In 1951 John Wyndham published his novel The Day of the Triffids to moderate acclaim. Fifty-two years later, this horrifying story is a science fiction classic, touted by The Times (London) as having “all the reality of a vividly realized nightmare.” Bill Masen, bandages over his wounded... read more
A meteor shower conveniently blinds people. Large carnivorous plants get loose. People are killed off by the plants or die of virulent plague. Survivors get corraled by militaristic thug. Escapees get to the Isle of Wight.
“Standing there, and at that time, my heart still resisted what my head was telling me. Even yet I had the feelin that it was all something too big, too unatural really to happen. Yet I knew that it was by no means the first time that it had happened.”Bill Masen
“Complete loneliness was the worst state I could imagine just then. Alone one would be nothing. Company meant purpose, and purpose helped to keep the morbid fears at bay”Bill Masen
“I point this out to you because the world we knew is gone - finished. The conditions which framed and taught us our standards have gone with it. Our needs are now different, and our aims must be different.”Dr. E. H. Vorless
“We went on sitting there on the wall hand in hand, looking at the dappled trees - but not seeing them very much, at least, I wasn't. Then in the building behind us someone started up a gramophone, playing a Strauss waltz. It was painfully nostalgic as it lilted through the empty courtyard. For an instant the road before us became the ghost of a ballroom; a swirl of colour, with the moon for a crystal chandelier”Bill Masen
“There is an inability to sustain the tragic mood, a phoenix quality of the mind. It may be halpful or harmful, it is just a part of the will to survive - yet, also, it has made it possible for us to engage in one weakening war after another.”Bill Masen
When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers
When almost half a lifetime has been spent in one conception of order, reorientation is no five-minute business.Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
It’s surprising how much you don’t grow out of when it comes to the test.Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
“Anybody who has had a great treasure has always led a precarious existence,”Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
To deprive a gregarious creature of companionship is to maim it, to outrage its nature.Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
There’s a whole lot of people don’t seem to understand that you have to talk to a man in his own language before he’ll take you seriously. If you talk tough and quote Shelley they think you’re cute, like a performing monkey or something, but they don’t pay any attention to what you say. You have to talk the kind of lingo they’re accustomed to taking seriously.Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
“You know, one of the most shocking things about it is to realize how easily we have lost a world that seemed so safe and certain.”Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
Everyone starts by knowing nothing about anything, but God gives him—and even her—brains to find out with. Failure to use them is not a virtue to be praised; even in women it is a gap to be deplored.”Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
There is an inability to sustain the tragic mood, a phoenix quality of the mind. It may be helpful or harmful, it is just a part of the will to survive—yet,Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
It was some little time later that the first one picked up its roots and walked.Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
1 The End Begins
2 The Coming of the Triffids
3 The Groping City
4 Shadows Before
5 A Light in the Night
6 Rendezvous
7 Conference
8 Frustration
9 Evacuation
10 Tynsham
11 …And Further On
12 Dead End
13 Journey in Hope
14 Shirning
15 World Narrowing
16 Contact
17 Strategic Withdrawal
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