Revenge of the wage-slave

Guardian review of HG Wells' Kipps, being reissued soon as a Penguin Classic... What, didn't you know HG Wells lived in Sandgate for a while?

Orphaned at an early age, raised by his aunt and uncle, and apprenticed for seven years to a draper, Artie Kipps is stunned to discover upon reading a newspaper advertisement that he is the grandson of a wealthy gentleman and the inheritor of his fortune. Thrown dramatically into the upper classes, he struggles desperately to learn the etiquette and rules of polite society. But as he soon discovers, becoming a true gentleman is neither as easy nor as desirable as it at first appears.

2005 :: Comment / reply