4 h 53 minAudiobook5 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
Readers who love strange tales with a firm grip on the real world, from ghostly doors and falling stars to dream lovers and hidden valleys, will find eight quick, vivid stories here.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A Green Door Opens on Paradise
- Missed Chances and an Approaching Star
- Two Strangers Tell Impossible Stories
- Anger, Innocence, and Worship in Machines
- A Sighted Man in the Blind Valley
- Wonder, Duty, and the Cost of Choice
Who’s who
- Lionel WallaceA successful politician who cannot forget a green door and the garden he saw as a child, and who wants to find it again.
- RedmondWallace's old school friend, who hears his strange story over dinner and tells it to the reader without claiming to know the truth.
- HedonA powerful leader who, in a recurring dream, leaves politics for love in a pleasure city, and who is torn when war approaches.
- HorrocksAn ironmaster whose silence and ceremonial manner hide a deep jealousy, and who leads his friend Raut into the furnace works.
- Azuma-ziA lonely stoker in a London power shed who comes to see the great dynamo as a god and a protector.
- NunezA mountaineer who falls into a hidden valley and believes his sight will make him a king over the blind.
- Medina-saroteYacob's youngest daughter, thought plain in the blind valley, who loves Nunez and wants him to belong there.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet or computer, once the book texts are online.
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- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
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- The key ideas in about 5 minutes, to read today.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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The Door in the Wall, and Other Stories
by H. G. Wells · 1911
A boy finds a green door to a garden of panthers, and spends his life failing to open it again.
Medium level2–5 hours to readEnglish
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In short
Behind a plain white wall, a green door waits. A small boy runs through it and finds a garden where panthers play and a kind girl welcomes him.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Green Door Opens on Paradise
The title story is told by Redmond, who hears a confession from his old school friend Lionel Wallace. Wallace is a rising politician, yet he often seems half absent from his own life. Over a quiet dinner he finally explains why.
When he is about five, he wanders away in West Kensington and sees a white wall with a green door set into it. He feels pulled toward it and warned away at the same moment, and then he runs in. Inside is a garden where two spotted panthers play, and one purrs against his hand.
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Details
- First published
- 1911
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 3 h 10 min
- Level
- Medium level
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What is The Door in the Wall and Other Stories about?
It is a collection of eight short tales by H. G. Wells. They include a man haunted by a green door, a star approaching the earth, a dream of war, a diamond maker, and a sighted man in a valley of the blind.
What does the green door mean in The Door in the Wall?
The door leads to a garden of beauty and happiness that Wallace sees as a child. Readers often take it as a symbol of lost wonder or a better life, but Redmond leaves its meaning open.
Who is Nunez in The Country of the Blind?
Nunez is a mountaineer from near Quito who falls into a hidden Andean valley where everyone is blind. He expects to rule them because he can see, and he must learn how they live and think.
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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