PREFACE TO VOLUME VII
"The Wheels of Chance" has been held back until this seventh volume, although it was written in 1895 and published as a book in 1896, because it belongs to a distinct group in the writer's work, a series of close studies in personality which included "Love and Mr. Lewisham" (written in 1898), "Kipps," "Ann Veronica," and "The History of Mr. Polly." These four men, Hoopdriver the hero of "The Wheels of Chance," Mr. Lewisham, Kipps, and Mr. Polly, and Ann Veronica are all personalities thwarted and crippled by the defects of our contemporary civilisation. "The Wheels of Chance" followed immediately on "The Wonderful Visit" and "The Island of Dr. Moreau." It is a very "young" book; indeed, in some respects it is puerile, but the character of Hoopdriver saves it from being altogether insignificant. "Love and Mr. Lewisham," also included in this volume, was written three years afterwards, concurrently with "The Sleeper Awakes."
"Love and Mr. Lewisham" was written with greater care than any of the writer's earlier books. It was consciously a work of art; it was designed to be very clear, simple, graceful, and human. It was not a very successful book, no critic discovered any sort of beauty or technical ability in it, and it was some years before the writer could return, in "Kipps" (1905) and "Tono-Bungay" (1909), to his attack upon the novel proper.
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