Short Fiction · Chapters

Chapters explained

Chapter companions for Short Fiction by H. G. Wells.

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Chapter 1
In the Modern Vein
Aubrey Vair, a minor poet and literary critic, becomes infatuated with Miss Smith, a mysterious and intelligent young woman, while trapped in a stifling marriage. Their intellectual and romantic affair culminates in a dramatic confession and a failed elopement proposal, ending with Miss Smith's departure and Vair's return to domestic banality.
Chapter 2
The Triumphs of a Taxidermist
A taxidermist, in a drunken confidence, boasts to the narrator about his fraudulent and creative exploits in taxidermy, including forging extinct birds like the great auk and moa, creating a nonsensical bird called the Anomalopteryx Jejuna, and even stuffing a human being for use as a hat-rack. He defends taxidermy as a superior alternative to burial or cremation and reveals the dark arts of the collector trade.
Chapter 3
The Stolen Bacillus
A bacteriologist shows a visitor a deadly cholera culture, which the visitor—an anarchist—steals with the intent to poison London's water supply. After swallowing the culture during a chase, the anarchist believes he has unleashed a plague, but the bacteriologist reveals it was actually a harmless blue dye meant for monkeys.
Chapter 4
The Hammerpond Park Burglary
Mr. Teddy Watkins, a burglar posing as a landscape artist named Smith, plans to steal Lady Aveling's diamonds during her honeymoon at Hammerpond Park. He sets up an easel as a cover, but his scheme goes awry when he and his assistant are mistaken for burglars by Lord Aveling and the police. In a twist, Watkins is hailed as a hero for supposedly foiling the burglary, and he ends up inside the house, where he later escapes with the jewels.
Chapter 5
The Jilting of Jane
The narrator recounts the story of their maid Jane's three-year engagement to William, a draper's porter who rises in social status and eventually jilts her for a milliner who can play the piano. Jane's determined but ultimately futile efforts to hold onto him culminate in a dramatic confrontation at his wedding, where she throws a boot at the couple.

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In the Modern Vein

The Triumphs of a Taxidermist

The Stolen Bacillus

The Hammerpond Park Burglary

The Jilting of Jane