4 h 27 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 4 h 27 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if an angel lands in an English village—and finds ordinary human life stranger than another world?
Near Siddermorton, the Reverend Hilyer goes looking for a rare bird and shoots an angel by mistake. He brings the winged stranger into his vicarage and tries to care for him. In H. G. Wells's short comic fantasy, this visitor from a world of beauty and music must learn the rules of a place that has no room ready for him.
The village soon starts talking. Dr. Crump prefers a medical explanation to a marvel, while Delia, a poor, overlooked servant girl, offers plain kindness. As the angel questions money, manners, clothes and class, familiar customs begin to look absurd. Beneath the gentle jokes lies a sharper question: how do people treat beauty and kindness when they cannot understand them?
What you’ll discover
- An outsider's clear eyes See everyday human habits become strange through the angel's simple, searching questions.
- A village under scrutiny Watch Wells turn quiet village life into a comedy of manners and misunderstanding.
- Kindness without status Meet Delia, whose plain care offers the stranger something that social standing cannot.
- Music from another world Discover the angel's gift for music beyond anything the villagers have heard.
- Laughter with a soft heart Enjoy a dry, gentle voice that finds both absurdity and hidden beauty in human life.
Who will love it
This book suits readers who enjoy gentle comedy with a sting, fantasy set in an ordinary English village, and stories where an outsider's innocent questions make familiar customs look strange.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A strange bird is seen over the moor
- Two worlds meet in Siddermorton Park
- Everyone has a sensible explanation for him
- An angel teaches a vicar to dream again
- The village shows the Angel its harsh side
- A concert shows how society protects its pride
- Wire, warnings and a week to leave
- What the story is really about and how it is told
Who’s who
- The AngelA young visitor from a land without pain, shot out of the sky, who learns hunger, fear and anger while trying to understand human life.
- The Vicar, Mr HilyerA plump bachelor clergyman and bird collector who shoots the Angel by mistake and takes him in, torn between faith and doubt.
- DeliaThe Vicarage's young housemaid, who sees the Angel as a person to care for and answers his loneliness with simple kindness.
- Doctor CrumpThe village doctor, sure of himself, who explains the Angel as a medical curiosity and then as a troublemaker to be sent away.
- MendhamThe Vicar's gaunt, bearded curate, full of causes of the day, who suspects the Vicar and defends his wife's honour.
- Lady HammergallowThe deaf, domineering owner of the village, who decides the Angel is a hidden son and plans to launch him as a violinist.
- Sir John GotchA small, hard landowner who fences his land with barbed wire and gives the Vicar a week to be rid of his guest.
- Mrs JehoramA widow who loves art and flirtation, and who is sure the Angel is a genius in disguise.
Formats and delivery
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- Large print hardcover
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La visita meravigliosa
by H. G. Wells · 1895
A bird collector shoots a strange winged creature in Siddermorton Park and discovers a wounded angel in the bracken.
Easy read2–5 hours to readItaliano
Excellent
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In short
What would you do if you shot an angel? Not a bird that looks like one, but a real angel, bleeding on the grass with his bright wings turning gray.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A strange bird is seen over the moor
The story opens in the dark. On a windy night, a golden glare crosses Sidderford Moor, and a few villagers hear a sound like children singing over harp strings.
Then the Strange Bird arrives. Sandy Bright, a nervous man walking home with a side of bacon, hears a wailing flap of wings and sees something huge against the cedars. He drops the bacon, runs, falls on his face, and tries to remember the Lord's Prayer. A ploughman sees pink bare legs and a mottled white body.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 15 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1895
- Language
- Italiano
- Reading time
- 2 h 50 min
- Level
- Easy read
Cite this edition
Wells, H. G. The Wonderful Visit. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-wonderful-visit.
Wells, H. G. (2026). The wonderful visit. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-wonderful-visit (Original work published 1895)
Wells, H. G. The Wonderful Visit. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-wonderful-visit.
@book{wells2026wonderful,
author = {Wells, H. G.},
title = {The Wonderful Visit},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-wonderful-visit},
note = {First published 1895}
}
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What is The Wonderful Visit about?
An angel from a land without pain enters the world near Siddermorton, where a vicar shoots him while hunting what he thinks is a rare bird. The story follows his week among villagers who do not know what to make of him.
Who is the Angel in The Wonderful Visit?
He is a young, beautiful visitor from a dreamlike land where there is no pain, hunger or death. The Vicar gives him human clothes, and the villagers take him for a foreign hunchbacked fiddler.
Is The Wonderful Visit a serious book or a comedy?
Both. It is full of comic scenes, such as the tennis party, the doctor's diagnosis and the concert, but it also looks at pain, class and cruelty with a sharp, gentle eye.
The author
H. G. Wells
1866–1946 · English science fiction novelist
H. G. Wells (1866–1946) was an English writer born in Bromley, Kent. He wrote novels, short stories and nonfiction. His novels included The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897) and The War of the Worlds (1898). He died in London.
More by H. G. Wells
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