4 h 53 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 4 h 53 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a door to happiness makes the rest of your life feel like the wrong choice?
In H. G. Wells’s The Door in the Wall, and Other Stories, strange possibilities break into ordinary lives. Lionel Wallace remains haunted by a green door in a white wall. Beyond it lies a garden whose happiness makes his successful life seem poor by comparison. The invitation is simple; what it asks of him is not.
Across this collection, familiar expectations give way. The Star brings danger from the heavens, while A Dream of Armageddon draws love and approaching war into a railway conversation. The Cone and The Lord of the Dynamos set destructive passions beside industrial machinery. The Diamond Maker and The Country of the Blind question what achievement and ability are worth when others refuse to recognise them.
What you’ll discover
- A garden beyond ordinary life Follow Wallace’s longing for a happiness that ambition cannot seem to replace.
- Human plans beneath the stars See the concerns of nations and individuals set against a danger far larger than either.
- Love against public power Enter a traveller’s troubled dreams, where private happiness competes with political responsibility and war.
- Discovery without public trust Meet a man whose claim to manufacture diamonds exposes the gap between value and belief.
- Sight without authority Follow an outsider into a community where his apparent advantage does not bring the power he expects.
Who will love it
This book suits readers who like short tales built around one bold idea, from quiet longing to a world under a blazing star. It rewards anyone who enjoys strange dreams and early science fiction.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Longing returns at the wrong moment
- Ordinary life continues beneath approaching disaster
- Love becomes an excuse for delay
- Courtesy conceals a threat of violence
- Joy cannot wait for perfect conditions
- Appearance can hide a genuine opportunity
- Cruelty drives a worker toward worship
- A gift needs others to understand
- Longing meets the limits of acceptance
Who’s who
- Lionel WallaceA rising politician haunted by a childhood glimpse of an enchanted garden behind a green door, which he longs to find again.
- NunezA confident mountaineer who falls into a valley of blind people and expects to rule them because he can see.
- Medina-saroteYacob's youngest daughter, who loves Nunez and hopes he can be made one of her people.
- HorrocksAn ironmaster who guides his wife's visitor through the furnaces at night, hiding what he knows behind cheerful talk.
- Azuma-ziA lonely stoker at Camberwell who comes to see the great dynamo as a god and himself as its servant.
- James HolroydThe red-haired chief attendant of the dynamos, who bullies his helper and mocks his beliefs.
- HedonThe dream self of a Liverpool solicitor, a former leader who has given up power for love on Capri.
- The little manA proud boy-sized figure in a green and gold suit who wants to wear it for joy, not save it.
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- Large print hardcover
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The Door in the Wall, and Other Stories
by H. G. Wells · 1911
A green door in a white wall offers a politician a garden, and three times in one year he fails to enter.
Medium level2–5 hours to read2 languages
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In short
A boy of five wanders into a London street, sees a green door in a white wall, and steps through into a garden where panthers play. Years later he still longs to go back.
The Door in the Wall, and Other Stories at a glance
- Reading time
- About 2 h 50 min2 h 15 min fast, 3 h 25 min slow
- Length
- 40,700 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1911by 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 childhood door leads into a lost garden
The title story is told by Redmond, who repeats a confidence from his old school friend, Lionel Wallace. Wallace is a successful politician, close to a seat in the Cabinet, yet something in his life has gone dim. He says he is haunted by a beauty he glimpsed once and longs to find again.
It begins when he is about five. He slips away from home in West Kensington and sees a white wall hung with crimson creeper, and in it a green door. He feels drawn to it and warned away from it at once. He walks past, then runs back and plunges through.
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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
- 1911
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 3 h 10 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Wells, H. G. The Door in the Wall, and Other Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-door-in-the-wall-and-other-stories.
Wells, H. G. (2026). The door in the wall, and other stories. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-door-in-the-wall-and-other-stories (Original work published 1911)
Wells, H. G. The Door in the Wall, and Other Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-door-in-the-wall-and-other-stories.
@book{wells2026door,
author = {Wells, H. G.},
title = {The Door in the Wall, and Other Stories},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-door-in-the-wall-and-other-stories},
note = {First published 1911}
}
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What is The Door in the Wall and Other Stories about?
It gathers eight short tales by H. G. Wells. They include a man haunted by a lost garden, a star that threatens the earth, a dream of war, a jealous ironmaster, a diamond maker, a worshipped dynamo and a valley of blind people.
What does the green door mean in The Door in the Wall?
The door stands for a chance at deep happiness that Lionel Wallace glimpses as a child and keeps meeting later. Whether it is real or imagined is left to the reader, which is why it stays in the mind.
What is the proverb in The Country of the Blind?
The proverb makes a man with sight in one eye the ruler of a land where everyone else is blind. Nunez trusts it when he finds a valley of blind people, and the story tests whether having sight can really make a man a ruler.
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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