# Mr. H. G. Wells — The Everlasting Man character guide

> Mr. H. G. Wells in The Everlasting Man by G. K. Chesterton.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mr. Wells

**First appearance:** 0003-part-i-on-the-creature-called-man

## Snapshot

The popular historian whose tidy outline of human progress Chesterton keeps interrupting, insisting the real story is stranger than the sketch.

## Who they are

He is the contemporary foil, the confident narrator of history whose smooth evolutionary account Chesterton sets out to unsettle. Where Wells sees development and stages, Chesterton sees a flash of lightning and an enormous exception standing in the middle of things. Naming him keeps the argument live and personal: this is a quarrel with a living author, not an abstraction.

## In the story

### [Prefatory Note](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_everlasting_man_se/chapters/prefatory-note)

The author congratulates Mr. Wells on his courage and constructive imagination, and notes their differing views on history.

### [The Everlasting Man](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_everlasting_man_se/chapters/the-everlasting-man)

Mentioned as a representative of modern rationalist and materialist views that the narrator critiques.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_everlasting_man_se/characters/mr_h_g_wells
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_everlasting_man_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_everlasting_man_se/characters