H G Wells

Kipps H G Wells

Kipps is a novel by H. G. Wells. Humorous yet sympathetic, the perceptive social novel is generally regarded as a masterpiece, and it was his own favourite work. The protagonist of the Bildungsroman is Arthur "Artie" Kipps, an illegitimate orphan. He is raised by his aged aunt and uncle, who keep a little shop in New Romney, on the southern coast of Kent. He attends the Cavendish Academy ("a middle-class school", not a "boarding school", ) in Hastings, in East Sussex. "By inherent nature he had a sociable disposition", and befriends Sid Pornick, the neighbour's boy. Kipps falls in love with Sid's younger sister, Ann. Ann gives him half a sixpence as a token of their love when, at 14, he is apprenticed to the Folkestone Drapery Bazaar, run by Mr. Shalford.