title: The Door in The Wall
author: H.G. Wells
genre: short story/science fiction/fantasy/classic
source: http://www.americanliterature.com/
published: 1911
first line: One confidential evening, not three months ago, Lionel Wallace told me this story of the Door in the Wall.
In this short story by H.G. Wells, the narrator is a man named Redmond. He is telling the story of his friend Wallace's obsession with a door in a wall that leads to a beautiful otherworldly garden. Wallace discovered the door when he was a lonely five year old, out walking in West Kensington, London.
While he was there, he played with children and even spent time with an angel-like woman, a mother figure.
After spending time within the enchanted garden, he came back home to the real world where his governess raised him since his father was a busy lawyer. He told to his father about the garden behind the wall, but Wallace received a spanking for telling lies. Wallace wanted to go back to the garden, often dreaming about it.
Years pass, and a forty year old Wallace still obsesses with the door. He is now a successful politician. Wallace actually sees the door a few times throughout his life, but he never goes through it again, only contemplates it.
You may think me superstitious, if you will, and foolish; but, indeed, I am more than half convinced that he had, in truth, an abnormal gift, and a sense, something - I know not what - that in the guise of a wall and door offered him an outlet, a secret and peculiar passage of escape into another and altogether more beautiful world.
I always enjoy reading Wells stories. Here is a man who was ahead of his time. I love his imagination and the way he spins a story, to make it almost believable.
In this story, poor Wallace was neglected by his busy father and ends up finding this paradise-like world behind a door. It's no wonder he often thought about it for the rest of his life. As a reader, you do wonder whether the door actually existed or if it was his way of compensating for the neglect he suffered. He never went through the door again even though he saw it a few more times.
I became in a moment a very glad and wonder-happy little boy - in another world. It was a world with a different quality, a warmer, more penetrating, and mellower light, with a faint clear gladness in its air, and wisps of sun-touched cloud in the blueness of its sky.
About the author:
H.G. Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books. Together with Jules Verne, Wells has been referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction".
This has been a part of Once Upon a Time
