There is a huge relief in having finished this. For a week and a half (with two books and a hundred pages of short stories in between) I slogged it out with Lodge, trying to figure out what his intention was, whether he had a central thesis in his meandering account of H.G. Wells' life. Turns out he didn't. This novel is actually a fairly straightforward and dry biography of Wells given some of the trimmings of a novel.

Wells basically writes books of varying success and feasibility, while entertaining sexual liaisons with a series of women who aren't his wife. The episodic encounters are well researched but dull, and Wells' approach to sexuality was both progressive and cursed by double standards. Men may take as many lovers as they desire, but a woman is only ever permitted one man at a time. It's only proper! According to Wells.
The women, Rebecca West in particular, are intriguing figures who produced vital and lasting work, but they get little of a look in beyond being sources of fleeting love and ultimate frustration for Wells.

Two stars implies a kind of contempt for the novel, but I want to make it clear that I didn't hate this book; it just didn't interest me in the slightest. I felt a duty to Lodge to complete it, because I've enjoyed his past work, but I think that it was too much of a pet project of his for the common man (i.e. me) to penetrate.