Listen free for 30 days
Listen with offer
-
The Wheels of Chance
- A Bicycling Idyll
- Narrated by: John Burlinson
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
£0.00 for first 30 days
The Wheels of Chance
Buy Now for £19.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Summary
Mr. Hoopdriver is a frustrated draper’s assistant in Putney, London. He is badly paid, over-worked, and he needs a holiday. He also owns a bicycle—though he is an awkward rider.
When his annual ten days’ holiday comes around, Mr. Hoopdriver sets out on a bicycling tour of the “Southern Coast.” Will this adventure be enough to shake up the dreariness of his ordinary life? Will his escapist flights of fancy end in disaster? And what should he make of the constant reappearance of the “Young Lady in Grey”?
Wells wrote this at the height of the bicycling craze and before the automobile. The bicycle gave freedom to the working class, weakened the English class structure and gave a boost to female emancipation. In his story he explores these changes.