The World Set Free by H. G. Wells (best romance ebooks .txt) ๐
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After learning of atomic physics, H. G. Wells began to think of its potential impact on human society. In The World Set Free, atomic energy causes massive unemployment, shaking the already fragile social order. The ambitious powers of the world decide to seize the opportunity to compete for dominance, and a world war breaks out, echoing the looming Great War about to ignite in 1914. Waking to the catastrophe, humanity begins the hard search for a way into a better future. The novel traces a soldier, an ex-king, a despot, and a sage through a profound transformation of human society, and we gain a window into Wellsโ own thoughts and hopes along the way.
With one prophetic stroke, Wells gives the first detailed depiction of atomic energy and its potential destructive power, and predicts the use of the air power in modern warfare. He may have even directly influenced the development of nuclear weapons, as the physicist Leรณ Szilรกrd, shortly after reading the novel in 1932, then conceived of harnessing the neutron chain reaction critical to the development of the atom bomb.
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- Author: H. G. Wells
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โAnd you, old Sun, with your sword of flame, searing these poor eyes of Marcus for the last time of all, beware of me! You think I dieโ โand indeed I am only taking off one more coat to get at you. I have threatened you for ten thousand years, and soon I warn you I shall be coming. When I am altogether stripped and my disguises thrown away. Very soon now, old Sun, I shall launch myself at you, and I shall reach you and I shall put my foot on your spotted face and tug you about by your fiery locks. One step I shall take to the moon, and then I shall leap at you. Iโve talked to you before, old Sun, Iโve talked to you a million times, and now I am beginning to remember. Yesโ โlong ago, long ago, before I had stripped off a few thousand generations, dust now and forgotten, I was a hairy savage and I pointed my hand at you andโ โclearly I remember it!โ โI saw you in a net. Have you forgotten that, old Sun?โ โโ โฆ
โOld Sun, I gather myself together out of the pools of the individual that have held me dispersed so long. I gather my billion thoughts into science and my million wills into a common purpose. Well may you slink down behind the mountains from me, well may you cower.โ โโ โฆโ
ยง XKarenin desired that he might dream alone for a little while before he returned to the cell in which he was to sleep. He was given relief for a pain that began to trouble him and wrapped warmly about with furs, for a great coldness was creeping over all things, and so they left him, and he sat for a long time watching the afterglow give place to the darkness of night.
It seemed to those who had to watch over him unobtrusively, lest he should be in want of any attention, that he mused very deeply.
The white and purple peaks against the golden sky sank down into cold, blue remoteness, glowed out again and faded again, and the burning cressets of the Indian stars, that even the moonrise cannot altogether quench, began their vigil. The moon rose behind the towering screen of dark precipices to the east, and long before it emerged above these, its slanting beams had filled the deep gorges below with luminous mist and turned the towers and pinnacles of Lio Porgyul to a magic dreamcastle of radiance and wonder.โ โโ โฆ
Came a great uprush of ghostly light above the black rim of rocks, and then like a bubble that is blown and detaches itself, the moon floated off clear into the unfathomable dark sky.โ โโ โฆ
And then Karenin stood up. He walked a few paces along the terrace and remained for a time gazing up at that great silver disk, that silvery shield that must needs be manโs first conquest in outer space.โ โโ โฆ
Presently he turned about and stood with his hands folded behind him, looking at the northward stars.โ โโ โฆ
At length he went to his own cell. He lay down there and slept peacefully till the morning. And early in the morning they came to him and the anaesthetic was given him and the operation performed.
It was altogether successful, but Karenin was weak and he had to lie very still; and about seven days later a blood clot detached itself from the healing scar and travelled to his heart, and he died in an instant in the night.
ColophonThe World Set Free
was published in 1914 by
H. G. Wells.
This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Liu Yuxi,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2006 by
Charles Keller and David Widger
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at the
Internet Archive.
The cover page is adapted from
We Are Making a New World,
a painting completed in 1918 by
Paul Nash.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.
The first edition of this ebook was released on
March 14, 2021, 9:37 p.m.
You can check for updates to this ebook, view its revision history, or download it for different ereading systems at
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