The Door in the Wall, H. G. Wells
The Door in the Wall, H. G. Wells
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The Door in the Wall
When The Door Appears

Author: H. G. Wells

Narrator: Scott Miller

Unabridged: 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Scott Miller

Published: 03/03/2023

Synopsis

Some memories fade. Others wait. In The Door in the Wall, a successful public figure confesses a lifelong secret: the memory of a hidden door that once led him somewhere utterly unlike the world he grew up to master. He does not claim certainty. He claims insistence. The memory does not argue or explain itself. It simply returns, asking whether he will finally stop.As a child, the door promised nothing practical. As an adult, it threatens everything he has built. Each time it appears, it interrupts a moment of urgency—appointments, duty, ambition, reputation. Walking past it always feels responsible. Walking through it feels impossible to justify. And yet the refusal costs him more than time. The world he remains in becomes thinner, noisier, and harder to endure.Wells does not frame this story as a puzzle to be solved. He lets it unfold as a confession overheard too late. The tension comes not from what lies behind the door, but from the growing pressure of postponement. The story asks how long a person can delay a choice before the choice begins making itself.H. G. Wells published The Door in the Wall in 1906, during a period when his short fiction frequently examined private experience rather than speculative invention. Best known for novels such as The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds, Wells also wrote dozens of shorter works that explored memory, regret, and interior conflict. This story stands apart from his scientific romances by focusing almost entirely on one man’s repeated refusal to step aside from the life he believes he must live.

About H. G. Wells

Herbert George Wells, better known as H. G. Wells, was a novelist, journalist, sociologist, and historian who wrote over 100 books. His novels are among the classic works of science fiction. His works, which go beyond ordinary adventure stories, are thought-provoking, forcing the reader to examine the future of mankind.

Wells was born in Bromley, Kent, in 1866. His father was a shopkeeper and a professional cricketer until he broke his leg. Wells studied biology at the Normal School of Science in London and later taught in several private schools. In 1893, he became a full-time writer. He married one of his brightest students, Amy Catherine, in 1895.

Wells earned his reputation with a string of science fiction novels, including The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and The Invisible Man. In 1938, his realistic portrayal of a martian invasion in The War of the Worlds caused a panic across the United States when it was performed as a radio broadcast by actor Orson Wells. His science fiction stories have since become some of the most filmed works of all time.

Between the two world wars, Wells lived mainly in France. Beyond his literary career, he was the president of an international peace organization (PEN) from 1934 to 1946. In this capacity, he had discussions with both Stalin and Roosevelt, trying to recruit them to his world-saving schemes. However, he later became disillusioned with the cause of peace when global war broke out for the second time in a generation. Throughout the Second World War, Wells lived in his house on Regent's Park, refusing to let the blitz drive him out of London. He died there on August 13, 1946.

Reviews

Goodreads review by PattyMacDotComma

4★ (for the title story only) “‘I have,’ he said, ‘a preoccupation— I know,’ he went on, after a pause, ‘I have been negligent. The fact is—it isn’t a case of ghosts or apparitions—but—it’s an odd thing to tell of, Redmond—I am haunted. I am haunted by something—that rather takes the light out of th......more

Goodreads review by Eloy

"Indeciso al principio, más resuelto después, empezó a revelar el secreto de su vida, el recuerdo obsesivo de una belleza y una felicidad, que le embargaban con anhelos insaciables y le hacían ver los intereses y espectáculos de la existencia mundana como algo aburrido, tedioso y vano(...) En el inst......more

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