diff --git a/AUTHORS.rst b/AUTHORS.rst
index 6bbddfde..4395b3b2 100644
--- a/AUTHORS.rst
+++ b/AUTHORS.rst
@@ -121,3 +121,5 @@ Patches and Suggestions
 - Vinod Chandru
 - Johnny Goodnow <j.goodnow29@gmail.com>
 - Denis Ryzhkov <denisr@denisr.com>
+- Wilfred Hughes <me@wilfred.me.uk> @dontYetKnow
+- Dmitry Medvinsky <me@dmedvinsky.name>
diff --git a/requests/exceptions.py b/requests/exceptions.py
index 6759af56..c0588f6a 100644
--- a/requests/exceptions.py
+++ b/requests/exceptions.py
@@ -16,7 +16,11 @@ class RequestException(RuntimeError):
 
 class HTTPError(RequestException):
     """An HTTP error occurred."""
-    response = None
+
+    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        """ Initializes HTTPError with optional `response` object. """
+        self.response = kwargs.pop('response', None)
+        super(HTTPError, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
 
 
 class ConnectionError(RequestException):
diff --git a/requests/models.py b/requests/models.py
index faa0cbe4..3d27d0c5 100644
--- a/requests/models.py
+++ b/requests/models.py
@@ -657,9 +657,7 @@ class Response(object):
             http_error_msg = '%s Server Error: %s' % (self.status_code, self.reason)
 
         if http_error_msg:
-            http_error = HTTPError(http_error_msg)
-            http_error.response = self
-            raise http_error
+            raise HTTPError(http_error_msg, response=self)
 
     def close(self):
         return self.raw.release_conn()
diff --git a/test_requests.py b/test_requests.py
index c497f599..e40d44f0 100644
--- a/test_requests.py
+++ b/test_requests.py
@@ -366,5 +366,36 @@ class RequestsTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         r = requests.Request(url=HTTPBIN)
         self.assertRaises(ValueError, requests.Session().send, r)
 
+    def test_can_specify_retries(self):
+        # monkey patch urlopen
+        from requests.packages.urllib3.poolmanager import HTTPConnectionPool
+        old_urlopen = HTTPConnectionPool.urlopen
+
+        max_retries_used = []
+        def urlopen(*args, **kwargs):
+            """Save what value we used for retries each time we call urlopen."""
+            max_retries_used.append(kwargs.get('retries'))
+            return old_urlopen(*args, **kwargs)
+
+        HTTPConnectionPool.urlopen = urlopen
+
+        # do the request and check that max_retries was passed through
+        requests.get(httpbin('get'), max_retries=5)
+        self.assertEqual(max_retries_used, [5])
+
+        # undo monkey patch
+        HTTPConnectionPool.urlopen = old_urlopen
+
+    def test_http_error(self):
+        error = requests.exceptions.HTTPError()
+        self.assertEqual(error.response, None)
+        response = requests.Response()
+        error = requests.exceptions.HTTPError(response=response)
+        self.assertEqual(error.response, response)
+        error = requests.exceptions.HTTPError('message', response=response)
+        self.assertEqual(str(error), 'message')
+        self.assertEqual(error.response, response)
+
+
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main()