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H. G. Wells (1866-1946), “The Croquet Player”, 1936.

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H. G. Wells, “The Invisible Man”, 1897 was the topic of an earlier blog post.

 

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”, 1936
which was a psychonautic SciFi story.
   
Psychonautics is frequently the Science in SciFi novels: and, H. G. Wells was a writer of SciFi.

 

The “table of contents” is shown BELOW.
The book is 89 pages divided into 4 chapters.

Chapter #.              “Title”.

  1.   “The Croquet Player Introduces Himself.”
  2.   “The Haunting Fear in Cainsmarsh”.
  3.   “The Skull in the Museum”.
  4.    “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”.

“He made a move almost as though he would impede my retreat. He just wanted to go on being apocalyptic. But I had enough of this apocalyptic stuff.  I looked him in the face, firmly but politely.  I said: “I don’t care.  the world may be going to pieces.  The Stone Age may be returning.  This may, as you say, be the sunset of civilization.  I’m sorry, but I can’t help you this morning.  I have other engagements.  All the same – laws of the Medes and Persians – I am going to play croquet with my aunt at half-past twelve today.”
 

 

Here I presented: H. G. Wells, “The Croquet Player”, 1936
which was a psychonautic SciFi story.   The book-cover back is shown ABOVE, and quoted BELOW is the “SUMMARY”.

 

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“?

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