The Works of H. G. Wells (Atlantic Edition)/Preface to Volume 8
PREFACE TO VOLUME VIII
"Kipps" was written in 1903-04. It is only a fragment of a much larger and more ambitious design. The original title was "The Wealth of Mr. Waddy." A whole introductory book was written before Kipps himself came upon the scene. It was put aside, and I am afraid destroyed. I seem to remember it as a quite amusing story, but my utmost efforts have failed to unearth the manuscript of those abandoned chapters. They told of Mr. Waddy's declining years and how he was adopted as an uncle by an enterprising young lady, the cousin of his housekeeper, who subsequently became Mrs. Chitterlow. Mr. Waddy made many wills and most of them were burned by Mr. Chitterlow. They were painful reading for Chitterlow, for Mr. Waddy was very outspoken in his wills. Every one of them did Chitterlow burn until only the Kipps will was left—and that Chitterlow had to make the best of. And after Kipps had been ruined by young Mr. Walshingham, there were to have been the adventures of young Mr. Walshingham as a fugitive in France. But it became clear to the writer by the time he had brought Kipps and Chitterlow together that he had planned his task upon too colossal a scale. There was no way of serialising so vast a book as he had in hand and no way of publishing it that held out any hope of fair payment for the work that remained for him to do. Now books are meant to be read, and there is no interest in writing them unless you believe they will get to readers. So "Kipps" was clipped off short to the dimensions of a practicable book. The book had a mild success in England and America; its publishers betrayed no enthusiasm about it—and then it went on selling. It had sold, up to the date of writing this preface, about a quarter of a million of copies in various editions, and it still sells and sells.