H. G. Wells’ “A Dream of Armageddon” and Its Warning of War by Rodricka R.

Why, in spite of all, should I go back, go back for all the rest of my days to toil and stress, insults and perpetual dissatisfaction, simply to save hundreds of millions of common people, whom I did not love, whom too often I could do no other than despise, from the stress and anguish of war and infinite misrule?

– H.G Wells, A Dream of Armageddon 

Six hundred copies of H.G. Wells’s Work The Door in the Wall and Other Stories were printed on hand-made French paper in November 1911. This book is a series of short stories, each with at least one illustration by Alvin Langdon Coburn. The illustrations were created separately as photogravures, a form of printed photographs that required copious amounts of time, money, and labor. They are known for producing images of high quality and showcasing both the artist’s skills and their dedication to the project.

The photogravures were then added to the printed work, each depicting one of the settings previously described on the other page. The amount of care and time it took to produce these images for each setting, along with the limited number of prints, emphasizes the importance of Wells’ work. Furthermore, the width and length of the collection are larger than your average textbook; making the book harder to hold and navigate. The pages are thin and easily stained by the photogravures demonstrating how fragile the book truly is and highlighting how this book was made for collectors. Giving the work these qualities can make the reader hold the short stories in higher regard. The short stories contained within this work are shown below:

These shorts are a mixture of sci-fi and fantasy, usually without a happy ending. A Dream of Armageddon tells the dream of an old man almost as a premonition. In this dream, he is with a beautiful woman on the island of Capri when an advisor tells him the inheritor of his high-ranking political position in the North is threatening war. This dream is told to an unnamed narrator on a train who is surprised at the level of detail the old man described Capri with despite never actually visiting. In the end, the old man chooses love over war, and as the world is overtaken by disastrous aerial warfare, he watches both his lover and his own demise. His current dreams consist only of nightmares and “great birds that fought and tore” (Wells 567). This work is a warning about the horrors of aerial warfare and how it cannot be escaped. The photogravures of Capri rationalize the old man’s choice by depicting how beautiful the island is. After hearing his dream and seeing Capri, who would want to return to work? It brings into question whether the old man’s selfish choice was justified. These images work to situate the reader in the text, with the stories mainly being grim, the characters’ emotions and decisions can be better understood.