An Analysis of H.G. Wells’ Short Stories “Mr Skelmersdale in Fairyland”, “the Door in the Wall” and “a Dream of Armageddon”

Linköping University Department of Culture and Communication English

I Have Dreamed a Dream…
An Analysis of H.G. Wells’ Short Stories “Mr Skelmersdale in Fairyland”, “The Door in the Wall” and “A Dream of Armageddon”

Lars Wallner C Course: Literary Specialisation Autumn, 2008 Supervisor: Helena Granlund

“I have dreamed a dream…”

Lars Wallner, Autumn 2008

Table of Contents

Introduction.............................................................................................................. 3 Chapter 1: Failing to Recognise What Is Right in Front of You..............................5 Chapter 2: Knocking on Heaven’s Door.................................................................. 12 Chapter 3: The Beauty of the Dream and the Beast of Reality................................ 22 Conclusion................................................................................................................ 30 Works Cited............................................................................................................. 32

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“I have dreamed a dream…”

Lars Wallner, Autumn 2008

Introduction Everyone has dreams; dreams of a better life, another world, an escape from reality. Sometimes it is these dreams that motivate us, that make us struggle, that keep us going. But is that all they are? What if the dreams were something more? What if we could realise those dreams and go into them? As a writer of the late 19th, early 20th century, Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was immensely productive, and published a multitude of short stories, novels and scientific as well as political essays. Unlike many authors of his time, Wells did not keep to one theme but produced stories of different genres. He wrote fairy tales, science fiction, fantasy novels and realistic novels, and some times used several different genres in the same stories. He was not only interested in science, but he was also a politically active socialist and he wrote many essays and letters

Cited: Primary Source Wells, H.G. The Complete Short Stories of H.G. Wells. London: Ernest Bell, 1971. Secondary Sources Borden, Richard C. “H.G. Wells ' ‘Door in the Wall’ in Russian Literature.” The Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 36, No. 3 (autumn, 1992). 323-338. Dickson, Lovat. H.G. Wells – His Turbulent Life and Times. London: Macmillan, 1969. Gardner, Martin. "H(erbert) G(eorge) Wells." Supernatural Fiction Writers: Fantasy and Horror. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner 's Sons, 1985. Hammond, John R. An H.G. Wells Companion. London: The MacMillan Press, 1979. Hauer Costa, Richard. H.G Wells, Revised Edition. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1985. Haynes, Roslynn D. H.G. Wells: Discoverer of the Future – The Influence of Science on His Thought. London: New York UP, 1980. Hyde, William J. “The Socialism of H.G. Wells in the Early Twentieth Century.” Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 17, No 2. (Apr. 1956). 217-234. Parrinder, Patrick. “The Comedy of Limitation.” H.G. Wells, A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Bernard Bergonzi. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1976. Silver, Carole G. Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness. New York: Oxford UP, 1999. Scuriatti, Laura. ”A Tale of Two Cities: H.G. Wells’s ‘A Door in the Wall’.” The Wellsian. 22 (winter, 1999) 11-28. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Joseph Palmisano. Vol 70. Detroit: Gale, 2004. 11-28. Ward, Alfred C. "H. G. Wells." Aspects of the Modern Short Story: English and American. University of London Press, 1924. 139-141. Rpt. in Short Stories for Students. Ed. Kathleen Wilson. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale, 1998. 139-141. Williams, Deborah. “An Overview of ‘The Door in the Wall’.” Exploring Short Stories. Gale Online Encyclopedia. Detroit: Gale, Literature Resource Centre. Linköpings Universitetsbibliotek 1 Sept. 2008. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=LitRC&u=link 32