Mr. Britling Sees It Through

H. G. Wells, 1916

The First World War

A writer's comfortable Essex household becomes a vantage point on the disruption and uncertainty of war.

Read the book Contents

Listen free: the LibriVox audiobook, read by Peter Eastman.

Length: 11 chapters
Reading time: About 9 hr 50 min
Words: 140,406

Book 1: Matching’s Easy at Ease
Chapter 1: Mr. Direck Visits Mr. Britling42 min
Chapter 2: Mr. Britling Continues His Exposition52 min
Chapter 3: The Entertainment of Mr. Direck Reaches a Climax32 min
Chapter 4: Mr. Britling in Soliloquy37 min
Chapter 5: The Coming of the Day1 hr 24 min
Book 2: Matching’s Easy at War
Chapter 1: Onlookers55 min
Chapter 2: Taking Part58 min
Chapter 3: Malignity43 min
Chapter 4: In the Web of the Ineffective1 hr 47 min
Book 3: The Testament of Matching’s Easy
Chapter 1: Mrs. Teddy Goes for a Walk46 min
Chapter 2: Mr. Britling Writes Until Sunrise35 min

About the book

An American visitor arrives in England eager to understand the country and finds Mr Britling's household an engaging puzzle. Conversation, recreation and personal entanglements fill the opening days. The apparent security of this country life gives the prospect of war a disturbing contrast.

Wells follows civilian attempts to interpret events too large for any one person to control. The novel's interest includes the habits of national self-description: what people assume about their country, how they explain it to outsiders, and what happens when those explanations are tested.

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The First World War

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.