Books: Young Wells

SEVEN FAMOUS NOVELS—H. G. Wells— Knopf ($2.75).

Twenty-five years ago Herbert George Wells was a youngster of 42. His name stood for exuberant modernity, trailblazing science and a freely roving intelligence always starting up some new species of Utopian hare. But most of all it stood for exciting tales—plausible narrations of improbable happenings. Last week readers who had encountered Author Wells only as a compiler of outlines-of-knowledge or a pamphleteering old World Conspirator, had a good chance to make his acquaintance as a young man. And every faithful and once-faithful Wellsian was...