A collection of three short stories and two novellas written between 1897 and 1898. All the stories had first been published in various monthly periodicals and this was the first volume to collect these stories.

contains
"The Crystal Egg"
"The Star"
"A Story of the Stone Age"
"A Story of the Days To Come"
"The Man Who Could Work Miracles"

Born in 1866 in Bromley, England, to a poor family, Herbert George Wells began as an apprentice at the age of 14, but educated himself on his own, received a scholarship (1884), and specialized in biology at the University of London, from which he graduated in 1888.

Having become a teacher, but still without money, he will ask journalism for additional resources.

His first book is a work of biology, his second a novel: La Machine à explorer le temps (1895), which was an immediate success.

One of the pioneers, with Jules Verne, of the novel of anticipation, Wells is also a polemist, believing in progress through science.

These trends are reflected throughout a work that includes nearly 50 novels, tales, short stories and essays.

H. G. Wells died in London on August 13, 1946.