Ann Veronica was published by T. Fisher Unwin in October 1909 and was the most controversial novel Wells ever wrote — not for its science fiction (there is none) but for its frank depiction of a young woman who defies her father, leaves home, joins the suffragette movement, and pursues a sexual relationship with a married man. The novel was denounced from pulpits, banned by libraries, and condemned in the Spectator as “poisonous.” It also sold enormously well.
The Novel
Ann Veronica Stanley is twenty-one, intelligent, and suffocating under the domestic authority of her father, a suburban solicitor who sees no reason why a woman should want anything beyond marriage and household management. She defies him. She goes to London. She enrolls in biology classes at Imperial College (Wells’s own institution). She encounters the suffragette movement. She borrows money from an older man (who expects sexual repayment). And she falls in love with Capes, her biology demonstrator — a married man.
The novel follows Ann Veronica’s education in independence: learning that freedom comes with real costs (debt, social ostracism, physical danger during a suffragette raid) but that the alternative — submission — is worse. Her relationship with Capes is presented without moral judgment: they love each other, they come together, and society eventually accommodates them.
Wells based the novel closely on his own affair with Amber Reeves, a young student at the London School of Economics — a biographical fact that added to the scandal. The novel’s power comes from its refusal to punish its heroine: Ann Veronica does not die, does not go mad, and does not repent. She gets what she wants.
Themes
Women’s independence — the novel is fundamentally about a woman’s right to make her own decisions — about education, career, sex, and marriage — without male permission. It was radical in 1909 and remains relevant.
Class and education — Ann Veronica’s rebellion is enabled by education. The biology laboratory is her space of freedom, the place where she is valued for her mind rather than her marriageability.
The suffragette movement — Wells gives a vivid, sympathetic account of the movement, including a set-piece raid on Parliament that draws on real events of 1907–1908.
Collecting Ann Veronica
First edition (T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1909): Red cloth binding with gilt lettering. No dust jacket.
Market values:
- Fine copies: $500–$1,200
- Very good: $200–$500
- Good: $75–$200
First American edition (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1909): Published simultaneously. $200–$600.
The novel was adapted as a musical (Ann Veronica, 1969) and has been praised by feminist critics as one of the first English novels to take a young woman’s sexual autonomy seriously.