Bottom of Wells

THE BULPINGTON OF BLUP--H. G. Wells--Macmillan ($2.50).

No matter how he troubles the waters, no matter how deeply lucid he may leave them, at the bottom of every book its author may be found. Herbert George Wells cannot hold his breath long enough to stay there: he comes bobbing up, threshes around, blows off steam at a great rate. So argumentative did his novels become that after a while they ceased to be novels, turned to Outlines of History, Sciences of Life, Salvagings of Civilization. Not since Meanwhile (1927) has he written a book that even he would call a novel. With The Bulpington of Blup, which he describes as the "adventures, poses, stresses, conflicts and disaster in a contemporary brain," Novelist Wells is back in his old wallow, dredging up all the old exhibits.

From his childhood up Theodore Bulpington had an imaginary alter ego which he called the Bulpington of Blup, a romantic dream-figure in which he increasingly took refuge from the drab reality of himself. Only child of a dilettante critic and an "advanced" mother, Theodore was born into an artistic, late-1890-ish world, soon took on the protective coloration of his environment. When he met Professor Broxted's children, Teddy and Margaret, he became aware of Science. From then on it was one long discussion, foaming with excitable Wellsian phrases and figures of speech. The children grew up, moved to London, argued in restaurants. Theodore was introduced to some real facts of life by one Rachel Bernstein, but he fell in love with Margaret, continued to argue with her. But the real influence in Theodore's life was the Bulpington of Blup, his romantic evil genius. When the Great War came Teddy Broxted angrily turned conscientious objector and went to jail. Margaret sympathized with him; but Theodore, after a long shillyshally, enlisted, muttering all the catchwords of the day. Loudmouthed, cowardly, Theodore ran away during an attack, was saved from a firing party only by a kindly doctor. With more & more to cover up, Theodore became an almost continuous liar, even to himself. He lost Margaret, went abroad for ten years, became a dilettante in the Paris literary world. At the last Author Wells shows his hero being dined by two sympathetic old ladies and lying more outrageously with every drink.

Author Wells does not like Theodore. He is at some pains to show that all his characters who dislike or despise Science are white trash or will come to a bad end. Like most enthusiastic exhibitions of bloodthirsty bayonet work on straw men. Author Wells's easy triumphs are a little embarrassing to watch. But his slapstick satire can draw a grin: "He was pleased and excited to find that he could weep with passion. He had never wept with passion before. Could she resist that? He implored in a great voice, a kind of mooing roar. 'Give yourself to me. Margaret. Give yourself now. Give yourself and save me from what I am. . . .' "

The Author has written so much that many people think he has written too much. Besides 19 novels, his works include 18 ''fantastic and imaginative romances," four books of short stories, 19 books on social, religious and political questions, two little books on children's play. Utopia attracted him almost from the start, and though its outlines have changed he has been pamphleteering for it all his life with unflagging vehemence. Onetime Fabian Socialist, present pacifist (he was an enthusiastic propagandist for England during the War), he is the best-known booster for a World State. His literary reputation (second-class writer) fails to worry him. For 20 years he lived in an old Georgian house in Essex; with his wife dead (1927), his two sons out in the world, he moved to a London apartment. He rented two villas (one as guest house, the other workshop) at Grasse on the Riviera, where he does most of his work. He has jotted down enough ideas in his notebooks to keep him busy, he says, for 150 years.

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