'The First Men in the Moon' by H.G. Wells - A Review

H.G. Wells was introduced to me by more than one article and book as one of the earliest and finest science fiction writers. I have read only excerpts of his popular 'The Time Machine', and they did not disappoint. Naturally, when I chanced upon 'The First Men on the Moon' in the library, I started reading it immediately.

For the first three-fourths of the book, I was utterly disappointed and even a bit bored. I felt like the narration was just off. And I absolutely hated the narrator. As a character, he seemed selfish, annoying, impulsive, insufferable, and a moron in every sense of the word. I was boiling with rage at Bedford during the scene when he loses control and punches through a Selenite's head, and then proceeds to massacre many more to escape, just because they were asked to walk off a gangplank to travel to a lower part of  the moon. He did not attempt any form of verbal or nonverbal communication and clarification with the Selenites! I was even considering discontinuing the book about a third of the way through, but I had hope in Wells' purported mastery, and kept reading.

Only nearing the end did I realize the brilliance of Wells' writing.

My annoyance with Mr Bedford, the narrator, was entirely justified, since he was unlikeable by design. He was meant to be unscientific, impulsive, and complaining. Wells was merely exploring the difference between the curious and quite rational persona of the scientist Cavor and the more arrogant, rough persona of the imperialist Bedford. We see that Cavor succeeded in establishing a good relationship with the Selenites, living with them successfully for two years (and possibly longer, though the narrator assumes he is killed at the end when Cavor's message is cut short abruptly) and learning a great deal about a new world and an alien civilization far more advanced  than ours. Bedford, on the other hand, regarded the moon and its inhabitants with an obvious disdain, only as a source of wealth to exploit. He even mentions once that humans had to colonize the moon, and if there was intelligent life there, subjugate and 'civilize' it, referring to the infamous 'white man's burden', not once considering the possibility that the Selenites might be on equal or greater levels of intelligence than humans. His discovery of the abundance of gold on the moon did not help change his attitude towards the moon.

The structure of the moon's society was very well constructed by Wells. I found Cavor's messages the most interesting, and relate to him the most. Wells set Bedford as the narrator to first make the reader see for themselves the almost off-putting imperialist attitude. Therefore, Wells beautifully demonstrates the difference between Bedford's and Cavor's personalities, which I daresay are quite representative of two broad classes of personalities out there. That was simply genius. I will most definitely be reading more novels by H.G. Wells.