Kipps

H. G. Wells, 1905

A draper's apprentice encounters sudden wealth and the difficult question of how a change in income should change a life.

Read the book Contents

Listen free: the LibriVox audiobook, read by Anthony Ogus (1945-2026). Press Listen in the reader to hear each chapter as you read.

Length: 18 chapters
Reading time: About 7 hr 40 min
Words: 109,445

About the book

Arthur Kipps grows up in his aunt and uncle's little shop at New Romney, with only fragments of memory to explain his earlier childhood. His surroundings teach him expectations about work and position before he has much opportunity to question them.

Wells makes social learning a source of comedy and discomfort. Manners, education and possessions become tests that cannot be mastered simply by having money, while the narrative stays attentive to the ordinary desires and confusions beneath other people's confident rules about improvement.

On these lists

Comic classics

This edition

Text from Standard Ebooks, who proofread and typeset it and dedicate their edition to the public domain. H. G. Wells died more than 70 years ago, so the work is out of copyright in the UK. Includes the original epigraph.