The Passionate Friends

First published in 1913, The Passionate Friends is H. G. Wells's luminous, heartbreaking novel of a love that could not fit the world it was born into. Told through letters and diary pages, it follows Lady Mary Christian and Stephen Stratton, childhood companions whose deep bond is repeatedly severed by money, marriage, and the rigid expectations of Edwardian England. When Mary chooses security with an older husband over passion with Stephen, the consequences ripple across decades toward a devastating close. This edition presents the complete, unabridged original text, together with a new introduction situating the novel within Wells's remarkable middle period and his lifelong argument about women's freedom, plus reader's notes illuminating its historical context. Warm, intelligent, and startlingly modern in its questions about love, independence, and compromise, this is Wells the social novelist at his finest. Part of The Founding Texts Library.