"I maintain there wouldn’t be the X-Men without Wyndham’s 1955 classic."
I maintain there wouldn’t be the X-Men without Wyndham’s 1955 classic. Generations after some undisclosed nuclear disaster, the ‘Tribulation’, Davey is the son of a maniacal preacher in a strict religious community obsessed with genetic purity. All this would be OK if Davey and his friends weren’t secretly mutants with superhuman psychic gifts. By no means a perfect novel, but the premise here is gold, and surely the inspiration for much that followed.
| Primary Genre | Science Fiction |
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A powerful post-apocalyptic allegory of persecution and intolerance, the Penguin Modern Classics edition of John Wyndham's science fiction masterpiece The Day of the Triffids contains an introduction by M. John Harrison.
Nuclear war has devastated the world, bringing with it a host of genetic mutations. In the bleak, primitive society that has emerged from its ruins, any sign of deviation, no matter how small, is ruthlessly rooted out and destroyed. David lives in fear of discovery, for he is part of a secret group of children who are able to communicate with each other by transferring thought-shapes into each other's minds. As they grow older, they feel increasingly isolated. Then one of them marries a 'norm', with terrifying consequences.
John Wyndham (1903-1969) the son of a barrister, tried a number of careers including farming, law, commercial art and advertising before writing short stories, intended for sale, in 1925. After serving in the Civil Service and the Army during the Second World War, he decided to try writing a modified form of Science Fiction, which he called 'logical fantasy'. Among his most famous books are The Day of the Triffids (1951), The Kraken Wakes (1953), The Chrysalids (1955), The Midwich Cuckoos (1957, filmed twice as Village of the Damned), Trouble with Lichen (1960), and Chocky (1968).
If you enjoyed The Chrysalids, you might like Arthur Miller's The Crucible, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.
'One of those few authors whose compulsive readability is a compliment to the intelligence'
Spectator
The Chrysalids features in the following genres: eBooks of the Month, Recommendations, Dystopian and utopian fiction, Science Fiction, Fiction, Speculative fiction
The Chrysalids is available in Hardback, Paperback
The Chrysalids was written by John Wyndham and published by Penguin Classics an imprint of Penguin Books Ltd
The Chrysalids has 186 pages
Yes it is part of Penguin Classics series
£9.89
