses the
subjectmatter tomake contemporarypoints, scatteringthepoems with refer
ences (such as Solutre and the caves of theDordogne) thathis readerswould
understand,and accepting fullytheconcept of prehistorytalkingback to the
present.
Edward Clodd's The Story
of 'Primitive'Man
provides theacademic contextfor
themid-I8gos debate, the invertedcommas of the titlerevealingClodd's own
scepticism about the designation of primitivismas necessarily below or
supplantedby a civilizedmodernity.The book establishesa narrativeof evolu
man's arrival in thearea around theThames, traced inworks
tionthatsuggests
likeSirJohnEvans's AncientStoneImplements
and gradually
(I872), as 'drift-men'
in
as
natural
'a
spaces
'cave-men',
somewhat
settling
dwelling
higher stateof
culture'.'0He focusesa loton themost basic developmentsofman, such as the
productionof fireand basic tools,and considersthecultural 'survivals'thatstill
governhabitsand ritualsin themodern age: All our pleasuresand our pastimes
and primitivepractices' (p. 37).The mind
are theoutcome of primitiveinstincts
9 The CollectedPoems
of Rudyard Kipling (Ware: Wordsworth,
1994), p. 354. Further references appear in the
text.
10Edward
Clodd, The Story ofPrimitive'Man (London: Newnes,
1909), p. 51; subsequent quotations are from
this edition.
RICHARD
PEARSON
63
of theStoneAge man isalso considered,particularlyhis abilitytodevelop new

ideas throughthought:
such ideas as things around suggested to his twilightmind were a tangle of confusion,
contradiction, and bewilderment [... .] he dimly noted the difference,which, in the long
of
run, lead themind to comparisons, and thereby lay the foundation of knowledgethe relation between thingswhich we will call cause and effect. (p. 66)
This process is setagainsta sketchof the lifeand cultureof such earlypeoples

theanimals theylivedalongside,thesocietytheyformed.'Clodd had therare
faculty,
forsuchworks,of visualizingthepast andmaking helpfulsuggestionsof
his own',McCabe notes in his biography."IIt is thisconcentrationon the
Wells picksup forhis
gradual developmentof themental facultiesofman that
'Storyof theStone Age'. As described below,Wells's storyis almost an imagi
work.Like theshift
nativereconstruction
of thedetails inClodd's more scientific
Wells and Clodd themselves,their
fromVictorian toModern thatconfronted
man show theprocessesof shiftsin culturalparadigms
depictionsof primitive
as linkedto intellectualadvancement,based on 'causeand effect'.
According to
withoutknowingwhat he thought,"[...] was
Clodd, primitive
man, "'thinking
pickingup knowledgefortheadvantage of allwho came afterhim' (P. 67).
Wells appeared alongsideClodd inMorley Roberts's biographyof Gissing,
Maitland (I9I2), as 'G.H. Rivers' (perhapsan allusion to
ThePrivate
LifeofHenry
Pitt-Riversto indicateWells's interestinmuseum enthnography)to Clodd's
'EdmundRoden'. Wells also includeda comic sketchof Clodd as Edwin Dodd
in Boon (19I5):
Dodd is a leading man of theRationalist Press Association, a militant Agnostic, and a
dear compact man, one of thoseMiddle Victorians who go about with a preoccupied
carking air, as though, afterhaving been at great cost and pains to banish God from the
universe, theywere resolved not to permit Him back on any termswhatever. He has
constituted himself a sort of alert customs officer of a materialistic age, saying
suspiciously 'Here, now,what is this rapping under the table here?' and examining every
proposition to see that the Creator hasn't ben smuggled back under some specious
generalization. Boon used to declare that every nightDodd looked under his bed for the
Deity and sleptwith a large revolver under his pillow for fear of a revelation. 12
House
McCabe notes thegood-humouredargumentsof themen at Strafford
in the I89os,whereWells once drew a caricatureof 'Godwritinga book toprove
thatno suchperson asEdward Clodd existed'.13It isalso evidentfromtheletters
dating to I902 betweenhimselfand George Gissing thatClodd published inhis
Memories(I9I6) thatthegroup analysedand discussedeach others' latest
writings.
Gissingwrote toClodd on iMarch I902:
11
78.
McCabe,p.
12Cited in
McCabe,
13
McCabe,
p. 131.
pp. 130-31.
man
64
Oddly enough, I have just been writing toWells with verymuch the same criticism of
his work that you suggest. I have asked him:What do you mean exactly by your 'God'
and your 'purpose'? I rather suspect that he means nothing more definite than that
reverential hopefulness which isnatural to every thoughtfuland gentle-hearted man. In
his lecture to theRoyal Institution he goes, I think,entirely too far,talking about eternal
activity of the spiritof man, and defying the threatsof material outlook. Well. Well, let
us agree that it isvery good to acknowledge a great mystery; infinitelybetter than to use
How to go further than
the astounding phrase of Berthelot, 'Lemonden'a plus demystere.'
this recognition I know not. That there is someorder,somepurpose,seems a certainty;my
mind, at all events, refuses to grasp an idea of a Universe which means nothing at all.
But just as unable am I to accept any of the solutions ever proposed.'4
By I92IWells and Clodd had largelygone theirseparateways, andWells's work

as reflected
had moved towardsthemore fixedpatternof social reconstruction
writings.The post-warperiod
in themodern utopias of his twentieth-century
brought a sombre note into the debates about human progress thatposited
evolutionas neutral at a timewhen Wells turnedevermore towardspolitical
Wells
solutions.Clodd wrote in theSundayTimeson iiApril I92I, theyear that
wrote 'The GrislyFolk':
man has remained unchanged since the Stone Age. There isno evidence thatour brains
are superior to the remarkable Cro-Magnon people [ ...] And what guarantee have we
thatour civilization, with all itshideous engines of destruction, will not be added to the
vast rubbish heaps which witness to the decline and fallof empires? To-day all the forces
of disintegration are in fullplay. Of moral advance, whereon Mr. Wells's scheme must
rest, there is no proof whatever anywhere [ . ].15
Although
'The Grisly Folk' was written
in I921, the idea
it expresses
of the
replacementof one formof protohumanwith anotherhas itscounterpartin the

Wells of thedebates that
fictionof the I89os. PerhapsClodd's articlereminded
proliferatedin the I89os about theentwiningof primitiveand civilized in the
human. The concept complicates the simplisticview of evolution as a linear
ascent from animal toman, and enables us to reread the early scientific
romances and short stories as texts that articulateboth a consciousness of
change and an anxietyabout the transitionfromone state to another.The
Victorian being of futurity,
metamorphosingbetween theEloi and theMorlock,
divided and self
provided a symbolfor themodern age of the fundamentally
destructivepsycheof thenewman. And I thinkI use the term 'man' correctly.
ofman,
Wells, inhis I89oswork, isalmostwholly concernedwith the transition
fromVictorian tomodern, and part of his representationof male identity
withwoman.
involvestheawkwardand alienatingrelationship
being is found in all ofWells's earlynovels.Griffin,inThe
The transitional
Invisible
Man, propels himself intohis ownmodernity throughthediscoveryof
14
Edward Clodd, Memories
15
McCabe,
p. 199.
(London: Chapman
and Hall,
1916), pp. 180-81 (original italics).
RICHARD
PEARSON
65
which transforms
him intoa superhumanfigureholding an advan
invisibility,
tage over his species.This mutation, however,proves theperverse featureof
Darwinism and natural selection:itswastage, and thethreatofmutation leading
only to extinction.But italso demonstratesa secondmore importantaspect of
Wells's vision: thatnatural adaptationsare not theonly formof 'naturalselec
tion'.The power of culture iseven greater.Griffin'sadaptation isaccompanied
by a breakingof taboo, by thegradual escalation of hismurderous attitudes
(killingfromcat tohuman).The killingof Griffinat theend of The Invisible
Man
in
is ritualistic:thecommunityrevertstoa primitiveinstinct
of self-preservation
order todefend itsorder and organization.There isno safetyforGriffin,
who,
because of his transgression
of taboo, is thehuntedof all society.6This theme
isalso presentin theother texts:theMorlocks' cannibalism,thealiens' eatingof
thehuman, and,more directly,thebeast-people'seatingof fleshare depicted as
deplorable sacrileges.
Thus, human advancement, inWells's view, is not solely theprovince of
biological evolution,and isnot tobe seen as a complacentprogressiontowards
of culturalchange and biologi
everhighercivilization.Indeed, the interaction
cal change iscomplex;but for
Wells thecomponentof culture
is themore signif
icantof the two.Since culture is theprovinceof sociology,and sociologyfor
Wells isnot a science,then it is the imaginativeengagementwith culturalprac
ticesand ritualsthatbecome crucial forhisunderstandingof the landscapeand
mindset ofmodernity.
Wells's shortstoriesof the I89os offera new perspectiveon thepositionofman
in themodern world, and, likehis utopias,derive froma sense thatpresent-day
modern man must view himself fromanother space or time in order to fully
come to termswith his ownmodernity.AsJohn Hammond saysof the stories:
and doubt characteristicof thebreak-upof
'theyexemplifythe fragmentation
theVictorian age'.'7 Aepyornis Island', a shortstoryfromthePallMall Budget
of I3December i894 (latercollected in The Stolen
Bacillus),featuresa collector
foramuseumwho travelstoMadagascar where he discoversthebones and three
mud. He is leftalone
eggsof a bird, long thoughtextinct,preservedina tar-like
on an island after the revoltof his native helpers,and eats two of the eggs,
despite thesecondone having 'developed'.In his lonelinesson thedesertedatoll,
whom
he cultivatesthelastegg and hatches it,befriendingthesmallbird inside,
he calls 'Friday'.They become close companions,but thebird graduallygrows
to a heightof fourteenfeetand begins tohuntButcher,theirfriendshipforgot
ten. 'I'lladmit I feltsmall to see thisblessed fossillordingitthere',saysButcher.18
16Brian
is, in a sense, Huxley's
Murray notes that '[t]he Invisible Man
Wells would repeatedly condemn': H. G Wells (New York: Continuum,
17 R.
Hammond, H. G Wells and theShortStory (London: Macmillan,
J.
"primitive man,"
1990), p. 94.
1992), p. 28.
standing for all that
66
man
Eventually,
man triumphs;
Butchermakes a bolus and flingsitaround thebird's
legs,runsfromthe sea, and saws throughhis longneck.Then he sitsdown and
cries.He lets the fishpick thebird, as he cannot bringhimself to eat him, and
thenhe getspicked up and sells thebones toa dealer near theBritishMuseum.
The storydramatizestheveryprocessof 'makingthebones live'outsideof their
museum cases
theegg/artefact,fossilizedand extinct,returnsthe intellectual
collector to a more primitivetimeand forceshis reversionto a hunter seeking
only to survive.Scratch thesurfaceof a civilizedman, and a primitive,intuitive,
ritualistic
being isbarelyconcealed. The pointwas made byClodd in The Story
of 'Primitive'Man:
civilization retains, and, in no small degree, shares his [primitiveman's] primitiveideas
about his surroundings [ ...] we have not altered so much as we vainly think; if the
civilized part in us is recent, in structure and inherited tendencies we are each of us
hundreds of thousands of years old.'9
Hammond sees 'AepyornisIsland' as a reworking

of Defoe's RobinsonCrusoe,
connected to lateVictorian anxietiesover race (thetreatment
of nativehelpers).
The narrative,he suggests,
bringsButcher toa recognitionof his own humanity
(the tragedyof killinghis 'friend'),and creates a kind of modern-dayAncient
Mariner retellinghis story to the narratorwho passes it on to us (a device
Hammond suggestsadds to the 'realism'of thepiece).20However, it is also a
storyabout culture,and the clash of culture and instinct.First, theCrusoe
referencesindicatea differenceinButcher's island Butcher does not, like
his ownmodern culture.Insteadhe removeshimselffrom
Robinson, reconstruct
such influencesand focusesall of his attentionon theegg and bird.His arrival
on theatoll remindsButcher of Defoe, and he thinkshimselfon a Boy's Own
adventure:a 'finer'and more 'adventurous[. . .]business'he couldn't imagine
(p. 303).But thisdoes not last: 'our littleparadisewentwrong' (p. 306). It isnot
the bird's death thatupsets Butcher, as Hammond suggests,but his loss of
culture-'that place was asmonotonous as a book of sermons.I went round
findingeatable thingsand generallythinking;
but I tellyou Iwas bored todeath
before thefirstdaywas out' (p. 303).
His solace is theAepyornis bird, butwe are continuallyreminded that the
bird is 'an extinctanimal'who shouldnot be there(p. 308), and thathe was a
good companion 'beforehewentwrong' (p. 309).The relationshipcannot exist
in a simultaneoustime,and as soon as thebird reachesmaturity itsinstinctto
survivetakesover.Butcher imagineshimself to have been theeducator of the
bird, and now abuses its ingratitude.
But thebird has merely followeditsown
path of 'development'.The humanizingof it is entirelyButcher's ownway of
18 Short
Stories ofH. G. Wells, p. 307.
19
Clodd, Story of Primitive'Man, p. 193 (original italics).
20
Hammond,
pp. 60-62.
RICHARD
PEARSON
67
relatingto it.The ironyof his name isnot thathe is a 'butcher'and kills the
bird, asHammond suggests,but theopposite.The butcher is a culturalfigure,
providingmeat forour society;butButcher isdriven to killagainsthiswishes,
and cannot eat themeat of thebird.He is forcedto reacknowledgehis own
instinctforsurvival,and to live in thebird's age of thehuntermore thanhis
own. Indeed, thisis thefinalironyof thestory it isnotButcherwho gets to
reconstruct
his own culturelikeCrusoe, but theAepyornisbird thatundermines
thecultureof Butcher.The primitivefossilhas provedmore durable than the
modern cultureofman.
A second taleof the I89os thatdealswith theprimitive
world isWells's 'AStory
of theStoneAge', published in I897 in theMay-September issuesof The Idler
and collected inTalesof SpaceandTimein I899. It isactuallythecompanion story,
ina sense,to thebetter-knownA Storyof theDays toCome', which followsit
in the I899 volume.But inmany ways all of the tales in the shortseriescarry
of perspective:'TheCrystalEgg' containswithin it
with thema defamiliarizing
scenes froma Martian landscape; 'The Star' concludes with the 'Martian
astronomers'watching thenear miss of a comet to theearth and speculating,
'fromtheirown standpointof course', on the littlevisibledamage itcaused to
A Storyof theStoneAge' and A Storyof theDays
theearth (p.729).The titles
toCome' are clearlylinkedto thepopularityof 'stories'thatprovide scientific
as inNewnes's LibraryofUseful Storiesseries,andKipling's 'Story
information,
of Ung'. They indicatea packaging of science in consumable,narrativeform.
The tale appears veryunlikeWells: a man of the future,of prophesy,
writing
man? But it tellsus a lotaboutWells's view of evolutionand
about prehistoric
thedevelopmentof social culture.Again, itsaysmore about the lateVictorian
period than itdoes about 50,000 BC, not leastbecause, like theTimeMachine's
Wells has tomake a huge leap of the imagina
imaginedterritory
of thefuture,
tion to take the (Victorian)readerback to Stone Age man. The storyis about
Wells mightbe seen
change,and itindicateshowwe might argue thatchange for
In
the
case of theevolvingof
of psychologyand technology.
as an intertwining
cultural
man,Wells suggeststhata combinationof chance,genius/imagination,
adaptation,and biological prowessdetermines the futureof thehuman race.
whereUya
The storytellsof a conflict(overa woman) within a prehistorictribe,
theCunning, the triballeader,wishes topossessEudena, a younggirl.She flees
under theprotectionof her lover,
Ugh-lomi,who fights
Uya with theprecious
firestone,thusbreaking a tribal taboo. The young couple are chased by the
group,which is intenton killing(and eating) them.Their escape is followedby
Ugh-lomi's gradual discoveryof technologiesbeyond thoseof the tribe:first,
how tomake an axe, and thenhorse riding.He slaysUya, rescuesa captured
68
man
Eudena, and defeatsmost of the tribeina frenziedbattle.He becomes the lord

of the rest:
He called manfully toher to follow him and turned back, striding,with the club swinging
in his hand, towards the squatting-place, as ifhe had never leftthe tribe; and she ceased
her weeping and followed quickly as a woman should [... .]Thereafter, formany moons
Ugh-lomi was master and had his will in peace. And in the fullnessof time he was killed
and eaten even as Uya had been slain. (pp. 794-95)
There are twocentralhuman developmentsin the story:Ugh-lomi's discovery

of theaxe-weapon,and theforetelling
ofman's dominionoveranimals. Initially,
was
thesettingisa harmoniousworld -man and animal livetogether 'there
and no enmitybetween them' (p.731).Man has arrived; 'Man
no fear,no rivalry,
was indeed a newcomer to thispart of theworld in thatancient time,coming
slowlyalong therivers,generationaftergeneration,fromone squatting-placeto
another,fromthesouth-westward'(p. 748).
Ugh-lomi is described as somehowmore thoughtfulthan theother tribal
members. He is shown 'thinking',and then 'novel thingsbegan to happen'
(p. 757).He defeatsa bear, the terrorof thebeginningof thestory;theanimals
talkin thenarrative,complacentabout thenew arrivalsand viewingthehumans
as aberrations:'I suppose it'sa sortofmonkey gonewrong', 'It'sa change', 'The
advantagehe had was merely accidental' (p.758).ButUgh-lomi has also a sense
of his own power,and a constantdesire forrevengeand domination;he kills the
male bear, as he does Uya, thistimeby rollinga boulder fromthe clifftop on
to thebear below.Later,he capturesa horse,again partlyby accidentand partly
and much out of curiosity.
Once more, thehorses thinkhim a
by design
harmless 'pinkmonkey' (p. 763). 'In thedays beforeUgh-lomi therewas little
troublebetween thehorsesandmen. And in thosedaysman seemed a harmless
thingenough. No whisper of prophetic intelligencetold the species of the
terribleslaverythatwas to come' (pP. 76i-62). As Ugh-lomimounts thehorse,
by jumping froma tree,itbolts awaywith theprimitiveman clutchingto its
back.His ride is liketheswitch-backof theTimeMachine,and he is takenby the
experience: 'theexultationgrew.Itwas man's firsttasteof pace' (p. 767).
At theend of thestory,
Ugh-lomi has become a man on thevergeof his own
modernity.He has surpassed his colleagues, and his symbolic functionis to
demonstratethechange thatcomes over thefirstexertionofman's power over
his environmentand those other creatureswithin it.This is a sociological
change,and not a biological evolution.Ugh-lomi has controlof bears and lions
(tribaldemon figures)and of horses (helpers),and he even exchangeshis devel
oped axe fora new club, setwith the teethof the lion/Uyahe has killed (having
And yethe has also been damaged
foundthebenefitof technologicalinvention).
by his achievements.
His
killing of the lion was done
to save a woman,
and he
Like Lewisham inLoveandMr Lewisham(I899), he

remainslame afterthe fight.
RICHARD
PEARSON
69
isan advancedman, but has been reducedby his desire forfemalecompanion

ship.AndWells's lastline thatUgh-lomi iseventuallykilledand eaten likehis
predecessor createsan evolutionarypatternof slowdevelopment,but also a
The storyis an elegy toman's ancestry.But it is also about
sense of futility.
instinct,the evolutionof man, and the belief that such evolution is at best
ambivalent;change does not always implyprogress,although itdoes implythe
acquisitionof power.
In theyear before 'AStory of theStone Age' Wells wrote an articleentitled
'HumanEvolution' fortheFortnightly
Review(October i896).21This was devised
as a response toKidd's SocialEvolution,
and aimed to suggestthatthenotion of
'improvement'
was not a resultof 'naturalselection',but of 'a process new in
thisworld's history',an 'evolutionof suggestionsand ideas' linked to the
developingsocial body (p. 21I).Wells wrote:
there are satisfactorygrounds forbelieving thatman (allowing for racial blendings) is still
mentally, morally, and physically,what he was during the later Palaeolithic period, that
we are, and that the race is likely to remain, for (humanly speaking) a vast period of time,
at the level of the Stone Age. (p. 2II)
This view of human evolutionas essentiallystaticraisesquestions about our

common view ofWells's fiction.
Wells clearlyhad a more sophisticatedview of
theecologyof evolutionarychange than is indicatedby themore symbolicusage
of the idea in The TimeMachine and his otherworks of the I89os. Bringing
togetherinformationabout rabbitswith thaton man, Wells points out how
crucial to our understandingof natural selection as the drivingmechanism
behind evolution is the subjectof birthrateand violentdeath.Man, he points
out, passes throughfivegenerationseach century,as humans are not prepared
forbreedinguntil theyarewell intotheirteensor beyond.Rabbits, on theother
hand, are capable of breedingwithin sixmonths of birth: thus in a single
centuryrabbitscan have passed throughtwohundredgenerations..The rabbit's
large littercould also produce adaptations suited to survivingitsvulnerable
whilst theweak end of the litterdies earlyand does not breed.
existence,
Taking all these points together,and assuming four generations of men to the century
and ten thousand years as theperiod of time thathas elapsed
a generous allowance
sinceman entered upon the age of polished stone, itcan scarcely be an exaggeration to
say that he has had time only to undergo as much specificmodification as the rabbit
could get through in a century. (p. 2I3)
21
Reprinted inH. G. Weih: Early Writings inScience and ScienceFiction, ed., with critical commentary and notes,
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975), from which
by Robert M. Philmus and David Y Hughes
subsequent page references are taken.
70
man
H. G.WellsandTransitional
man is staticin termsof evolution.

Comparing microscopic bacteriawith this,
but
Cultural effectsarewhat have changedman: speech and writing,certainly,
- centrally whatWells called the 'artificial
man'. Wells remarks:
That in civilized man we have (i) an inherited factor,the natural man, who is theproduct
of natural selection, the culminating ape, and a type of animal more obstinately
unchangeable than any other living creature; and (2) an acquired factor, the artificial
man, the highly plastic creature of tradition, suggestion, and reasoned thought. (p. 2I7)
and through
Civilization and theartificialhave, for
Wells, developed together,
thisrelationshiphe recognizes the concept of taboo, and that 'whatwe call
Morality becomes thepadding of suggestedemotionalhabitsnecessary tokeep
theroundPalaeolithic savage in thesquare hole of thecivilizedstate' (p. 2I7).22
This isa significant
debate in the I89os, and was present invarious cultural
discourses,includingrace and issuesofmasculinity.ForWells thereisa residual
savage state in the individual(and in society)thatisonlyheld incheckbymoral
conscience.And yetWells is not confident,in thefin de siecletimes,that such
moralitywill remain stable (we see this inGriffin,
Moreau, and theviolence
in
released Butcher),and thus 'Education',he says is the 'carefuland systematic
manufactureof theartificialfactorinman' (p. 217).This iswhyWells isnot a
eugenicist:an ideal social organization,a utopia can be hoped for thatwill
preventany such socialre-creationsof thewastage of aggressivenatural selec
tion.As RoslynnHaynes states,showing the differencebetweenHuxley and
Wells:
whereas Huxley's emphasis on ethics led him at times tomistrust even the intellectwhen
itwas divorced from a moral education, Wells came increasingly to place his hope for
the futureof mankind in intelligence and will as themeans of overcoming the chance
and cruelty of the evolutionary process.23
In thepress of themid-I8gosWells was part of a debate about just exactly

what was happening to thehuman species. In thecontextof thegrowingsense
The relationship
ofmodernity,thisisparticularlyinteresting.
betweenWells and
Grant Allen shows some differencesin opinion and literarytechnique that
indicatethegradationsand shadesof belief around thesubjectof theprimitive.
Allen certainlyheld a stronginclinationtowardsthebelief thatevolutionmeant
progressand thatWestern man was thehighestcurrentachievement. In the
same editionof theFortnightly
ReviewinwhichWells wrote 'Moralsand Civiliza
his
article
to
'Human Evolution', appeared Allen's reviewof
tion',
follow-up
22 Peter
Kemp, whose book title is taken from this essay, comments ?thatWells was 'obsessively concerned
with the possibility thatman may also turn out to be a terminating ape
destroying his own species, unless
he can adapt his animal nature to rapidly changing circumstances': H. G Wells and theCulminatingApe: Biological
Themes and ImaginativeObsessions (London: Macmillan,
1982; rev. edn. 1996), p. 5. However, in his early work on
man will always be with him; itwill not
prehistoric man, Wells indicates that the instinctive primitivism of
'adapt'. The Morlocks are the 'civilization' of the future, not the cattle-like Eloi.
23
Haynes, p. 27.
RICHARD
PEARSON
7I
Edward Clodd's Pioneers

of Evolution;
entitled 'Spencerand Darwin', thisreview
(which immediatelypreceededWells's article) claimed forDarwin only the
discoveryof natural selection,and forSpencer the ideasof 'OrganicEvolution,
and of Evolution inGeneral, includingCosmic Evolution,planetaryEvolution,
Geological Evolution, Organic Evolution,Human Evolution, Psychological
Evolution,Sociological Evolution,and LinguisticEvolution,beforeDarwin had
Wells saw thatthearchaeologyof primi
publishedone word on thesubject'.24
man allowed a window on toa formof humanitythatchallenged thestifling
tive
order of Victorian society.
He conceived of theconnectionsbetween thepre
historicand thecontemporaryas innateand immediate:'the inherentpossibil
itiesof themodern human childat birthcould differinnomaterial respectfrom
thoseof theancestralchild at theend of the age of Unpolished Stone'.25 In
what becomes almost an essay on sexual frustration
with monogamy,Wells
describesmorality as 'thepadding of suggestedemotionsand habits,bywhich
the roundPalaeolithicman is fittedinto the square hole of thecivilized state'
(p. 22I). For him, as forClodd, the 'Primitive'
man has nevergone away.
Wells draws upon his knowledge of current anthropological research into
contemporaryprimitivetribesin order to defend his view thatman is not so
much evolvingas biologicallystatic,and changesmore particularlyunder the
pressuresof civilizedformsof society.
He raisesthe issueof sexualmorality,and
showshow the idea ofmonogamy ispresentonly topreventthesocialdisorder
thatwould followa general polygamy,and thatritualistictaboos help to keep
suchmoral systemsin place. During the I89os theconcept of taboo became
widely discussed,not just because societyitselffaceda challenge to traditional
Victorian sexualand socialmores, butbecause of thecontextofwork on anthro
pology and primitivebelief systems.
were thepopular
AlongsideWells's fiction
novelsof anotherevolutionist,
Grant Allen,whose novel TheGreatTaboo (I890)
was based entirelyuponJamesFrazer'sGoldenBough(I890), as hisPrefacemakes
clear. It describes thearduous experienceof a youngwhite couple, Felix and
Muriel, washed up froma shipon theshoresof a South Pacific islandinhabited
by cannibals.The relationshipbetweenWells's work and Allen's has been little
discussed,and yet the twomen were well known to each other and even took
cyclingholidays togethertowardstheend of the I89os.Allen's novel TheBritish
Barbarians(I895)bears a strongsimilaritytoTheTimeMachineina kindof reverse.
An 'Alien'fromthefuturetwenty-fifth
centurylands ina smallsuburbof London
and unpicksEngland'smoral follies
itstaboos before fallingin lovewith
a marriedwoman. The novel isa comedyattackingsocial customsof the I89os,
24 Grant
Allen,
25 'Morals and
'Darwin and Spencer', Fortnightly

Review, 51 (February 1897), p. 261.
repr. inH G. Wells: Early Writings, p. 220.
Civilization',
72
man
even as farasmarriage
the 'sex taboo': 'marriagearises fromthe stoneage
practice of fellinga woman of another tribewith a blow of one's club, and
dragging
her off by the hair of her head
to one's own cave as a slave and a
drudge'.26The storybears not only resemblancesto theTimeMachine,but also

to TheWonderful
Visit,and it is The BritishBarbariansthatWells refersto in his
essayon 'Moralsand Civilization', and reviewedforthemagazines.
The narrativeof The GreatTabooplays upon the ritualisticstructureof the
primitivereligion,inwhich a chiefGod, Tu-Kila-Kila, renewsthepowersof his
on an annual basis outsidersidentified
asminor deities.Felix
tribeby sacrificing
andMuriel aremade Gods and placed under a taboo: no one can touch them
and all must worship them.At the end of theirallotted time theywill be
sacrificedunless theycan learn thesecretof the taboo andwhat might counter
it.Felixhas tostealTu-Kila-Kila's 'soul' (located ina branch of a treehe guards,
like theGolden Bough) and to kill thegod inhand-to-hand combat.This he
does.
There
The detailsof the island lifeGrant Allen handles quite aesthetically.
are parallels to be drawn between his descriptionsof Polynesian life and
Gauguin's primitivist
paintingsbeing produced at thesame time.
The sightwas, indeed, a curious and picturesque one. The girls, large-limbed, soft
skinned, and with delicately-rounded figures, sat on the ground, laughing and talking,
with theirknees crossed under them; theirwrists were encinctured with girdles of dark
red dracoena leaves, their swelling bosoms half-concealed, half accentuated by hanging
necklets
of flowers.27
But thecannibalismand lackof religionof the islandersis thesticking

point for
Muriel, and Grant Allen certainlyemphasizes the heroism of the civilized
combatantsand theirdesire toreformtheheathen.Muriel saysat thebeginning,
with trepidation:'Youdon'tmean to say thatislandslikethese,standingrightin
thevery trackof European steamers,are stillheathen and cannibal?' (p. 5).
At theend of thenovelAllenmakes rightthedefeatof Tu-Kila-Kila byFelix,
the 'civilizedman', as an inevitableand justifiedact of the civilizedover the
savage.Whilst Tu-Kila-Kila fights,foamingat themouth 'withimpotentrage',
and rusheson Felix violently,Felix fights'with the calm skillof a practiced
fencer',having learned 'thegentle art of thrustand parry' in 'thatcivilized
school'.When Tu-Kila-Kila pauses forbreath, Felix brains him. Unlike the
cannibals,however,he feelsremorseand values life: 'Felixgazed at theblood
It isan awful thing,even in a justquarrel, to feel
bespatteredface remorsefully.
thatyou have reallytakena human life!'(pp. 251-52).Being now thenew God
himselfFelix abolishes cannibalismas thenativesprepare to eat Tu-Kila-Kila,
26 Grant
Allen, The British Barbarians: A Hilltop Novel (London: John Lane, 1895), p. 172.
27 Grant
Allen, The Great Taboo (London: Chatto & Windus,
1890), p. 80; further references are to this edition.
RICHARD PEARSON
73
and announceshis intentionto returnhome and bring themChristianity:'Iwill

sendoutmessengers,verygoodmen, who will tellyou of a God more powerful
They will teachyou great
bymuch thananyyou everknew,and veryrighteous.
thingsyou have never dreamed of' (p. 263). But thenativesare not convinced
and do notwant theirgods to leave.Just in time,theBritish arrive,heavily
armed, and take theEuropeans back. In an attemptto add a touchof ironyat
theend of thebook,Allen thentakesFelix andMuriel toLondon andMuriel's
aunt,who is shocked to find that theyhave spentweeks alone togetheron a
desert island.Even thoughtheyintendtomarry,London taboosare stillinplace.
because itshowsjusthow pervasivewere the ideas
Allen's novel is significant
at thetime,but also howAllen's simplistic
notionsof progress
about primitivism
and moral order tarnishhis thinking
with an arrogantcomplacency.The Great
Western civi
Tabooisa popular renderingof thenaturalmoral order supporting
him:
lization.As Allen notes, for
Civilization is an attribute of communities; we necessarily leave itbehind when we find
ourselves isolated among barbarians or savages. But culture is a purely personal and
individual possession; we carry itwith us wherever we go; and no circumstances of life
can ever deprive us of it. (p. 67)
The replacingof theBoupari godswithChristianityshows thedamage done to

local cultureswhen invadedby the foreignoutsider.As Allen suggests,'It is an
awful thingforany race or nationwhen its taboos failall at once and die out
entirely[.. .] Anarchy and chaosmight rule' (p. 278).
Wells'swork of the I89os isaboutman on thecuspofmodernity.
His workdraws
upon the scientificschoolsof Darwinian thought,and upon thecurrentdevel
opments in sociology,anthropology,and even archaeology.Through thesehe
imaginativelyinvestigatesthewider implicationsforthemind ofmodern man.
he entersa symbolicrealm,
When theTime Travellerventuresinto the future,
much like
Moreau's island,or theatoll of theAepyornis,or, indeed, theprimi
tivelandscape of prehistoricBritain.The Time Travellerdoes notmove from
his physical location: thegarden and thepassagewaysof thefutureare present
in his house of the I89os, in the linkbetween the laboratoryand thedining
room.The laboratoryspace containsboth the innerand outerworlds of the
future,both the darkworld inside the Sphinx and the falseparadise of the
garden; pulling themachine across fromone to the other in the futureonly
moves itacross thelaboratoryin thepresent.The Time Travellerhimselfisboth
theEloi and theMorlocks.Man does not evolve so quickly thathe can leave
those instinctivefacetsbehind. The primitive,as Conrad also suggestsin his
Wells reviewedConrad's An Outcastof theIslands
earlywork, is insidethecivilized.
and knew Almayer's
Folly,both of which were contemporarywith The Time
Machine,and both of which deal with the latentviolence inside theveneer of
74
man
respectability,
and theOriental cultural threatto theartificial
European moral
order.28
By splitting
primitivismand civilizationbetween theMorlocks and the
Eloi,Wells plays a gamewith thereader.The Time Travellerassociateshimself
with theEloi, he calls them 'human'or near human and feelssympathyforthem.
He even strikesup his friendship
with theandrogynous
Weena, and sees her as
thehope of humanity
symbolized in her white flowers.But it iswith the
Morlocks thattheTime Traveller reallyhas themost association.His repulsion
at them,his retreattoWeena are only a denial ofwhat the text
makes clear: the
Time Travellercontains theprimitive,just liketheMorlock. He is the labourer,
lovingmachines, theeater ofmeat, and theviolentdestroyerofwhat threatens
him.As he stumblesback into thedining room forhis dinner,he replicatesthe
movementsof theblind and stumbling
Morlocks fleeingfromthefirehe set.His
lamenessadds to theshamblingappearance, hishair is 'greyer',
his face 'ghastly
Wells'smodernman isactually
pale', liketheirs,and he is 'dazzledby thelight'.29
little
more thana confusedprimitive,and it is thissenseofmodernityas being
me as central and distinctaboutWells's I89os
beyond humanity that strikes
work.His charactersdo not strideconfidently,
likeUgh-lomi, into thefuture;if
theydo, likehim theyvanish and die.
Wells is the recognitionof theprimitivefundamentalnature
Modernity for
of man, and the feebleartificialcharacterof his civilization.
Man's folly,like
Almayer's, is tobelieve thathis civilizationwill save him.Wells's modern man
must understandhis primitivism,
or perish.
28 For the
relationship between Wells and Conrad see John Batchelor, 'Conrad and Wells at the End of the
Century', Critical Review, 38 (1998), 69-82. Wells and Conrad corresponded during this period, after Conrad
discovered thatWells wrote the review of his work in 1896. In December
1902 Conrad, Gissing, and Clodd
also corresponded, as Gissing drew Clodd's
attention to this 'greatwriter' following the publication of Youth
and Two Other Stories (which included Heart ofDarkness); see Clodd, Memories, p. 186.
29 H. G.
Wells, The TimeMachine, ed. by Patrick Parrinder (1898; London: Penguin, 2005), pp. 13-14.

H G Wells Primitive Modernity

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Primitive Modernity: H. G.

Wells and the Prehistoric Man of the 1890s

withWells's anthropologicaland socio

Wells's 'sociological' fictionsare mostly rooted inmodern-day Victorian

theconcept of taboo isparticularlyimportant,reflectedinWells, forexample,

Wells here gives threeexamplesof earlyStoneAge man fromtheLower,Middle,

1927), pp. 677-78. All further quotations

ment ofman, human intellect,

When theprehistoricsingeremerges thousandsof years lateras a relicof the

of theStoneAge man isalso considered,particularlyhis abilitytodevelop new

This process is setagainsta sketchof the lifeand cultureof such earlypeoples

By I92IWells and Clodd had largelygone theirseparateways, andWells's work

'The Grisly Folk' was written

in I921, the idea

replacementof one formof protohumanwith anotherhas itscounterpartin the

1916), pp. 180-81 (original italics).

standing for all that

Hammond sees 'AepyornisIsland' as a reworking

Eudena, and defeatsmost of the tribeina frenziedbattle.He becomes the lord

There are twocentralhuman developmentsin the story:Ugh-lomi's discovery

killing of the lion was done

Like Lewisham inLoveandMr Lewisham(I899), he

isan advancedman, but has been reducedby his desire forfemalecompanion

This view of human evolutionas essentiallystaticraisesquestions about our

man is staticin termsof evolution.

In thepress of themid-I8gosWells was part of a debate about just exactly

Edward Clodd's Pioneers

'Darwin and Spencer', Fortnightly

her off by the hair of her head

to one's own cave as a slave and a

drudge'.26The storybears not only resemblancesto theTimeMachine,but also

But thecannibalismand lackof religionof the islandersis thesticking

and announceshis intentionto returnhome and bring themChristianity:'Iwill

The replacingof theBoupari godswithChristianityshows thedamage done to

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