H G Wells

The New Machiavelli H G Wells

The New Machiavelli is a H. G. Wells novel from 1911, that was initially serialised in The English Review in 1910. It was considered to be a literary scandal of its day because its plot was derived from Well's affair with Amber Reeves, and because it satirised Fabians Beatrice and Sidney Webb. The novel follows a Richard 'Dick' Remington who has a dream of reforming the English nation. Remington is a brilliant Cambridge student, writing many books on politics, marries a wealthy heiress, and enters parliament as a Liberal influenced by characters deemed to be caricatures of the Webbs. However his career is wrecked by a love affair he has with an Oxford graduate. Remington tries to abandon the affair, but instead ditches his wife, career, party, and country to live abroad in Italy.