Check Out Mr. Britling Sees It Through (Penny Books)

Mr. Britling Sees It Through (Penny Books) Review

I'm a huge H.G Wells fan. On this one he steps outside the science fiction genre and gives us a compelling look into the mind of a man as he and his nation are pulled into war. It's actually very similar to the process I've seen the American psyche going through since 9-11, previously opposed to war, then whole-heartedly engaged, then questioning it.

I think this book would be a good choice for history buffs, since it does such an excellent job of showing us how things were during World War I and what the mood was like during that time.

Wells himself followed a similar course to his character. His leaned philosophically in the direction of pacifism, but when the First World War began he supported it at first, then after a while he gravitated back to his more pacifistic views.

This is an excellent book and I really enjoyed reading. Wells was a wonderful writer and very talented at telling a great story. I highly recommend this book.

Mr. Britling Sees It Through (Penny Books) Overview

It was the sixth day of Mr. Direck's first visit to England, and he was at his acutest perception of differences. He found England in every way gratifying and satisfactory, and more of a contrast with things American than he had ever dared to hope.

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Customer Reviews

Brilliant and sometimes hilarious! - Always with an open mind -
I got this book as a gift from my brother. I have always loved H.G. Wells' books, and though this one is not in the same genre that I'm used to, I really loved it. It's sad and brilliant and sometimes hilarious. The message is deep and timely. Even though it's about a different war, the sentiment is still the same. What war does to the psyches of individuals and nations does not change. It unites us for a time only to eventually leave us feeling dirty. H.G. Wells shows us this process works in this excellent book. I really enjoyed reading it, and I would recommend it to anyone.

The First Book of Wells' Decline - A Reader - Zembla
"Mr. Britling Sees It Through" was written while World War I was still raging. For the first 200 pages of this 450-page work, I was won over by some of the most muscular prose I had ever read. It was beautifully-written, lucid, poetic. After that 200-page mark, though, it sinks into vicious anti-German WWI-era propaganda. "Kill the Kaiser," "the Dirty Huns," etc.
History courses around the world study what we now know to be Allied lies about Germany to get America into the war. For instance, we NOW know that the Germans weren't "crucifying Belgians," nor bayonetting babies for practice, nor "making soap out of human corpses". So successful was this line of propaganda that many of its best gems were recycled for the second World War a generation later [and still survive as urban legends today, among the uneducated]. But the truth is: We now know exactly what British authors and operatives came up with the propaganda, what authorities authorized it and who aided in its dissemination.
Furthermore, we now know [what they didn't at the time] that H.G. Wells was hired to be on the staff of the very first official board of the British Ministry of Propaganda. He was a hireling of the government to spread what he knew were lies in order to persuade peace-loving men to murder in the name of their leaders' agendas.
For that Wells can never be forgiven.
If he was an artist before 1916 [and "Mr. Britling Sees It Through"], he was the worst sort of political hack and moral reprobate afterward--filling his novels with intentional lies and phony atrocities in order to stir murderous, irrational blood-lust to advance British Imperialist goals.

Not at all a bad book - -
The title says it all. "Mr. Britling Sees It Through" ... gosh, it's almost a parody of a H.G. Wells title. It's the story of how Mr. Britling makes it through World War One; although I should point out that he never once leaves England nor even, so far as I can remember, his study.

Look, I really liked this book, and I wish I could give it a higher rating; and Wells is a good enough writer to ensure that the book has some good things in it (Mr. Britling's "affair" with a theatrically emotional woman is hilarious); but in all fairness I must say that (a) Not all that much happens - I know Mr. Britling has a son at the front, but the resulting tension isn't enough to build a novel out of, and (b) There's something a touch self-indulgent about Mr. Britling's armchair angst, and so as a result (c) Wells sometimes misses the point of his own fable. But if anyone has any desire at all to read this book, I say, give in to it.

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 27, 2010 03:13:04

Source: http://numaybooks.blogspot.com/2010/08/check-out-mr-britling-sees-it-through.html