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In The Days Of The Comet Paperback – December 13, 2016

by Mr H G Wells (Author)
3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 33 ratings
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In the Days of the Comet (1906) is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells in which humanity is "exalted" when a comet causes "the nitrogen of the air, the old azote," to "change out of itself" and become "a respirable gas, differing indeed from oxygen, but helping and sustaining its action, a bath of strength and healing for nerve and brain." This narrative is divided into three "books": Book I: The Comet; Book II: The Green Vapours; and Book III: The New World. Book I, recounts that William ("Willie") Leadford, "third in the office staff of Rawdon's pot-bank [a place where pottery is made] in Clayton," quits his job just as an economic recession caused by American dumping hits industrial Britain, and is unable to find another position. When his love Nettie jilts Leadford for the son and heir of the Verrall family, Leadford buys a revolver, intending to kill them both and himself. As this plot matures, a comet with an "unprecedented band in the green" in its spectroscopy looms gradually larger in the sky, eventually becoming brighter than the Moon. Just as Leadford is about to kill his rivals, the green comet enters the Earth's atmosphere and disintegrates, causing a soporific green fog. Book II opens with Leadford's awakening, in which he is acutely aware of the beauty in the world and his attitude toward others is one of generous fellow-feeling. The same effects occur in every human being, who accordingly re-organize human society. Book III concerns with an intense discussion by Verrall, Leadford, and Nettie, about their and humanities future.Each RADLEY CLASSIC is a meticulously restored, luxurious and faithful reproduction of a classic book; produced with elegant text layout, clarity of presentation, and stylistic features that make reading a true pleasure. Special attention is given to legible fonts and adequate letter sizing, correct line length for readability, generous margins and triple lead (lavish line separation); plus we do not allow any mistakes/changes/additions to creep into the author’s words.Visit RADLEY BOOKS at www.radleybooks.com to see more classic book titles in this series.
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  1. Print length
    312 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    December 13, 2016
  4. Dimensions
    6 x 0.71 x 9 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1541107969
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1541107960
  7. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (December 13, 2016)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 312 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1541107969
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1541107960
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.7 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.71 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 33 ratings

Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
33 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Stephen L. Singer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!
Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2012
H.G. wells is the master of modern fiction all of his books i have read have been outstanding! I can't recommend this edition enough ! You will thoroughly enjoy this great work ! From cover to cover you will be up reading till its finished finally putting it back on the shelf is like leaving an old friend. All of his works have been amazing from his predictions to the future, science fiction and even the psychological thrillers i have loved them all.H.G. Wells is a must for anyone's reading list so much of his work is so important through the ages you must read his works.
3 people found this helpful
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Lilyn G.
4.0 out of 5 stars I liked H. G
Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2017
Verified Purchase
Oh, boy, In the Days of the Comet was a doozy. I liked H.G. Wells insights into the society of that time. This is primarily because the thought that kept occurring to me was how easily you could attribute almost all of his statement to today’s society. (Though as a friend put it: You could make that statement about a lot of books. It’s the clarity of thought where things differ.)The way he poked at and pointed out every bit of societal malignancy had me nodding and highlighting passages.

For example, take the below passage, and insert “climate change” for “dumping”.

“…one heard frightened old-fashioned statesmen asserting with passion that “dumping” didn’t occur, or that it was a very charming sort of thing to happen. Nobody would face and handle the rather intricate truth of the business.” H.G. Wells

Or this bit of truth about poor people going up against people who have done them wrong:

“Poor people, overworked people, had constantly to submit to petty wrongs because of the intolerable uncertainty not only of law but of cost, and of the demands upon time and energy, proceedings might make.” – H.G. Wells

Although the language itself might be outdated, sadly, it’s obvious that the vileness of humanity is timeless. However, Wells is more forgiving than I am. In In the Days of the Comet, he ascribes our failures to something almost tangible and curable by an outside force. Whereas I just think humans are by nature selfish, power-hungry toe-rags, and that’s that.

However, for all that I highlighted passages left and right, and often paused to think about particular statements… I cannot say I particularly liked In the Days of the Comet. Appreciated it? Definitely. Liked it? Not so much. Even though I’ve liked some of Wells’ other works, I found this book to be repetitive to the point of near-screaming frustration. Wells hammers his points home so much he’s driven the nail completely through the board. As an essay on the downfalls of society, it was fascinating. As a piece of fiction, it was ridiculously overdone.

There’s a book coming out soon that has a basic plot that sounds much like In the Days of the Comet, albeit spun much differently. That is: All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai. In both, it is not the future that is the dystopia, but rather a present day.

On a lighter note: I have a new bookish insult!

“an undersized Oxford prig with a tenoring voice and a garbage of Greek—the sort of little fool who is brought up on the admiration of his elder sisters. . . .” H.G. Wells

Old guys could do some rather nice insults, yeah?

Overall, In the Days of the Comet is a book that I don’t regret reading, but I’ll never willingly pick up again. Great for the experience and the science fiction education, but by no means a ‘great read’.
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Carla W
3.0 out of 5 stars Not my bag but I'm glad I read it
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2017
Favorite quotes:

I was thinking of revenge—revenge against the primary conditions of my being. I was thinking of Nettie and her lover. I was firmly resolved he should not have her—though I had to kill them both to prevent it. I did not care what else might happen, if only that end was ensured.

Then begins a clatter roar of machinery catching the infection, going faster and faster, and whizzing and banging,—engineers, who have never had time to wash since their birth, flying about with oil-cans, while paper runs off its rolls with a shudder of haste. The proprietor you must suppose arriving explosively on a swift motor-car, leaping out before the thing is at a standstill, with letters and documents clutched in his hand, rushing in, resolute to “hustle,” getting wonderfully in everybody’s way. At the sight of him even the messenger boys who are waiting, get up and scamper to and fro. Sprinkle your vision with collisions, curses, incoherencies. You imagine all the parts of this complex lunatic machine working hysterically toward a crescendo of haste and excitement as the night wears on. At last the only things that seem to travel slowly in all those tearing vibrating premises are the hands of the clock.

We knew before the Change, the meanest knew, by glowing moments in ourselves and others, by histories and music and beautiful things, by heroic instances and splendid stories, how fine mankind could be, how fine almost any human being could upon occasion be; but the poison in the air, its poverty in all the nobler elements which made such moments rare and remarkable—all that has changed. The air was changed, and the Spirit of Man that had drowsed and slumbered and dreamt dull and evil things, awakened, and stood with wonder-clean eyes, refreshed, looking again on life.

3 stars

First off, I am not a classics reader in general. But I wanted to challenge myself and since Sci-Fi is my favorite genre I chose to read this one.

This book took me over two months to read! It’s over 100 years old so the verbage was a bit difficult to translate. My mind just turned to mush after too long. This author describes EVERYTHING. Like pages and pages of one single element/scene/idea. It was enough to make me want to skim. I didn’t, but I wanted to. And the sentences were so long I had to stop and take a breath just to finish them! It kept kicking me out of the story when that happened, which was a lot.

This story was incredibly slow. About a quarter of the way through it I realized it had a love story in it! And that was the best part of the novel TBH. The MC was…quite frankly, crazy. Like certifiable. I kept comparing his actions being replicated in present times and if he behaved now as he had then, he wold have been locked up. He was incredibly proud, stubborn, entitled, egotistical, impulsive, vain and self-absorbed.

But I enjoyed the journey of his evolving character. Once the comet changed everyone the story progressed pretty quickly. Sidenote: The comet ‘changing’ everyone is a bit confusing because at the end there is a character who seems to not know what this guy is talking about. (Leading me to believe the MC was in fact insane)

And I LOVED the ending to the love story. It was so unexpected you guys! It just made me think about how much more accepting this ending would be viewed in present as opposed to then. It would have been a great scandal then, but now… not so much.

Glad I read it, don’t know if I would read his other works though. Stylistically, it’s not my bag.
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Wells's agreement with Hitler and the Muslims
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2019
Verified Purchase
In the book, Wells talked of the destruction of bills and contracts no longer needed. But also the destruction of historical building and burning of books. Hitler burned books. The Muslims destroyed ancient statues of Buda and the Roman cities in the Middle East. In the United States, there is. A demand to remove confederate statues, banding books like Tom Sawyer, and movies like Birth of a Nation. Was that a waning by Wells about the excesses of Socialism or a desire for things to be done by socialist.
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