In the Days of the Comet · Chapters

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Chapter companions for In the Days of the Comet by H. G. Wells.

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Chapter 1
Epigraph
The epigraph sets a prophetic and hopeful tone, invoking the renewal of the world and the return of a golden age, with imagery of the Earth shedding its worn skin like a snake and faiths and empires fading like dissolving dreams.
Chapter 2
In the Days of the Comet
The narrator reflects on the world before the comet's arrival, a time of social unrest, personal bitterness, and looming change. He describes his own resentments and the oppressive atmosphere of class division, setting the stage for the transformative event to come.
Chapter 3
Prologue
The narrator encounters a gray-haired man writing in a high tower room with a distant view of sea and city. The room's appointments are orderly and strange, suggesting a utopian future. The writer explains he is writing about 'the change,' and the narrator begins to read the manuscript.
Chapter 4
Book the First: The Comet
The opening chapter introduces the impending arrival of a comet, which becomes a focal point for various characters and their personal conflicts. The narrative sets the stage for the transformative events to come, highlighting themes of change and societal tension.
Chapter 5
I: Dust in the Shadows
The narrator, Willie Leadford, begins his account of the Great Change by recalling his youth in the grimy industrial towns of the Midlands. He describes his friendship with Parload, a stargazer obsessed with a new comet, and his own inner turmoil over a letter from Nettie Stuart and resentment toward his employer, Rawdon. The chapter establishes the squalid environment and Leadford's bitter, passionate state of mind before the transformative event.

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Epigraph

In the Days of the Comet

Prologue

Book the First: The Comet

I: Dust in the Shadows