Ann Veronica
A Modern Love Story
by H. G. Wells 1866–1946
The book, and the century it came out of.
Ann Veronica walks out of her father’s house in Morningside Park because he will not let her attend a dance, and finds that independence costs rather more than the train fare. Wells trained under Darwin’s champion Huxley and wrote this in the middle of his own scandalous affair; libraries banned it, the Spectator called it a poisonous book, and young women read it anyway. Illustrated with 58 full-page plates — paintings by Butler, Cornoyer and Carette among them.
“The art of ignoring is one of the accomplishments of every well-bred girl, so carefully instilled that at last she can even ignore her own thoughts and her own knowledge.”
Ann Veronica, by H. G. Wells, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.
It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.
- Series
- Love & Society
- Format
- Ebook
- Extent
- about 296 pages
- Reading time
- about 6 hours
- Illustrations
- Full-page plates, credited
- Text
- Complete, unabridged
- Language
- en
- This edition
- 2026
- ISBN
- 9785486484179
58 paintings are bound into this edition
Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.
1909, and libraries refused to stock it
The suffrage campaign was at its most militant: window-breaking, arrests, hunger strikes and forcible feeding in Holloway. Wells put his heroine in the middle of it, had her walk out of her father’s house, take a laboratory job and choose a man for herself — and the press called the book a danger to young women.
Circulating libraries banned it; a bishop denounced it from the pulpit. Wells, who was conducting the affair the novel half-describes, went on writing.
A page from this edition
Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.
Both photographed from the finished volume.
Ann Veronica, first published 1909, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Love & Society shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.
Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785486484179, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.
Questions readers ask
- Is this the whole of Ann Veronica?
- Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
- What exactly did you change?
- The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. H. G. Wells's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
- Are the pictures really in the book?
- Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
- How long is it?
- About 296 pages, which is roughly about 6 hours of reading.
- What do I actually get?
- An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
