In the Days of the Comet

by H.G. Wells

A comet rushes toward the earth, a deadly, glowing orb that soon fills the sky and promises doom. But mankind is too busy hating, stealing, scheming, and killing to care. As luminous green trails of cosmic dust and vapor stream across the heavens, blood flows beneath: nations wage all-out war, bitter strikes erupt, and jealous lovers plot revenge and murder. The earth slips past the comet by the narrowest of margins, but all succumb to the gases in its tail. When mankind wakes up, everyone is completely and profoundly different. An ill-fated romance between Willie Leadford and Nettie Stuart unfolds in a world buried in misery and bent on its own destruction. After the earth passes through the comet's tail, suffering, pettiness, and injustice melt away. Willie, Nettie, and everyone around them are reborn. They now see themselves and their world in a dramatically new and wonderful way.

Genres: Science Fiction, Classics, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Literature, Fantasy, Novels

223 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1906

About the author

Herbert George Wells was born to a working class family in Kent, England. Young Wells received a spotty education, interrupted by several illnesses and family difficulties, and became a draper's apprentice as a teenager. The headmaster of Midhurst Grammar School, where he had spent a year, arranged for him to return as an "usher," or student teacher. Wells earned a government scholarship in 1884, to study biology under Thomas Henry Huxley at the Normal School of Science. Wells earned his bachelor of science and doctor of science degrees at the University of London. After marrying his cousin, Isabel, Wells began to supplement his teaching salary with short stories and freelance articles, then books, including The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898).

Wells created a mild scandal when he divorced his cousin to marry one of his best students, Amy Catherine Robbins. Although his second marriage was lasting and produced two sons, Wells was an unabashed advocate of free (as opposed to "indiscriminate") love. He continued to openly have extra-marital liaisons, most famously with Margaret Sanger, and a ten-year relationship with the author Rebecca West, who had one of his two out-of-wedlock children. A one-time member of the Fabian Society, Wells sought active change. His 100 books included many novels, as well as nonfiction, such as A Modern Utopia (1905), The Outline of History (1920), A Short History of the World (1922), The Shape of Things to Come (1933), and The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind (1932). One of his booklets was Crux Ansata, An Indictment of the Roman Catholic Church. Although Wells toyed briefly with the idea of a "divine will" in his book, God the Invisible King (1917), it was a temporary aberration. Wells used his international fame to promote his favorite causes, including the prevention of war, and was received by government officials around the world. He is best-remembered as an early writer of science fiction and futurism.

He was also an outspoken socialist. Wells and Jules Verne are each sometimes referred to as "The Fathers of Science Fiction". D. 1946.

More: http://philosopedia.org/index.php/H._...

http://www.online-literature.com/well...

http://www.hgwellsusa.50megs.com/

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the boo-hooish Edwardian era, a furious socialist is inflamed with hatred when an aristocrat pinches his cash-fond lover. A passing comet then causes the ‘Change’, removing human assholerie from the world with magic green gas, leading to a vague kind of utopia based on niceness and sexless thrupling. Willie Leadford is one of Wells’s angriest protagonists, and this undervalued novel is one of his most scathing, clear-headed, and elegantly written.

[Razvan Banciu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published for the first time in 1906, this is somehow different from the other H. G. Wells novels, as the comet and the SF part play a subsidiary role here.
In fact, we have a social pamphlet involving the young socialist William, his early life and his fate.

[Eli Bishop · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 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 Samuel Delany, who had two very different takes on parts of the premise: Triton, where human nature hasn't changed but there's still a (sort of) utopia where a neurotic guy has trouble adjusting, and Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, where you can get a treatment to make you incapable of worrying about anything but then you immediately get sold into slavery.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wells was a Fabian socialist and pacifist who devoted much of his work both in his fictions and non-fictions towards educating people. In the Days of the Comet he presents a thought-experiment: What if everyone became rational?

By "rational" I mean, upon first consideration, any action predicated upon a realistic understanding of the facts performed by an agent aware of the complex of his or her motives. Upon further consideration, rational behavior would also entail an understanding of the motives of others, conscious or unconscious, weighing the interests of all equally. Rational behavior, by this account, would also appear to be ethical behavior. Wells did a service to humanity by explicating these kinds of considerations in the context of a readable story.

[Book2Dragon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've read other utopian sci-fi that disparages our current system of selfishness, egotism, ethnocentrism, elitism, and the struggles inherent in classes. I'm not saying current society is all Bad, but Wells purports that this is the state of affairs for most of this book.

The book is divided into three parts: Before "The Change," after "The Change," and the setting up of a new society. This would be in harmony with the 60s when free love, communes, and disregard for Materialism and all that is society is the utopia sought. It didn't work then and a comet that changes the atmosphere will not accomplish this.

Nowhere are the mechanics of currency, employment, labor and industry given a concrete solution. Everything is just wonderful and everyone loves one another. Would be nice, but I cannot foresee it.

Certainly there are things that could be improved, particularly those mentioned in my first paragraph, but this is certainly a glossed over version of how that can happen. The epilogue gives a portent of that.

I read on because I couldn't wait to finish the book, and had no sympathy for the main character.

[The Scribbling Man · Rating 1 out of 5]

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 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.

[Len · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is all very typical Wells. First it is a working class, or class conscious, love story that could be from a politically motivated and eventually violent Kipps or Mr. Polly. Then there is a touch of science fiction with the arrival of the mysterious comet eventually spewing its mind-altering green mist over the Earth and all its people. And finally the creation of a perfect Utopia replacing the existing world of warfare, corrupt politics and social inequality – courtesy of the comet.

It comes together very well and, while the left wing political propaganda may well rub against some people, a good story is produced with romance, emotion, spooky science fiction and an ending which promises peace, tranquility and equality for all. However, there is a feeling that the people of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Pacific will only benefit from the comet's changes when and as the opinions of their Imperial masters change, but that may be as one would expect in a story written by an Englishman living at the heart of a powerful empire in the early years of the twentieth century.

But then in one paragraph in Book Two, Chapter Three Wells ruins everything. The comet is doing its work and the British government ministers meet to discuss how they are amending their views on what they will do to accept the changes that are coming. Mr. Gurker, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, speaks and Wells lets loose a paragraph of the most appalling, despicable anti-Semitism imaginable. It is bound to cause offence but I think it deserves quoting in full:

Ever and again Gurker protruded into the discussion, swaying forward, a deep throaty voice, a big nose, a coarse mouth with a drooping everted lower lip, eyes peering amidst folds and wrinkles. He made his confession for his race. "We Jews," he said, "have gone through the system of this world, creating nothing, consolidating many things, destroying much. Our racial self-conceit has been monstrous. We seem to have used our ample coarse intellectuality for no other purpose than to develop and master and maintain the convention of property, to turn life into a sort of mercantile chess and spend our winnings grossly. We have had no sense of service to mankind. Beauty which is godhead – we made it a possession.”

I have long admired Wells' work, his invention, his ideas, his belief in science and equality. Now I feel ashamed to have done so.

[Radu Mureșan]

Am citit 80 de pagini din 300, dar imi vine sa adorm... nu trebuie sa-mi descrii o simpla camera in 4 pg, o poti face in una, iar imaginatia mea sa completeze. Ma asteptam ca acea cometa sa aiba un rol mai mare in poveste, dar cred ca e mentionata de vreo doua ori in aceste 80 de pg... pun pariu ca in ultimul sfert al cartii au loc elementele SF, pentru care am vrut sa citesc asta, dar eu nu o sa mai ajung acolo, din pacate pentru Wells. Nici Omul Invizibil nu m-a impresionat, pe asta nici macar nu vreau sa o termin... am inceput pe piciorul gresit cu acest autor.

[Lance Schonberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

For this year's reading journey, from all of H.G. Wells’ works, I picked one that I was completely and totally unfamiliar with, and I deliberately picked one in the heart of the time frame I most associate with his writing, the early 1900s, even though I’m well aware that he continued writing fiction into the early 1940s.

The opening pages of the book make me wonder if until sometime in the early 20th century it was only possible to start a novel by putting your tale into the story-within-a-story framework. Honestly, it’s beginning to be a bit of an eye roll. At least this time it was short.

The real story starts as a memoir, a man of 72 writing about the urge to write about his life and how it seems so different since the Great Change. I’m not terribly fond of this structure, either, as it robs any sense of tension and immediacy from the story, but if the memoir aspect goes away quickly, I can usually set it aside. And Mr. Wells was a good writer. This does pass as we slide into the story, although there are frequent hints and moments throughout the book that jar us back to the realization that we’re supposed to be reading a memoir.

Of interest is that the narrator doesn’t seem to think a great deal of religion and that’s apparent early on. He notes having doubts and we get a nice, if brief, discussion of him walking away from religion, if not quite from god. In 1905. (A dozen years later, Mr. Wells would write far more extensively about his own religious views not being attached to Christianity or drawing upon any traditional religion.) But religion isn’t the early focus of the book, more of a side bar.

The first quarter of the story is far more a commentary on turn of the (20th) century capitalism and its abuses. There’s a great deal of setup of the normal situation, the comet an occasionally mentioned background item that we know is going to be important, but isn’t yet. And normal is a little on the crappy side for the narrator. He works at a miserable dead end job, until he stupidly quits, screws up what could have been a healthy romantic relationship, is snarky at his mother, and tries to alienate the man who is probably his only friend. All the while, the rich capitalists are putting half the population into similarly crappy life situations and working hard to isolate themselves from it.

In fact, rather more than the first quarter. The comet continues to grow and get more noticeable to the narrator, but until it actually hits the planet, it doesn’t really seem to have any effect on day to day life. People are worried, but it’s supposed to be just a few hundred tonnes of dust and gas, so we’ll pretend it’s not there and enjoy our something less than pleasant life, unemployed and a budding socialist, in late industrial revolution Swathinglea (a mythical near-suburb of London).

I suppose that’s not entirely fair. The narrator does drop hints and odd bombs throughout this part of the text about how things are different these days, so long after the Great Change. We don’t treat mothers like that anymore. People actually think about what they’re doing. We run the world properly these days. Oh, you think that was bad, let me tell you about war.

I’m paraphrasing, but yes, really.

Actually, on the subject of war, Mr. Wells does have the narrator give us a short treatise on just how stupid and wasteful it is, neatly predicting the horror of World War I. But then he goes on to try showing us how it used to be different in pre-modern days when one tribe/nation went out to test itself against its neighbours. Still a very 19th century viewpoint to my reading. While I can certainly respect individuals stepping up to serve their nations, I have a hard time respecting the nations who deliberately make that service necessary by initiating aggression against other nations.

But I'm getting side tracked. Surprise.

It's also interesting to contrast this narrator’s views of the press and newspapers with that of A Connecticut Yankee. While the press was high on the list of important things in that book, in this one the narrator lays the responsibility, as a big, dirty industry filled with and run by eager, unintelligent young men, for fanning the flames of nationalism, pride, and war.

There are actually a lot of interesting thoughts in this book on religion, nationalism, human nature, and society. But it also needs to be a story, not just a collection of ideas. And it's almost not. The protagonist (if you can call him that) spends so much time being a miserable jerk that he more or less drives his girlfriend away and into a relationship with a man who is apparently in all ways, his superior. So, after a feeble attempt at getting her back, instead he sets off to murder them. This is the story for the first many, many pages.

But, to be honest, the thing that really drove me nuts about this story, though, is that we don’t actually have anything speculative beyond the comet’s existence until we’re over half way through the book. What we’ve got is the story of a downtrodden young man, too low in the hierarchy of society, miserable with his life and having lost his girlfriend to someone better off. It’s a slight descent into madness but we’re stopped short of him catching up with the happy couple and killing them by what may or may not be the comet’s impact or a chain reaction caused by the fighting of great ironclads in the nearby ocean. (It's the comet, but that's not clear right away.) He trips over his own feet and knocks himself cold. Or maybe that's the comet, too (it is, but also not clear until later).

And then he wakes up with new eyes in a new world. Except neither are new, just his perception of things has changed. The Great Change, promised in the first paragraphs of the book, had finally come.

The protagonist, and everyone else, wakes up to how poorly we’ve been running and organizing things for all of human history. What follows for most of the remainder of the book is a long series of examples of how the world, in small and large ways, would be so much better if we considered other people before our own selfishness and thought about things a little more before acting on that selfishness.

For a resolution to the love triangle, the protagonist sits down with his dream girl and his rival and they talk their way around the ideas of monogamy, loving one person, and perhaps the new world would let people live as they chose, but they weren’t quite there yet, globally or personally. Still, times might, and would change.

Overall rating: 2 stars. Translation: it was easy to read and had lots of neat thoughts in it, but as a story, it failed miserably for me. Your mileage may vary, but I wish I'd picked another of Mr. Wells' books for this journey.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

This seems like a virulently anti-Christian socialist tract thinly disguised as a science fiction novel. However, even in the new neo-pagan utopia, not everything is perfect.

I wonder if this novel is where John Wyndham got the idea for the Dayout in The Midwich Cuckoos.

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

Once in a while you read a book that you look back and reflect, thinking, “well, that was a pile of rubbish”, this, was such a book. It began with an individuals view of a dystopian life, past, present or future I was unsure. Then a bit of gas, UTOPIAN FUTURE, all happy bunnies, hugging each other like everyone has overnight a lobotomy and the world was put to rights.

In effect, what we have here is a couple of interwoven stories, none of which came to any fruition and just fizzled out. On one side a mother and son who didn’t really talk, a love interest that came, went, came and so on, then, as the title suggest a comet. On top of this, and which is H G Wells’ main view and attempt, poorly done I may add is to create a story based on his socialist beliefs.

None of the stories really gelled, you had, dystopian going to utopia and the comet? It took up so much of this story and never really felt the full effect of it. Like with Wells’ book ‘The Star’ it seemed to have importance in the story, like stars and comets have done in every day life for centuries.

Nothing against socialist views at all, Wells’ socialist ideal of the future sounded like Hell to me. I appreciate the intrinsic differences of socialism, capitalism etc, but what Wells states and seems to want is to advocate ripping up every piece of historical past, destroying every vestiges of culture, buildings and prior life and then...... de evolve. People seemingly do whatever they want, when they want. He advocates getting rid of the horse and carriage because ‘the capitalist pig’/ ‘The Man’ created it before and we must do away with it. People walking around in clothes without washing them, no shoes because ‘what’s the point’ syndrome all seems like a version of hell and wouldn’t know who would want to live in it.

Sure, philosophise the future, but, to eradicate the past and sit and do nothing is no kind of future. A terrible book over all, Little positive to say about it.

[The Frahorus · Rating 3 out of 5]

La storia ruota attorno a William Leadford, uno studente disoccupato che vive nella città industriale di Clayton in Gran Bretagna. Convinto socialista, egli lotta per un cambiamento di potere a partire dalle classi più elevate, per via dalle squallide condizioni di vita causate dallo sviluppo industriale della città e del paese. Anche se le date non sono mai specificate, l'epoca dovrebbe essere quella subito precedente ad un conflitto (circa a metà del libro, nel capitolo intitolato "Guerra") in cui la Gran Bretagna dichiara guerra alla Germania. Per la maggior parte della prima metà del libro, la narrazione è una retrospezione in prima persona di William, che descrive la gretta e vile impudenza in cui versa la classe sociale più bassa e di come si sviluppa la storia d'amore tra Willie e una ragazza di classe media di nome Nettie, che vive in un'altra città di nome Checkshill. Si scopre un giorno che Nettie è fuggita con un uomo di classe superiore di nome Verral. William decide di comprare una rivoltella e di ucciderli entrambi, nel tentativo di risolvere sia il suo disordine mentale nel caos della sua esistenza delle classi inferiori, sia il tradimento amoroso di Nettie. Per tutto il tempo vi è una descrizione ricorrente della presenza notturna di una grande cometa nel cielo che emette un bagliore verde brillante, più luminoso della Luna, così che le persone cominciano a trascurare di accendere i lampioni nelle strade. (non aggiungo altro per non fare ulteriori spoilers)

Storia molto interiore, che fa riflettere.

[Mark]

I couldn't manage to finish this, having struggled through the first two "books". The characters were too unsympathetic and the story too dull.

This is the last of seven novels in a Wells volume I obtained back in 2010. Apart from The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds, none of them has been very good.

[Michael P.]

After 50 pages I have little interest in these characters and what they do. The sci-fi part of the story does not seem to begin for another 50 pages, too long to wait to learn if the book turns enough to interest me. Wells's passages promoting socialism do not seem very profound. Bye, bye.

[Robert Burita · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Days Of The Comet is the perfect setting for Wells to explore and dissect the psychology of humanity as a whole.

This psychology is explored by answering one, fairly vague, question; "What would happen if the whole of humanity was suddenly nice to each other and stopped being mean to each other and was generally good when before they were bad???", and as a vague addendum to that question; "If everyone is nice to each other what happens to bad feelings that are normal for people to have and can people have bad feelings when everything is suddenly good and how would that work??"

The unapproachable topic of the psychological attitude of the whole of humanity is made approachable by first exploring it through the lens of an individual's psychology in the form of the book's protagonist. Although this makes for a more approachable path to this topic, it also makes for two fairly disconnected halves of the same book, the first covering the individual and the second covering the whole.

I liked this story, but would have preferred a heavier focus on the whole, rather than the individual. But I'd recommend this book to anyone who would like a vaguely sci-fi novel about a boy in love and a gaseous comet heading towards earth. (Like I said, two fairly disconnected halves)

[Shane Ver Meer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wells really nailed the melodramatic angst of the incel. I'm not entirely onboard with the latter portion of the book, but it didn't end terribly. Much of the sentiment in the work regarding women is dated and sexist: it's definitely a product of its time...

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The pre-comet world is a 4, post-comet a 2. Wells, although probably not his intent, reveals that better is worse.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let me preface this review with the comment that I enjoy HG Wells' novels such as War of the Worlds. However this novel had to be the longest 200 page book I have ever read. Two of Elmore Leonard's rules for writing were Don’t go into great detail describing places and things and Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. HG Wells failed on both counts. About 30% of the book was descriptions of things or places that really did not contribute to the story. Three or four paragraphs describing a room where a couple of sentences would have done nicely - my imagination can fill in the rest.

About 60% was devoted to how unfair society was, and how wonderful the world would be if socialism was the order of things. By page 40 I got the message - Rich people = bad, poor people = good, land owners = bad, renters and indigent = good. I understand he was a socialist and idealist, and in 1906 socialism was still theory and had not been implemented as a government so he had no idea what an abject failure it would turn out to be in execution. However, if he wanted to center his novel around that theme or message, he could have done it in a less boring and monotonous way that didn't club the reader into a catatonic state with his message. The 10% of the book that was actually story was lost, similar to a plot in a porn movie - the story was just there as a side effect to what the author really wanted to write about.

I originally gave it 1 star, but his willingness to include a controversial subject that was taboo at the time, such as a polyamorous relationships, (btw, if you consider that to be a spoiler, tough - the book has been published since 1906. Deal with it) is worth an extra star. This book apparently caused some controversy when it came out, and his reputation suffered some because of it. I like it when an author is not afraid to shake up the status quo.

So to sum up the novel - socialism will make the world a peaceful utopia as long as the Earth is hit by a comet that contains special fairy dust that awakens humanity and allows them to love their fellow man (or woman, or multiple men and women!).

[Joe Santoro · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's amazing how bad one book can be from a clearly brilliant, intelligent writer. I guess this was Wells' political work... you could sorta compare it to the Jungle, only it's not anywhere near as good.. or even readable.

The 1st two-thirds of the book are about Willie Landford, a young 'modern' (for 1906) boy who gets turned onto socialism and Nihilism, ends up losing his girlfriend because she isn't into 'the cause', then decides he has to kill her.

In the background, a comet (this is a bit before Haleys, but perhaps that was already an anticipated event), seems to be heading to Earth, but only crazy doomsday cultists are really worried about it.

On the day Willie tracks down his girlfriend is is ready to enforce his Nihilism on her and her fiance, (he actually empties a revolver at them, but misses), war with Germany (nice bit of accurate predicting there) arrives...as does the comet. It hits the Earth, excuding a green fog, which makes everyone on Earth pleasant, happy co-operative Socialists, and the world is re-made into a paradise.

The whole story is a flashback, with Willie (as an old man) writing his life story before the change. We find out that he lived his life with the girl, her fiancee, and some other girl, in a happy 'modern' foursome at the end of the book.. showing just how much forgiveness magic green gas can create.

Pretty much a waste of a book unless you want overly wordy descriptions of turn of the century Britain, or perhaps if you study early political propaganda.

[Kim Browers · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm.... not even really sure where to begin with this one. H.G. Wells is a writer of whining, loathsome men, and this is no exception. I found the socialistic ideas that ran through the story interesting and forward-thinking, but the rest of it was so convoluted I didn't ever really enjoy reading it.

First, most of the story is whining about the main characters girlfriend, who cheats, and he decides to enact revenge on.

That's well over half the book.

Then the comet, which has been an incidental part of the story, does "happen". Now we're in a bizarre, vague, and psychedelic utopia? Sort of? Emotions matter, but then not, but then they matter more? And in the end are they even really alive? Why is the visitor, who launches the story, part of the "old world" and shocked by the main character's newfangled post-comet ways of thinking? SO MANY QUESTIONS. Do not recommend if you are easily frustrated by oddly paced plots, whining in general, and leaving the science out of science fiction.

[F.R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a time of war and financial chaos, a comet moves through the Earth’s atmosphere and releases a green smoke. It renders every living being unconscious, but when man awakes he finds that he has lost the capacity for rage, fury and the darker passions. A utopia is then built.

This is nowhere near a front row Wells, but it is a book crammed full of ideas. For the first half at least we have a protagonist who is unhinged with emotion; there are a number of great descriptions (for example; “Mrs Verrall was exquisitely clean. If you had boiled my poor dear mother in soda for a month you couldn’t have got her so clean as Mrs Verrall”); and clearly Wells is trying to make his point about the rationality needed for a more settled and ordered society.

However the idyll, when it arrives, proves to be more than a little dull – and I can’t help thinking that the author gave a more interesting view of a ‘perfect’ world with the Eloi in The Time Machine.

[Darin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Slow and dull throughout the majority of this story, Wells grinds many axes here. Many of these I can appreciate but the vessel by which these axes are ground, the story itself, is very weak. Problem riddled society circa early 1900s is transformed into a utopia. Utopian stories are, by default, difficult to pull off. Where is the conflict? Instead, Wells focuses on character development that is brought on by this change and it is through this that we see Wells' underlying messages. He does pair this utopia with a main character that is about as unlikable as possible outside of being a felon.

[Steve Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

H.G. Wells the Idealist in tip-top form. While he concentrates on one particular character unhappy with his poor station in life, Wells manages to expose the foibles of all classes - upper or lower. He makes his points and views known; no doubt about it. However, he's not nearly as heavy-handed as he was later apt to be.

2nd reading after who-knows-how-long...more powerful than I remembered.

[Delilah Des · Rating 4 out of 5]

unexpectedly marvellous; I didn't think I liked utopian fiction but this was a neat trick at producing a historical document for future readers, contained a lot of ideas which are still considered "too modern" now, and has a strongly-drawn protagonist. not what I was expecting at all!

[Melissa Jacobson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just have no opinions on this. It was such a slog for me to get through. I find the premise interesting but neither the characters nor the actual plot were interesting to me. Nothing was gripping or enticing. Yes, the writing was great, but that aside I just didn't mesh this particular book.

[Gracie 'G' Wallner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A unique tale written in 1906. despite its age, has themes of anticapitalism, pacifism, polyamory/free love, antiindustrialism, communalism. Took me a while to get through, but ultimately worth it.

[Janne Wass · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have an actual H.G. Wells 1st edition, which I’m very proud of. “In the Days of the Comet” is one of the many books in which the author explores his ideas of a future utopia. Wells wrote several such books, some more scholarly, others in the form of pamphlets and some, including this one, in the shape of novels.

In short, the book lays out life in Britain before and after Earth has had a brush with a comet that replaces all the oxygen in the air with some sort of “utopia gas”, which overnight brings out all the best in people and make them see clearly the folly of all their need, greed and feuds. It follows a socialist working-class protagonist who builds up a glowing rage against all the lackeys of capitalism and the upper class, fuelled by romantic jealousy. In the turning point of the book, he has procured a revolver and is engaged in the act of shooting his upper-class rival and his ex-girlfriend when the comet sweeps in. All the world falls asleep in the middle of a world war, and wake up feeling nothing but love and respect for their fellow humans. Businessmen renounce their riches, royals abdicate and generals lay down their arms. All of human society decides to rebuild in the spirit of cooperation, fairness and equality.

However, the thing the book is remembered for, and the reason it caused a slight scandal when published, is that it also strikes a blow for polyamory its final pages, when it is revealed that the love rivalry has morphed into a menage-à-trois.

A year before the publication of “In the Days of the Comet”, Wells wrote the foreword to the English translation of Frenchman Gabriel Tarde’s book “Underground Man”, another novel in which a disaster brings on a “Great Change” in humanity, and was clearly inspired by his French counterpart. “In the Days of the Comet” is not one of Wells’ strongest works, even though the first part of the book is a reminder of the fact that Wells was one of the greatest chroniclers of the British working class this side of Dickens.

[Lori · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is.... not my favorite by H.G. Wells by a long shot. Though normally deeply creative and thought-provoking, this one comes across as a political piece thinly veiled by a love story gone wrong. I love Wells' writing typically, but In the Days of the Comet was a bit of a flop for me. The first third of the book held my attention, as we follow a jilted lover seeking revenge amidst a backdrop of union strikes and impending doom from a comet headed towards Earth. The main character is incredibly unstable and utterly unlikeable in a rather compulsively readable manner. However, the book quickly fizzles out into a preachy tome until the revenge plot returns and gets wrapped up all in the last handful of pages.

[Kate Sherrod · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is kind of a bitter read in this stupid year of 2019. It contains perhaps the ultimate hand wave as to how its utopia was achieved, for starters, and contains a few startling passages of racism and sexism enough to remind us that Wells was only woke for his time. But there are also some great bits of observation and descriptive writing, including a great portrayal of the workings of a little Edwardian era newspaper. Worth a look sometime.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's and a bit of a slog for being fairly short. Protagonist is fairly unlikable and an absurdity for the first half of the novel until the "comet" which is just some cosmic gas comes to Earth and turns it into a utopia. It's interesting that what is progressive and forward thinking to be considered a utopia in 1906 can feel quite a bit outdated in modern society