Sam Leith Sam Leith

The passionate friend

Sam Leith explores H. G. Wells’s addiction to free love, as revealed in David Lodge’s latest biographical novel

issue 02 April 2011

Sam Leith explores H. G. Wells’s addiction to free love, as revealed in David Lodge’s latest biographical novel

In the history of seduction, there can have been few scenes quite like this one:

‘Am I dreaming?’, she said when she opened her eyes.

‘No,’ he said, and kissed her again.

‘But what about Jane?’ she said. ‘You love Jane.’

‘Yes, I love Jane, and Jane loves me, but there are many kinds of love, Amber. You’ve read A Modern Utopia, you’ve read In the Days of the Comet, you know my views on free, healthy, life-enhancing sexual relationships. Jane shares them.’

They embraced and lay in eachother’s arms, exploring and gently stroking eachother’s bodies like blind people. It was an intensely erotic experience.

‘Is that your…?’ Amber whispered.

‘That is my erect penis,’ he said, ‘a column of blood, one of the marvels of nature, a miracle of hydraulic engineering.’

‘It’s enormous,’ she said.

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