H G Wells

The Wonderful Visit H G Wells

It is the tale of a fallen angel who simply cannot adapt to society in a small English village. The angel's reactions to the villagers, his pureness and wholesomeness make him an enemy of the people. As time passes on earth, he becomes more and more human, falling in love and suffering all the human trials and tribulations. On the Night of the Strange Bird, many people at Sidderton (and some nearer) saw a Glare on the Sidderford moor. But no one in Sidderford saw it, for most of Sidderford was abed. All day the wind had been rising, so that the larks on the moor chirruped fitfully near the ground, or rose only to be driven like leaves before the wind. The sun set in a bloody welter of clouds, and the moon was hidden. The glare, they say, was golden like a beam shining out of the sky, not a uniform blaze, but broken all over by curving flashes like the waving of swords. It lasted but a moment and left the night dark and obscure. There were letters about it in Nature, and a rough drawing that no one thought very like. (You may see it for yourself-the drawing that was unlike the glare-on page 42 of Vol. cclx. of that publication.)