The Man Who Could Work Miracles: The Supernatural Tales of H.G. Wells

Introduction by Brian Stableford
Front cover illustration by Mike Kerins

H.G. Wells (1866-1946) is popularly known as the author of classic science fiction novellas such as The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man and The Time Machine, but it is less well-known that his prodigious imagination also turned to the supernatural. As with his science fiction, Wells would conceive a remarkable idea and then follow through the rational repercussions of the proposal.

The stories collected here take the supernatural from the borders of science fiction in tales such as 'The Plattner Story' in which a fourth dimension is conceived as a realm of the dead, to the boundaries of outright horror in 'The Strange Orchid', through to the frontiers of fantasy in 'The Man Who Could Work Miracles'. In Wells' speculative work 'genres' mean very little, however, and 'The Story of the late Mr Elvesham' and 'The Door in the Wall' are such perfectly conceived and faultlessly executed tales that they deserve to stand alongside classic works in Wells' canon.

The short stories of H.G. Wells have been overshadowed by his longer science-fiction works, but contain just as many original and archetypal ideas. They are as satisfying to read now as when they were written a century ago, and have been acknowledged by Borges and Nabokov, among others. The Man Who Could Work Miracles is confirmation of the imaginative genius of H.G. Wells.

Contents:

• 'Introduction'
• 'The Devotee of Art'
• 'Walcote'
• 'The Flowering of the Strange Orchid'
• 'The Lord of the Dynamos'
• 'The Temptation of Harringay'
• 'The Moth'
• 'Pollock and the Porroh Man'
• 'Under the Knife'
• 'The Plattner Story'
• 'The Red Room'
• 'The Story of the Late Mr Elvesham'
• 'The Apple'
• 'The Crystal Egg'
• 'The Presence by the Fire'
• 'The Man Who Could Work Miracles'
• 'The Stolen Body'
• 'A Vision of Judgment'
• 'A Dream of Armageddon'
• 'The New Accelerator'
• 'The Inexperienced Ghost'
• 'Mr Skelmersdale in Fairyland'
• 'The Truth About Pyecraft'
• 'The Magic Shop'
• 'The Country of the Blind'
• 'The Door in the Wall'
• 'The Beautiful Suit'
• 'The Wild Asses of the Devil'
• 'The Story of the Last Trump'
• 'The Pearl of Love'
• 'The Queer Story of Brownlow's Newspaper'
• 'Answer to Prayer'

Limited to 300 copies