Select Conversations with an Uncle (Now Extinct) and Two Other Reminiscences

Select Conversations with an Uncle, was H.G. Wells's first literary publication in book form. It consists of reports of twelve conversations between a fictional witty uncle who has returned to London from South Africa with "a certain affluence," as well as two other conversations (one on aestheticism that takes place in a train, titled "A Misunderstood Artist," and another on physiognomy, titled "The Man with a Nose")


By : H. G. Wells (1866 - 1946)

00 - Prefatory



01 - Of Conversation And The Anatomy Of Fashion



02 - The Theory Of The Perpetual Discomfort Of Humanity



03 - The Use Of Ideals



04 - The Art Of Being Photographed



05 - Bagshot's Mural Decorations



06 - On Social Music



07 - The Joys Of Being Engaged



08 - La Belle Dame Sans Merci - A Rhapsody



09 - On A Tricycle



10 - An Unsuspected Masterpiece (authoress Unknown)



11 - The Great Change



12 - The Pains Of Marriage



13 - A Misunderstood Artist



14 - The Man With A Nose


He was, I remember, short, but by no means conspicuously short, and of a bright, almost juvenile, complexion, very active in his movements and garrulous—or at least very talkative. His judgments were copious and frequent in the old days, and some at least I found entertaining. At times his fluency was really remarkable. He had a low opinion of eminent people—a thing I have been careful to suppress, and his dissertations had ever an irresponsible gaiety of manner that may have blinded me to their true want of merit. That, I say, was in the old days, before his abrupt extinction, before the cares of this world suddenly sprang upon, and choked him. I would listen to him, cheerfully, and afterwards I would go away and make articles out of him for the Pall Mall Gazette, so adding a certain material advantage to my mental and moral benefit. But all that has gone now, to my infinite regret; and sorrowing, I have arranged this unworthy little tribute to his memory, this poor dozen of casual monologues that were so preserved. The merits of the monument are his entirely; its faults entirely my own.

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