Overview

First published in 1905, H. G. Wells's Kipps is an appraisal of society and class framed in a ""rags to riches"" style plot. The protagonist, Arthur Kipps, is an orphan who, from an early age, is entrusted to his Aunt and Uncle who own a shop in New Romney on the Kent coast in Southern England. Educated poorly at a cheap, middle-class seminary boarding school, he is later apprenticed for seven years to a draper in Folkstone. Before he leaves home, however, Arthur becomes enamored by Ann (his best friend's sister). As a token of their love, they cut a sixpence in half and keep one half each. After a difficult apprenticeship and a drunken night out, he's dismissed from his job. But his friend Chitterlow (an actor and playwright) points out an article in a newspaper whereby Kipps is shocked to learn that he is, in fact, the grandson of a wealthy gentleman and is heir to a fortune. His life is totally changed as he is thrown into British upper-class society. He struggles to master the manners and rules that accompany his change of social status. But as he soon discovers, becoming a 'true gentleman' is not necessarily a good thing and certainly not easily achieved. In Kipps, H. G. Wells achieves a work on a par with Dickens for observation of place, class, and society. It has been adapted often for stage, (the Musical Half a Sixpence is loosely based on it) film, and television.

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H. G. Wells was a professional writer and journalist, who published more than a hundred books, including novels, histories, essays and programmes for world regeneration. Wells's prophetic imagination was first displayed in pioneering works of science fiction, but later he became an apostle of socialism, science and progress. His controversial views on sexual equality and the shape of a truly developed nation remain directly relevant to our world today. He was, in Bertrand Russell's words, 'an important liberator of thought and action'. H.G. Wells was a professional writer and journalist who published more than a hundred books, including pioneering science fiction novels, histories, essays and programmes for world regeneration. He was a founding member of numerous movements including Liberty and PEN International - the world's oldest human rights organization - and his Rights of Man laid the groundwork for the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Wells' controversial and progressive views on equality and the shape of a truly developed nation remain directly relevant to our world today. Chris MacDonnell is an Earphones Award-winning narrator and a classically trained actor and voice artist whose theater credits include London's West End and the Royal National Theatre, British TV shows, BBC Radio drama, commercials, and films. He is also a published poet and has written comedy and drama for television shows.

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