In the Days of the Comet

Mystery, Utopia, science fiction, socialism, the human condition and a blistering attack on turn of the century society: Wells puts it all together in this overlooked gem from his extensive legacy of books. Perhaps it is his thinly shrouded advocacy for a socialist society with element of free love (the free love element caused a stink in 1906), that has ensured the novels relative obscurity, or perhaps it is his unrelenting critique of human nature which strikes too close to the bone, or perhaps people feel that they have heard all this before from the great man, whatever the reasons I think this now ranks as one of the best examples from his oeuvre and it is the mystery element that binds it together and makes it work.

The prologue to show more the story establishes the mystery, the mystery of the narrator. It is written in the first person and describes how he arrives on some sort of assignment to a strange tower in which dwells a man furiously writing. The furniture is described as "new to me and in no fashion that I could name" the writer is using a "thing like a fountain pen" and our narrator is invited to read the tome whose pages are lying together as they have been written. Above the writer is a concave speculum through which can be seen a magnified, reflected, evasive rendering of a terrace, a palace, the vista of a great roadway with many people exaggerated, but the actual window in the tower is too high to see directly through. The narrator asks repeatedly "what is this place? and where am I? The mystery of the person doing the writing is solved when the story gets underway, because it is his story and he is Willie Leadford. The narrator proceeds to read the tome and it is Willie Leadford's autobiography that makes up the bulk of Wells novel.

Willie Leadford is a disaffected youth working in a pot-bank in a grimy midlands coal mining town. His friend Parload is an amateur stargazer who becomes affixed by the possibility of a new comet that is approaching earth. Willie has no time for the prattling stargazer he is much more interested in Nettie his fiancé of two years who lives 17 miles away and who he is assiduously courting. He becomes interested in socialism after hearing a public speaker with whom he establishes an acquaintance, but Willie's world is tumbling around his ears. He quits his job when his demand for a pay rise is refused, Nettie seems to be moving away from him and his poor mother is struggling to keep her head above water in their dingy rented house whose landlord refuses to carry out any repairs. Wells brilliantly paints a picture of the hopelessness of many aspects of working class life in those drear coal mining communities. We feel Willie's disaffection as Wells with a mixture of irony and satire describes the working mans situation:

it was a clear case of robbery, we held, visibly so; there in those great houses lurked the Landlord and the Capitalist, with his scoundrel the Lawyer, with his cheat the Priest, and we others were all the victims of their deliberate villainies. No doubt they winked and chuckled over their rare wines, amidst their dazzling, wicked dressed women, and plotted further grinding for the faces of the poor"

Willie's life gets more difficult when he gets involved in a demonstration at the local pit and discovers that Nettie is seeing another man and this man Verrall is a rich young man and friend of the mine owner. We follow Willie's journey from disaffected youth to a rampant class hatred of the wealthy and finally to would be murderer. It is important to Wells themes that the reader should not be in total sympathy for Willie, there is an ambiguity, a hatred a desperate side to his character that baulks the reader from being in total sympathy with him and all the while that comet is approaching earth. Things get even more desperate when war is declared between Britain and Germany and Wells adds this into the soup of the pressures and stresses that beat down the lives of the working men. Willie wants vengeance, but the reader is aware that a Change is coming and the comet now lights up the sky at night.

"Now, the whole world before the Change was as sick and feverish as that, it was worried and overworked and perplexed by problems that would not get stated simply, that changed and evaded solution, it was in an atmosphere that had corrupted and thickened past breathing, there was no thorough cool thinking in the world at all. There was nothing in the mind of the world anywhere but half truths, hasty assumptions, hallucinations and emotions. Nothing....."

The comet passes close enough to earth so that it's green like vapour trail has an immediate affect on the people. At once everyone goes into a coma like state, but this only lasts for a few hours and people start to awaken and now they are filled with a sort of divine light. Not everyone wakes up of course because some were killed when they went into a coma, for example those driving motors, those working machinery etc. The survivors are filled with a desire to start afresh and this time they only have the good of the whole community in their hearts. Wells after some excellent description of a world awakening anew concentrates his story back with Willie and his desperate pursuit of Nettie and Verrall. Now everything has changed and the three of them work towards an accommodation of their feelings. It is the same the world over men and women have been enlightened, they have lost their muddle, their pettiness, they can only perceive the good things to be achieved. The change has not affected their personalities their wants and desires, but it has given everybody the tools and the environment in which they can work through their issues. A new government is formed on socialist principles and the concept of ownership has changed.

This has been Willie Leadford's story and we are in no doubt that his story was re-enacted the world over, but now Wells provides us with an epilogue and at once the story is put into focus, but the mystery deepens. We know that Willie is an old man now writing his memoirs but what has happened to the world, and who is the narrator that now takes up the question that he has been itching to ask while reading Willie's autobiography. What happened between him and Nettie did they become lovers? That question is answered, but who is Willie, did the comets effects make them all into deities? Are they of the same world as the narrator. Read the book if you want to come to your own conclusions.

It is a magnificent achievement by Wells to combine many of his favourite themes into a novel that also holds our interest with an intense personal story and some incisive writing about working class life. He also along the way predicted the coming war with Germany (still eight years in the future) and provides us with an idea of an Utopian world. The sting in the tail however is that Utopia cannot be achieved without some massive outside intervention that will change mans basic perception of his world. Perhaps after all this is why the book is not so highly regarded because it is ultimately depressing. Wells may have created the mystery in order to shield his thoughts on the human condition and also to hide his ideas on free love, but whatever that maybe it has provided an intoxicating read which I rate at 4 stars. show less

Despite its title and ostensible theme, this is only SF in the most superficial sense. It is a novel about alienation from contemporary life and about the desire for justice and vengeance against the perceived authors of that injustice. The narrator William Leadford's rejection of contemporary (turn of the 19th/20th century) capitalism is mixed with his rage and desire for vengeance after being rejected by his lover Nettie in favour of a local aristocrat. To add to the misery, towards the middle of the novel, war breaks out between Britain and Germany, mostly consisting of naval engagements in the North Sea, though there is a prescient reference to the "heaped slaughter of many thousands of men" (this novel was written in 1905).

The show more comet's crash with Earth gives forth a green vapour that somehow changes the nitrogen in the atmosphere and increases human brainpower to the extent that everyone learns to love their fellow man and co-operate. In the pen of a less skilful writer, this idea could fail dismally but the change is brilliantly described in terms of being an almost religious redemption of the souls and minds of all humans, or perhaps in more modern words, a vast injection of a positive mental attitude that transforms everyone's outlook on the world and on each other. They then create a communist society (in the pure classical sense of being communitarian, not the Marxist sense). Clearly this reflects the author's desire for such a human transformation, but it is a sad commentary on human nature that it took such a cosmic catalyst for this change to take place. The mass burning at the end of pre-Change artifacts struck me as horrific, though. show less

What an odd little book. I was surprised to see that Wells wrote this later than all his other famous, hyper-influential SF novels, because it reads more like an early failed experiment, but it sure is interesting.

The first section, a realistic portrait of a not very interesting Victorian young man, is quite a slog; you can tell that this novel was not serialized, because most readers would've given up after several chapters about his career decisions and romantic disappointments, wondering when he'd get to the damn comet.

Then [spoiler:] there's a comet, and everyone is scared, but instead of destroying the world, it saves it-- since as luck would have it, the comet is basically made out of magic Prozac. And then the rest of the book is show more a utopia, but since it's a new one rather than an established one, everyone's trying to adjust to no longer being screwed up and neurotic.

Unlike a lot of idea-based utopian narratives, Wells pays attention to what it might feel like, personally, to be cured of anxiety-- how promising yet totally weird it would be-- and sometimes he gets it across well, as early on when a guy accidentally breaks his ankle and notices that although it hurts and all, he's not freaking out, it's just one of those things that happens. And the earlier realistic slog pays off somewhat as the narrator realizes how all the vague angst he'd been going on about was just silly and unnecessary, but he still feels duty-bound to keep worrying about it, even though he's now physically unable to worry; he keeps trying to stay jealous of his ex-girlfriend and her new guy, even as she's trying to tell him that everything's cool because now they can all be lovers. That stuff rang true to me; Wells understood that when people have spent their whole lives learning how to be serious and unhappy, they're not going to want all that effort to have been wasted.

On the other hand, it also has one of the weirdest bits of oblivious racism I've ever seen. There's a post-comet scene where some businessmen and politicians are testifying ruefully about what jerks they used to be, and one of them is a Jewish banker... not just any Jewish banker, but the Jewish banker, the creepy greedy smelly sneaky one of anti-semitic legend. But now, like everyone else, he's a decent guy; and he tells his own story, which is basically: "Wow, we Jews sure were greedy and awful! But it was just because of our mental hangups about being so weird and inferior! Now, thanks to the comet, we can all just get along." It's particularly bizarre because Wells obviously thought of this as an enlightened view-- i.e. they're not genetically bad, they're just all twisted and evil for psychological/cultural reasons. And yet, ew.

It's no mystery why the book isn't well known: it basically has no plot, and in the end it's a big "wouldn't it be nice if" relying on a deus ex machina. (And although it's always appealing to think that we could be awesome if we just weren't being held back by some kind of psychic debris-- Gurdjieff, Colin Wilson, and L. Ron Hubbard come to mind-- Wells refuses to give us any superpowers as a result of this, other than happiness, so SF readers may feel cheated.) But because it never caught on like his other books (many of which created whole subgenres), I found it kind of fresh and surprising despite the clunky aspects.

Oddly, the closest connection I can think of in later SF is in the work of [a:Samuel Delany|49111|Samuel R. Delany|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1207158768p2/49111.jpg], who had two very different takes on parts of the premise: [b:Triton|85893|Trouble on Triton An Ambiguous Heterotopia|Samuel R. Delany|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266468960s/85893.jpg|82889], where human nature hasn't changed but there's still a (sort of) utopia where a neurotic guy has trouble adjusting, and [b:Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand|85861|Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand|Samuel R. Delany|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171062756s/85861.jpg|945568], where you can get a treatment to make you incapable of worrying about anything but then you immediately get sold into slavery. show less

Awful.

I like Wells. I love most of his books. I'm close to finishing a 1,000 page hardback of which is supposedly the complete short works. In everything I've read by him there has been something I have been able to appreciate, and the only consistent fault has been his obsession with the word "tumult". But "tumult" is not the issue here.

First, let me acknowledge this:

He predicts tanks.
He predicts war with the Germans.
You might even say he predicts Haley's comet.

But really, if you want to read a much better, shorter version of In the Days of the Comet with all the crap filtered out, you can read Wells' short story, "The Star". And if you're interested in his oddly prophetic ideas on war and tanks, you can read all about that in his show more short story, "The Land Ironclads". But I don't recommend this.

In the Days of the Comet starts with a prologue in which a man finds an older man at a writing desk at the top of a tower. He asks questions like "Where am I? What is this place? What are you writing?". The old man smiles and invites him to read what he has written. "And this explains?" says the man. "That explains" replies the older man.

And so the story begins.

Interesting? Well, yeah... Until you realise that the book is actually "In the Days" for 160 pages, "of the Comet" for possibly 10 pages in total, and "Wells' screwed up utopian ideas" for the rest of the damn book.

(spoilers below)

We find that the old man is called Leadford, and the story he has written looks back upon his life, back to the days when he was an arrogant, hot-headed, young man ascribing strongly to the views of socialism. Unfortunately for him, his childhood sweetheart strongly disagrees with his views and after a heated response to this from Leadford, the relationship is ended. Regretting his rash words, Leadford walks 17 miles to his ex-sweethearts house to apologise, but to no avail. He then discovers on the way home that she has in fact been involved in an adulterous relationship with another man, which is why he had failed to convince her to have him back. She and her lover run off together, disgracing both of their families; and Leadford, in a state of angry jealousy, buys a revolver and sets off to murder them (such was life in the days of the comet). All of which takes up almost 50% of the book, dragged out with long unnecessary descriptions about things you couldn't care less about. What Leadfords views were, what other people's views were, what the papers were saying, how every room he enters looks, how every insignificant person he meets looks and what views they ascribe to... BLAH BLAH BLAH.

Part of the problem here is that the story is written from the perspective of someone in a utopian society, looking back to the days when things were far from perfect. He spends half the book explaining the screwed-up ways of the past to a future generation that wouldn't have been there. But, of course, we are not utopian citizens unaware of the world's past. We are still living in a messed-up world and are perfectly aware of the way things are, so why spend 160 pages emphasising the days when the world was a terrible place? We know! We live here!

Anyway, things kick off and as the comet (ah yes, the comet!) begins to enter the atmosphere and cause a strange green vapour to enshroud the planet, Leadford angrily lets off several bullets at the fleeing lovers and fails to hit them even once, while at the same time, German tanks unexpectedly begin to invade. Madness ensues.

THEN: Everyone loses consciousness. When they awake, they are all of one mind. Everyone understands each other. Everyone "gets" what needs to be done to create a perfect society. All is forgiven. Everyone is kind. No one cares about money. Money doesn't matter. Yes... It's all so clear now! What fools we were!

Leadford makes peace with the lovers, goes home to care for his mother whom he previously didn't care for and eventually ends up in a free-loving relationship with himself, a girl called Anna, his ex-sweetheart and her lover.

Yes. Apparently, Wells' ideal utopia consists of foursomes.

I suppose in that sense you could say he predicted the 60's.

Anyway... Bad book. show less

My reaction to reading this novel in 1996. Spoilers follow.

Essentially this is a long rant by Wells on the squalid, economically unjust, sexually irrational (to Wells that is) world of his England. I liked that part of the novel with it’s narrator ultimately setting out to murder his girlfriend and her upper class lover. The complaints of a poor, rather brash young man who has a litany of socialist based complaints was quite realistic and convincing.

What was totally unconvincing was the changes wrought on human nature by the green gas of a comet. Changes wrought just in time to prevent the narrator from carrying out his murders. Wells returns to his theme of unconventional sexual and marital arrangements when the narrator enters into show more a menagé a trois (in the classic sense of the word) with his two intended victims. Here Wells’ World State (to borrow the term from his A Modern Utopia – it's called “The Change” here) is magically brought in by the comet. Evidently, between 1914 (the year The World Set Free was published and 1906, Wells decided “The Change” would have to be brought about violently. show less

This H. G. Wells novel is hard to like, though he carries it out with his usual attention to detail. We get a protagonist who doesn't see what's important, our man William who scrabbled along. What makes this work as well as it does is its retrospective tone: the world of today seems very strange when viewed from the future, and Wells emphasizes this with the kind of explanations our narrator has to provide. But then a magic gas makes everyone act perfectly rationally from then on, and a new society free of the problems of the old one is born. (There's sort of a subgenre of apocalypses caused by strange gases at the turn of the century: In the Days of the Comet is preceded by M. P. Shiel's The Purple Cloud, and followed by Arthur Conan show more Doyle's The Poison Belt. I don't know if there are others.) In terms of providing practical solutions, there's not a lot going on, but I think this book is more about suggesting a way of thinking and seeing that would do all of us some good. Or so Wells thinks; anyone who has read a lot of Wells will be unsurprised to learn that according to the book, free love is the way to go. show less

"In the Days of the Comet" is not only my favorite Wells novel, it's one of my favorite novels of any theme or writer. I've read it several times over the years and each time I am awed by it's power to move and inspire me.

It's laid out in two sections: Before the comet and after. We follow Willie Leadford through the days before the comet where he finds himself pushed to the brink by a romantic disappointment. His plan of passionate revenge is interrupted by a comet passing through the Earth's atmosphere. The comet leaves gasses in it's wake which alter human nature and all thoughts of revenge and hate dissolve. Society reorganizes itself and Utopia is realized.

A lot could be said about what Wells was really writing about here or what show more is behind the work. I don't really care - My own feelings and interpretations mean too much to me to ruin with that kind of knowledge. I feel "In the Days of the Comet" is a brilliant study of the dark and light in human nature. And while political events and social etiquette in the story are very much tied to the date the novel was written, it really doesn't matter - you don't have to know the background information - The characters are still so relevant, so contemporary, those details will go by almost unnoticed.

Every time I read this book I am simply blown away at *realism* of the characters - They seem startlingly contemporary and profound to me. Especially in the first half of the book when Willie struggles with his anger and dark outlook on the world. I often find myself having to stop reading for a moment just to detach from his intense passion and not get too close. I've never been moved to violence against another human being, but I've been just shy of it. Willie brings me that extra step to that place I hope I never go.

And then the comet comes and everything changes.

And I can see, with equal clarity, the possibilities for *humanity*... I shake off the anger and hate with a weary sigh right along with Willie and am awed at how much of it was an illusion. In the story it takes a physical intervention (the gasses of the comet) to reach this point but it mirrors my own experiences in life. The spiraling down into self-centered ambition, isolation, fear, and anger can be a slippery slope - One that grows and grows and before you know it, you can't even remember what you're so angry and hateful about. It's the times when I'm stuck in that dark, angry place that I find this book so helpful. I can take Willie by the hand and have him guide me out.

Critics might win the argument that the comet it a too-convenient plot device - This is by no means a science fiction novel and the comet is scarcely discussed beyond it's simple presence. But they would be wrong dismiss the change that happens as over-simplified or to misinterpret the change as the loss of "spirit" from humanity. Eventually, in later chapters, Wells does address the issue in a little more depth. I find one of the more interesting concepts to be that the comet gasses do not take away human emotion or desire - Rather, it eliminates the more negative human emotions like jealousy and hate. This is very specifically addressed in the late chapters of the book when Willie begins to struggle with his restless emotions again after the fervor of rebuilding society subsides and he has time to think of his own future. One does not need to become a passive, lifeless sheep to become part of this new society - One *does* need to shed self-serving ambitions, hatred, jealousy, class and racial prejudices, etc. That doesn't mean it will be *easy* or that you will become a pacified zombie.

Wells looks at other concepts I found just as profound as the human nature theme. Specifically, open marriage/polyamory/free love - Whatever box you want to shove it into, it's all pretty shocking how contemporary it is in this book. Wells often works this aspect into his stories but not as successfully as in this one. For once we get a mature model of open relationship instead of the thinly-veiled opinion of a self-absorbed sex addict.

Some may find the story a bit slow - It is true, you need to be interested more in character study than plot/action to get much out of this book. But if character study is what floats your boat, I'd put this one on the top 10 must read list.

I wouldn't want you to miss the sublime review at Amazon.com by Mike Smith of NM (found about three down the list here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0898048427/sr=8-2/qid=1146522864/ref=pd_bbs_2/1... - He really says just what I would like to only far better than I ever could (in fewer words)...

Discuss my review here: http://agentxpndble.livejournal.com/100279.html show less