| In the Days of the Comet | |
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Cover of first edition |
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| Author(s) | H. G. Wells |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | The Century Co. |
| Publication date | 1906 [1] |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 378 pp |
| ISBN | NA |
| Preceded by | A Modern Utopia |
| Followed by | The War in the Air |
In the Days of the Comet is a 1906 science fiction novel by H. G. Wells in which the vapors of a comet are used as a device which brings about a profound and lasting transformation in the attitudes and perspectives of humankind.
Contents |
The story revolves around William Leadford, an unemployed student living in the industrial town of Clayton in Britain. He is strongly Socialist and strives for a change in power from upper-class, caused by the squalid living conditions caused by industrial development in the town and country. Although dates are never specified, the era is supposed to be shortly preceding a war to that effect where about half-way through the book (in the Chapter titled "WAR") Britain declares war on Germany. For the most part of the first half of the book, it is a retrospective description by William in first-person describing the grit and vile impudence that the lower-class resides in, and develops the love story between Willie and a middle-class girl named Nettie, living in another town named Checkshill. Nettie is discovered one day to have eloped with an upper-class man by the name of Verral. William resolves to buy a revolver and kill them both to resolve both his disarray of mind in the chaos of his lower-class existence, and the betrayal of Nettie's love. All through, there is a recurrent description of the nocturnal presence of a large comet in the sky, which emits a bright green glow, brighter than the Moon, so that people begin to neglect to light street lamps.
After making thorough plans to find and kill the two lovers, he follows them to another village along the coast. Finding them bathing in the sea at night under the comet's green light, he begins his final contemplations on the acts he is going to commit: two murders followed by his suicide. Before he can carry out his plan, two battleships appear on the horizon and begin shelling the coastal town. Amongst the chaos of the shelling and panicked people fleeing, William almost loses Nettie and Verral as he decides to try and shoot them amongst the distressed crowd. The comet begins to melt as it enters the atmosphere, releasing a mysterious green gaseous fog that quickly envelops most everywhere. At this point the fleeing people are not running from the shelling but from the foreboding fog. William is swallowed by the fog and subsequently falls asleep.
He awakes with a great clarity of mind, feeling rejuvenated in almost every way, and curiously remarks on the short-sighted and ill-conceived notion that he deliberately tried to kill his only love. Finding other people who are waking themselves, it is realized that the green gas has changed the air somehow, and brought simplicity and understanding to humankind. It is noted that among this Great Change, while everyone on Earth slept for 3 hours because of the fog, many were killed after drivers, engineers, and captains fell asleep, and their respective vehicles continued until being stopped by whatever obstacles they hit: trees, people, buildings, beaches, or parked locomotives. It is also noted that there must have been an inexplicable change for the crew of a submarine which was submerged at the time of the green fog, and when it surfaced, the crew was immediately changed by the air, not having awakened to it, but noticing the change awake and fully alert.
William describes in the final chapters how mankind embarks on a greater understanding of itself, and eliminates "petty titles" such as ranks, ownership, borders and military forces. Immediately the war between Germany and Britain is ended, and the gritty vile industries polluting the town of Four-Corners are shut down. After much level-headed and rational debate, Verrall, William and Nettie realize that William cannot live with Verral, and that Nettie, although loving them both equally, must go off with Verrall. At this the retrospective ends, revealing that William is now 72 years of age, one of the last people who can remember the "Old World" first hand.
William is the protagonist. He is never adequately physically described other than he is a 19-year-old British citizen and a strong believer in Socialism. During his earlier years he had a friend named Parload, a student of astronomy and a man of science, who discovered the comet and determined that it was made of an undiscovered (and undisclosed) element. For a great deal of the first chapter, Parload and William are described frequently talking to each other about the world situation and solutions thereto. Part way into chapter 2 Parload is seldom mentioned thereafter.
Nettie is the daughter of the gardener of Mr. Verrall's widow. Since she and William were children, they were inseparable and destined themselves as to be married. When William turned 16, he went off to a college and changed significantly, which lead to Nettie breaking up with William, and going after "Young Verrall". (His first name is never stated).
The Verralls are an upper-class family of unspecified wealth or stature. It is stated that the Wife is a widow, and that the Wife and Young Verrall are the only members of the family. Young Verrall is quite polite and of average stature and clean appearance and once William left The Four Towns and stopped seeing Nettie, he began taking interest in her. Three and a half years later, unannounced, William returns to Nettie's home and the two subsequently break up, after which she and Young Verrall elope to Shaphambury where they spend a few days at a local hotel. It is during this time that the Great Change takes place, thereafter Young Verrall and William decide their love for Nettie cannot coincide in the same location. After the couple and William go their separate ways, he is not mentioned again.
In the book, the world is often described as absolutely corrupt, spoiled and horrible to the point of no solution with politicians doing nothing for the people living in squalid conditions of poverty, hardship, mismanagement and abuse, which is all then immediately changed by the comet's green gasses, which "changed the air somehow". Everyone all of a sudden began seeing the world honestly, rationally, and with the evaluation of beauty far more than before.
Hate, distrust, and angst between all people was eliminated during the Great Change, subsequently rendering many things useless and devoid of practicality; ownership titles, land and sea borders, many industries, armies, navies and many weapons. After the Great Change, the book describes how large buildings began to be used as collective dining halls, and large mansions used as an old person's home, and a makeshift engineer's school made for people to come and learn so that demolition of the grotesque industries and reconstruction of new residencies could begin.