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poliphilo ([personal profile] poliphilo) wrote2011-08-11 12:14 pm

The Country Of The Blind And Other Stories: H.G. Wells

"The Country of the Blind" is Wells's best short story- a beautifully balanced fable about the individual and society.  The rest  are a liquorice all-sorts of Wellsian themes: there are comic sketches, horror stories, a ghost story, SF stories, social satires- and one very odd little story, "The Valley of the Spiders", which could almost have been written by Borges. The second-best story is "The Door in the Wall", which- simple and relatively undeveloped as it is- goes to the heart of what it was that made Wells tick. Had Wells visited that enchanted garden himself? Probably not, but he knew it was there- and that knowledge drove everything he did in art as in life. 

[identity profile] huskyteer.livejournal.com 2011-08-11 11:19 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, God, I love 'The Door In The Wall'. Makes me cry.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2011-08-11 11:21 am (UTC)(link)
It's a beautiful story.

[identity profile] ooxc.livejournal.com 2011-08-11 10:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! I recently read an E M Forster story, and was trying to think what it reminded me of - it was the Wells story!

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2011-08-12 08:37 am (UTC)(link)
Glad to be of service. :)