The History of Mr. Polly by H. G. Wells AUDIOBOOK

First published in 1910, "The History of Mr. Polly" marks a singular entry in H. G. Wells’s body of work, offering a comic yet quietly profound portrait of the English lower middle class at the turn of the twentieth century. Renowned for his speculative fiction and visionary narratives, Wells here draws on a subtler palette, focusing on the reluctant shopkeeper Alfred Polly, whose everyday discontent and sardonic humor mask a deeper existential unrest.

The novel's early chapters follow Mr. Polly as he rails against his life: the stifling routine of his small outfitters’ shop in the town of Foxbourne, the petty quarrels and lackluster meals of domesticity, and the chronic sense that all things are “beastly.” With Wells’s characteristic irony and sharp-eyed observation, Mr. Polly’s tribulations—an ill-fitting hat, a disagreeable lunch, the oppressive east wind—become emblematic of a quiet yet piercing malaise. Drawing from personal experience and an unerring sense for the rhythms of lower-middle-class existence, Wells chronicles the poignant absurdities of the “little man,” trapped not by villainy, but by circumstance, habit, and a persistent failure to thrive.

Beneath the comic veneer, the narrative explores themes of frustration, thwarted aspiration, and the search for dignity amid a world of diminishing prospects. Wells’s prose lends both pathos and humor to Mr. Polly’s plight, rendering his interior civil wars as vivid as his external struggles. The result is an absorbing, atmospheric account—by turns rueful, witty, and unexpectedly tender—of a man seeking to escape the confines of ordinary expectation. 

"The History of Mr. Polly" offers listeners a finely balanced blend of satire and sympathy, rich in period detail and enlivened by the author’s nuanced command of voice and mood. It is a classic meditation on disaffection and the possibilities of renewal in unexpected guises.

Audiobook time & format : 7h23m15s, OPUS, 345 Mo
Audiobook free extract time & format : 5m (see below to listen), WAV
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