Herbert George WELLS, “The Time Machine”, 1895 also was the topic of an earlier blog post.
Here I present: H. G. Wells, “The Croquet Player”, 1936Psychonautics is frequently the Science in SciFi novels: and, H. G. Wells was a writer of SciFi.
Chapter #. “Title”.
- “The Croquet Player Introduces Himself.”
- “The Haunting Fear in Cainsmarsh”.
- “The Skull in the Museum”.
- “The Intolerable Psychiatrist”.
The story begins:
Chapter #1. Page #9. “The Croquet Player Introduces Himself”.
“I have been talking to two very queer individuals and they have produced a peculiar disturbance of my mind. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that they have infected me and distressed me with some very strange and unpleasant ideas. I want to set down what it is they have said to me in the first place for my own sake, so as to clear up my thoughts about it.”
The story ends:
Chapter #4. Page #98. “The Intolerable Psychiatrist”.

SUMMARY .
“Something is horribly wrong in the remote English village of Cainsmarsh. An elderly woman stiffens in dread at her own shadow; a terrified farmer murders a scarecrow; food prepared by others is eyed with suspicion; family pets are bludgeoned to death; loving couples are devoured by rage and violence. A spirit-corrupting evil pervades the land, infesting the minds of those who call Cainsmarsh home. Is this vision real or a paranoid fantasy generated by an even darker worldwide threat? And is the call to resist the danger itself a danger? These are questions that disturb the calm of an indolent croquet player who happens to hear the tales of the unlucky village.”
H. G. Wells, “The Croquet Player”, 1936 is a Psychiatric tale of a man, (who may, or may not be) quote “hearing voices“?