8 h 59 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 8 h 59 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when a bishop can no longer trust the words he speaks to others?
In H. G. Wells’s The Soul of a Bishop, a senior Church of England clergyman finds his settled faith giving way under strain. His office asks him to guide others, but familiar words no longer feel alive. His doubts reach beyond himself, touching his family, his Church and those who depend on him.
Against a world at war and a changing society, Wells sets the Church’s teaching beside its actions. He explores a vision of God as a force of courage and hope, rather than an all-powerful ruler. The question is both personal and public: what does faith demand when honesty challenges the comfort of duty?
What you’ll discover
- Duty under strain Follow a clergyman whose public role makes the loss of certainty deeply personal.
- The cost of honesty Consider what a bishop owes his own conscience and the people seeking his guidance.
- A different religious vision Explore Wells’s idea of a God who needs human helpers, not unquestioning obedience.
- The Church put to question See religious teaching tested against what the Church does in a world at war.
- An argument worth entering Meet a novel that asks what religion can mean when familiar words lose their force.
Who will love it
Readers who like novels of ideas, gentle satire of English church life, and stories where one person's inner crisis meets a world at war. It suits anyone curious about faith and doubt.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Doubt follows the bishop into darkness
- Princhester exposes the limits of comfort
- Eleanor voices her father's hidden doubts
- Public confidence conceals private uncertainty
- A listener brings belief into speech
- The tonic opens a golden world
- Conviction meets the claims of family
- Simple faith still faces human needs
- New belief changes relationships as well
Who’s who
- Edward ScropeThe Bishop of Princhester, a kind, sheltered clergyman who finds his faith failing and seeks a real God behind the creeds.
- Lady EllaThe bishop's gentle and dignified wife, who prizes her husband's good name and fears that his changes will shatter their family.
- EleanorThe bishop's eldest daughter, a bright young student who wants an education, a say in her own life and honest answers.
- Lady SunderbundA rich, eager American widow who longs for a religion of her own and wants to build a great temple for the bishop.
- Dr. DaleA lean young physician who prefers going forward to going back and gives the bishop his strange golden tonic.
- Bishop LikemanThe bishop's old friend and mentor, who believes every creed as a symbol and urges him to stay and reform the church.
- ChastersThe sharp-tongued vicar of Wombash, whose books attack church doctrine and force the bishop to face modern criticism.
- DunkThe bishop's loyal valet and butler, who watches his master's troubles with discretion.
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The Soul of a Bishop
by H. G. Wells · 1917
A sleepless bishop drinks a golden tonic in London and finds God waiting in a quiet library.
Medium level5–10 hours to read2 languages
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In short
What happens when a bishop who recites the creeds every Sunday wakes at a quarter past three in the morning and cannot say what they mean? H. G. Wells opens The Soul of a Bishop with exactly that night.
The Soul of a Bishop at a glance
- Reading time
- About 5 h 15 min4 h 10 min fast, 6 h 15 min slow
- Length
- 74,800 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1917by H. G. Wells
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A bishop wakes in the night with doubt
The book begins in a dream. The bishop sees an angry assembly at Nicaea, and a glowing triangle with an eye swells in the dome above. He wakes in an enormous bed in the country house of a rich steel family, and the dream follows him into the dark.
The cause is a dinner party the evening before. Actors, novelists and professors cornered him and asked hard questions about the Trinity. Tired and trying to seem modern, he gave a flippant answer, and a fierce young Irish Catholic pounced. Now he is ashamed that he said it, and more ashamed that he half meant it.
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- 15-minute summary
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Details
- First published
- 1917
- Language
- English
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Wells, H. G. The Soul of a Bishop. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-soul-of-a-bishop.
Wells, H. G. (2026). The soul of a bishop. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-soul-of-a-bishop (Original work published 1917)
Wells, H. G. The Soul of a Bishop. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-soul-of-a-bishop.
@book{wells2026soul,
author = {Wells, H. G.},
title = {The Soul of a Bishop},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-soul-of-a-bishop},
note = {First published 1917}
}
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What is The Soul of a Bishop about?
It tells of Edward Scrope, Bishop of Princhester, whose faith fails during sleepless nights and the First World War. A strange tonic gives him visions of God, and he must decide what to do with them.
When was The Soul of a Bishop written?
H. G. Wells published it in 1917, during the First World War. The war is a constant presence in the story, and its tragedies shape the bishop's view of kings, churches and God.
What does the Trinity triangle in the opening dream mean?
The glowing triangle with an eye stands for the doctrine of the Trinity and the endless arguments over it. It haunts the bishop's dreams because he can no longer say what he believes about it.
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.
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