The Wheels of Chance: A Bicycling Idyll
By H.G. Wells, Breakaway Books, 1997 (orig. 1896), 283 pages, $12.95
H.G. Wells is best known as the granddaddy of science fiction. But besides War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, and The Invisible Man, Wells also wrote this extremely witty, fun, and surprising romantic novel about leisure cycling in the days before cars. This new edition reproduces the exact layout and all the illustrations of the original 1896 printing.
In The Wheels of Chance, a draper's assistant named Hoopdriver takes a two-week holiday for a bicycle tour of the English coast. He doesn't get far before he spots a Lady in Grey, an intriguing figure in distress at the hands of a Cad.
Jessie, the Lady, is on the run from her stepmother, a much-discussed authoress devoted to Proper Appearances, but the distinguished critic with whom Jessie has escaped has his own greedy designs on her. The self-conscious but bold and imaginative Hoopdriver must rescue Jessie, while Jessie struggles to Live Her Own Life in the repressive patriarchy of Victorian England.
Wells' writing is sharp, funny and flowing. It might be best enjoyed by reading aloud in a hoity accent, such as: "I must scorch ‘til I overtake them!" or "What the juice is that?"
It's great fun to see bicycles repeatedly described as "machines," as in: "They resumed their machines and carried on." To read this book is to discover just how magical and liberating two-wheelers must have been, back in those days: the fastest things on the road, even if they were a pain to drive uphill, and, in fact, Wells spends a good page describing the many bumps and bruises on Hoopdriver's body as evidence of his taking up cycling.
The Wheels of Chance would fall flat if the bikes were replaced by horses, motorcycles, or cars. There's something exciting about self-propelled independence in an age where a travelling couple had always to disguise their relationship - however innocent - as marriage or siblinghood. Nor does Wells neglect to remind readers of the danger of a horse-cart overturning or the nuisance of rigid train schedules - both of which help our cycling heroes escape their various pursuers.
Bring this book along on your next cycling trip and feel a century's gap slip away. The drawings are quaint but the cycles in them look surprisingly familiar, and the surreal counterpoint of stovepipe hats and our trusty modern friend, the bike, is one of the book's most enjoyable features.
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