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In the Days of the Comet

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William Leadford is a young London Socialist, leading a life of quiet desperation. Around him, the whole world seems to be unraveling, as capitalists wage war on their own workers, and nation rises up against nation. And through it all, a comet has entered the Solar System, and may indeed be aimed straight at Earth. Can the system that dominates men's lives survive its seeming inevitable destruction? And if the comet should strike the planet, what will be the result?

This now largely forgotten work was written by H.G. Wells (1866-1946) in 1906, during his brief sojourn with the Fabian Society. This book is less science fiction than his earlier works, such as the Invisible Man and the War of the Worlds, and is more of a political polemic. In it, we get to see the inevitable destruction of the capitalist system that the antediluvian Socialists predicted. But more, Wells uses the comet as a vehicle to posit a new utopia, where man has awakened from his childhood as a species and puts behind him such things as private ownership of land, nationalism, religion, and so much more. Indeed, this book marks Wells' open advocation of free love, which eroded his popularity among the reading public.

Now, as for the book itself, I am of two minds. The book starts out rather slowly, and I found myself rather bored with it. But, as it continued, it began to pick up steam, and became quite an interesting read. This is one of Wells' better works of fiction, being much better (in my opinion) than Tono-Bungay and the Food of the Gods.

So, if you are a fan of Edwardian literature, or just like a good story, then you will definitely like this book. I highly recommend it.

H.G. Wells was a known socialist for much of his life, although his opinions seemed to have change after the rise of the Stalinist Soviet Union. This book, with the misleading title, is NOT science fiction in the classic sense. However, this 1906 Wells' work is clearly an effort by Wells to show why the world should become socialist. He constantly ridicules the capitalist world by pointing out how capitalism breeds social classes which in turn breeds an unequal lifestyle among human beings. The rich get all the benefits of life, while the poor are left in squalor. Perhaps Wells' best illustration of this comes late in the book when the mother of the main character tells how her daughter died because she couldn't afford to pay the doctors who demanded their fee up front. Wells' also tries to convince the reader that socialism will not mean an end to the family, although it apparantly will mean the end of the single family home, all of which are destroyed in several! English cities by the socialists in this book. In fact, Wells claims people will find true love as a result of socialism because people will no longer think they are better than others. If you are looking for something in the realms of WAR OF THE WORLDS, THE INVISIBLE MAN or THE TIME MACHINE, this book is not for you. If you are a die-hard Wells fan you will probably enjoy this look into Wells' socialist ideas.

I first read this and saw that it was a Utopian Novel which was much more positive than others I had also read(by Orwell,for instance).However,I can see now that,although highly disguised through the science-fiction and humanity,this was Wells' own Socialist ideas of the world.Wells is an author whose works can be read as either science fiction,human interest or social commentary.

As a kid, I must have read "War of the Worlds" and "The Time Machine" two dozen times apiece. H.G. Wells appealed to the most fantastic parts of my imagination, and he still does. As a kid, I also read this book once, "In the Days of the Comet," but I don't remember being quite as impressed.

As an adult however, I have re-read "War of the Worlds" and "The Time Machine," and while I still enjoyed them, found them to be more along the lines of paperback thrillers. When I re-read this book, however, I found a treasure.

This book tells the story of a world changed by a comet--a comet that passes by the earth and allows everyone to see themselves and one another as they truly are. It affects everything from relationships, to the structures of towns, to how people look at one another. It allows the world to become truly socialist in a non-political way. It shows the world as what it could be if only everyone viewed one another as equally important as one's self. It is not a political manifesto, because by its very premise it suggests the impossibility of such a wondrous happening and of such a change. It is not a violent, dynamic book that hurtles itself forward the way "War of the Worlds" and "The Time Machine" do--it is a gentle, thoughtful look at people, at people's motivations, at the problems of the world, and at a wish to be better than we have been.

It is also astoundingly well written. That's what hit me the most about it. It is full of powerful phrases, poetic sentences, and clearly expressed ideas and metaphors. As an adult, I recommend this book as one of Wells's very best.

It's a treat that I plan to re-read yet again.

I thought that I was familiar with most of Well's body of work, until I stumbled over this unique novel.

First of all, do not be put off by the first part of this book- it is intended to be depressing. It is meant to paint the pettiness, ugliness, and just plain bloody-mindedness of human society in 1906. It does this quite well for I almost set the book aside several times in disgust. It is all unpleasantness after unpleasantness in the life of a working class young man (obviously modeled largely after the author's youth.) Even the fact of the approach of the great comet is almost mentioned only in passing as a minor occurrence.

Then everything changes when the comet hits. Mankind is transformed. That is to say that all of mankind is suddenly mentally and spiritually enlightened and awakened. I've read nothing quite like it in literature. The first part of the book makes it jump out at you all the more. All the meanness, pettiness, guile, and evil evaporate in the human species. The story of how these enlightened men put an end to want, injustice, and war around the world is breathtaking and inspirational. Wells attributes this to a chemical change in earth's atmosphere, but there is a surprising amount of spirituality also incorporated (surprising for Wells.)

All of this reminded me of the change that is said to occur when a human soul leaves the material world and enters the astral. All of the old heaviness and stupidity drop away. Only the highest of what it means to be human remains- the old ego dies. Even in the story everyone speculated if perhaps they were not dead and transported to a different world. Some even declared that this great Change was the Second Advent.

There is one thing about this novel that leaves a lingering element of disappointment. This is the fact that the core causes of all the economic, social, and political injustices and stupidities described in the first part of the book in 1906 are still with us. After 101 years these same problems are still with us. I'm sure that this would have also disappointed Mr. Wells.

William Leadford is a young London Socialist, leading a life of quiet desperation. Around him, the whole world seems to be unraveling, as capitalist wage war on their own workers, and nation rises up against nation. And through it all, a comet has entered the Solar System, and may indeed be aimed straight at Earth. Can the system that dominates men's lives survive its seeming inevitable destruction? And if the comet should strike the planet, what will be the result?

This now largely forgotten work was written by H.G. Wells (1866-1946) in 1906, during his brief sojourn with the Fabian Society. This book is less science fiction than his earlier works, such as the Invisible Man and the War of the Worlds, and is more of a political polemic. In it, we get to see the inevitable destruction of the capitalist system that the antediluvian Socialists predicted. But more, Wells uses the comet as a vehicle to posit a new utopia, where man has awakened from his childhood as a species and puts behind him such things as private ownership of land, nationalism, religion, and so much more. Indeed, this book marks Wells' open advocation of free love, which eroded his popularity among the reading public.

Now, as for the book itself, I am of two minds. The book starts out rather slowly, and I found myself rather bored with it. But, as it continued, it began to pick up steam, and became quite an interesting read. This is one of Wells' better works of fiction, being much better (in my opinion) than Tono-Bungay and the Food of the Gods.

So, if you are a fan of Edwardian literature, or just like a good story, then you will definitely like this book. I highly recommend it.

An extremely verbose book on the social and political issues between the Boer War and World War I in England with a solution to the world's problem via the green mist left by Earth passing through a comet's tail. I truly enjoyed the movie renderings of "The War of the Worlds" (the first version with Gene Barry), "The Time Machine" and "First Man on the Moon"; but I am let down by the wordiness of this novel and hope my reading of "War of the Worlds" and "Time Machine" do not do the same.

Next to War of the Worlds and The Time Machine, this book isn't nearly as well known. I enjoyed the book, but can see why it doesn't have the popularity of the other two, as much of the book is an extended discussion on the politics of the day, and especially the socialist views of one of the main characters, who is basically Wells's mouthpiece. Much of the time is spent with the two main characters, one of whom is an astronomy buff who is tracking the comet, and the other his politically fevered friend, who spends much of the time ranting to his geek buddy about politics while his friend painstakingly goes about his comet-tracking work and patiently listens.

I also have to admit I found all the discussion and detail about Leadford (the socialist friend) and his relationship with his beloved Nettie pretty dull stuff also. While this does serve as the romantic interest in the book (and there is some discussion of sex, too) I still found these passages pretty dull sledding. After all, this is still Victorian England, and so you're not exactly getting Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer here. :-)

The book does have a dramatic backdrop and setting, taking place during a global war and a worker's uprising, although most of the action doesn't have anything to do with that. With the war already on, the appearance of the comet is like another dreaded omen, creating further apprehension about the possible fate of the world and humanity. When this book was written almost 100 years ago, WWI was still in the distant future. But the universal conflagration in the book is reminsicent of what was to transpire only a decade later. But if you're looking for the sort of action one finds in War of the Worlds or the wonder of the time machine and the drama and tension of the class struggle between the Eloi and the Morlocks in that book, this isn't it.

The book has a positive ending though, as the earth passes through the comet and the entire population of the earth becomes briefly comatose. When they awake, humans are transformed; they are peaceful and no longer aggressive and warlike (truly a forlorn fantasy if there ever was one, but oh well, one can hope), the war is ended, and even the crime rate almost drops to zero. (I want to know if we can bring such a comet over here right now).

Overall, still a good Wells read, but if you haven't read the other two more popular books, I'd read those first, or even The Food of the Gods. Then you could pick this one up after that if you wanted.

How nice to read a novel that uses big words but is completely comprehensible. It's not "sentences for sentences sake" but the images that they produce. How nice to read a book that discusses socialism as a real alternative, but without the
painfully sanctimonious Che(I directed firing squads) Guevarra T-shirt wearing posturing. The main character's descriptions of his angry youth are humorous, much like the character in Old School who goes on an Ayn Rand binge.
How nice to read a novel with a social conscious that does not express itself as a complicated mathematical problem dependent upon sweeping generalizations that do not add up in the end. Welles's descriptions of the the poverty he sees in the streets are all we need.

"And passing that there was a muddy lane of cinders, a lane without a light, that used its many puddles to borrow a star or so from the sky."

The science fiction aspect goes a bit "When World's Collide" but it's also charmingly old fashioned and refreshing. This book, if I can offer a summation, should be called an anti-blockbuster, which is what many of Welles's novels should be called. If one compares the socialist utopia at the end of this novel with the cinematic dreck of the Bruce Willis ordeal Armageddon, we see polar opposites.

While not his earliest or most typical work,
In The Days of The Comet is a great introduction to Well's
literature for those interested but uninitiated into the
mind and writings of this great author.

Dramatic, full of suspense and intrigue, with a dose of
romance to boot, this story has something for everyone...
including a great social lesson.

The story is set in Edwardian England and has some of the
flavor of Dickens' stories. However, whereas it required
the visitation of all three spirits of Christmas to reform
Ebeneezer Scrooge, the entire human race gets reformed by
the visitation of a single comet in this masterful story by
H.G. Wells.

Once you've read it, check out "Mr. Britling Sees It Through"
for a superb examination of WWI and war in general. Wells
was one of the great thinkers of all time and we owe it to
ourselves to familiarize ourselves with his works. Many of
his ponderings on human nature and problems are applicable
even today. His science fiction works are far from being
his best, though they are the best-known.