The Man Who Could Work Miracles (short story)
"The Man Who Could Work Miracles" | |
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Short story by H. G. Wells | |
Country | United Kingdom |
Genre(s) | Science fiction |
Publication |
"The Man Who Could Work Miracles" is a British fantasy-comedy short story by H. G. Wells first published in 1898 in The Illustrated London News. It carried the subtitle "A Pantoum in Prose".[1]
The story is an early example of contemporary fantasy (not yet recognized, at the time, as a specific subgenre). In common with later works falling within this definition, the story places a major fantasy premise (a wizard with enormous, virtually unlimited magic power) not in an exotic semi-medieval setting but in the drab routine daily life of suburban London, very familiar to Wells himself.
Plot summary
In an English public house, George McWhirter Fotheringay vigorously asserts the impossibility of miracles during an argument. By way of demonstration, Fotheringay commands an oil lamp to flame upside down and it does so, to his own astonishment. His acquaintances think it a trick and quickly dismiss it.
Fotheringay explores his new power. After magically accomplishing his daily chores as an office clerk, Fotheringay quits early to a park to practice further. He encounters a local constable, who is accidentally injured. In the ensuing altercation, Fotheringay unintentionally sends the policeman to Hades; hours later, Fotheringay relocates him safely to San Francisco.
Unnerved by these miracles, Fotheringay attends local Sunday church services. The clergyman, Mr. Maydig, preaches about unnatural occurrences. Fotheringay is deeply moved, and meets Maydig in his manse for advice. After a few petty demonstrations, the minister becomes enthusiastic and suggests that Fotheringay should use these abilities to benefit others. That night they walk the town streets, healing illness and vice and improving public works.
Maydig plans to reform the whole world. He suggests that they could disregard their obligations for the next day if Fotheringay could stop the night altogether. Fotheringay agrees and stops the motion of the Earth. His clumsy wording of the wish causes all objects on Earth to be hurled from the surface with great force. Pandemonium ensues, but Fotheringay miraculously ensures his own safety back on the ground. In fact (though he is not aware of the enormity of what he had done) the whole of humanity except for himself had perished in a single instant.
Fotheringay is unable to return the Earth to its prior state. He repents, and wishes that the power be taken from him and the world restored to a time before he had the power. Fotheringay immediately finds himself back in the public house, discussing miracles with his friends as before, without any recollection of previous events.
The all-knowing narrator thus tells the reader that he or she had died "a year ago" (the story was published in 1897) and was then resurrected - but has no recollection of anything special having happened.
Adaptations
In 1936, the story was adapted to a film starring Roland Young as Fotheringay. Wells co-wrote the screenplay with Lajos Bíró.[2]
It was first adapted for BBC Radio in 1934 by Laurence Gilliam and broadcast on 4 June that year.[3] It continued to be adapted on several occasions for BBC Radio, including 1956 by Dennis Main Wilson and broadcast on New Year's Day. It starred Tony Hancock as Fotheringay.[4]
The story idea was used as the basis for director Terry Jones's 2015 film Absolutely Anything.[5]
The idea of the world stopping rotating was taken up in 1972 by Lester del Rey, who suggested to three SF writers to write stories based on the assumption that God does it in order to unequivocally prove His existence to all humanity. The three resulting stories were published together under the name "The Day the Sun Stood Still", comprising "A Chapter of Revelation" by Poul Anderson, "Things Which Are Caesar's" by Gordon R. Dickson and "Thomas the Proclaimer" by Robert Silverberg. The three stories share the assumption that – the miracle in this case issuing directly from God in person, rather than from Wells' fumbling human protagonist – care was taken to prevent the disastrous results evident in the original Wells story. The dramatic radio broadcast appearing in the beginning of Silverberg's version indicates that, when writing, he was familiar with the Wells story: "Latest observatory reports confirm that no appreciable momentum effects could be detected as Earth shifted to its present period of rotation. Scientists agree that the world's abrupt slowing on its axis should have produced a global catastrophe leading, perhaps, to the destruction of all life. However, nothing but minor tidal disturbances have been observed so far".[6]
For his part, the Portuguese José Saramago apparently refers to the Wells story in his novel Cain, an irreverent retelling of the Bible, when retelling the episode of God "stopping the sun" in the Book of Joshua (to which the pastor in the Wells story also refers). The very flawed God depicted by Saramago was unable to stop the disastrous effects of stopping the movement of the Earth – so he did not do so, performing just a much simpler and limited miracle which still did the job.
References
- ^ Maunder, Andrew (22 April 2015). Encyclopedia of the British Short Story. Infobase Learning. ISBN 9781438140704 – via Google Books.
- ^ "BFI Screenonline: Man Who Could Work Miracles, The (1937) Credits". www.screenonline.org.uk.
- ^ Radio Times, Issue 557, 4 June 1934 [1]
- ^ "The Man Who Could Work Miracles". 28 December 1956. p. 18 – via BBC Genome.
- ^ Plumb, Ali. "Terry Jones On His New Sci-Fi Comedy Absolutely Anything". Empire Magazine. Bauer Consumer Media. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
- ^ Robert Silverberg, "Thomas the Proclaimer", Ch.1
External links
- The complete short fiction of H. G. Wells at Standard Ebooks
- "The Man Who Could Work Miracles" at Project Gutenberg
- "The Man Who Could Work Miracles" public domain audiobook at LibriVox
- "The Man Who Could Work Miracles" title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- The Man Who Could Work Miracles at IMDb
- v
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- The Time Machine (1895)
- The Wonderful Visit (1895)
- The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896)
- The Wheels of Chance (1896)
- The Invisible Man (1897)
- The War of the Worlds (1898)
- When the Sleeper Wakes (1899)
- Love and Mr Lewisham (1900)
- The First Men in the Moon (1901)
- The Sea Lady (1902)
- The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth (1904)
- Kipps (1905)
- A Modern Utopia (1905)
- In the Days of the Comet (1906)
- The War in the Air (1908)
- Tono-Bungay (1909)
- Ann Veronica (1909)
- The History of Mr Polly (1910)
- The Sleeper Awakes (1910)
- The New Machiavelli (1911)
- Marriage (1912)
- The Passionate Friends (1913)
- The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman (1914)
- The World Set Free (1914)
- Bealby (1915)
- Boon (1915)
- The Research Magnificent (1915)
- Mr. Britling Sees It Through (1916)
- The Soul of a Bishop (1917)
- Joan and Peter (1918)
- The Undying Fire (1919)
- The Secret Places of the Heart (1922)
- Men Like Gods (1923)
- The Dream (1924)
- Christina Alberta's Father (1925)
- The World of William Clissold (1926)
- Meanwhile (1927)
- Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island (1928)
- The Autocracy of Mr. Parham (1930)
- The Bulpington of Blup (1932)
- The Shape of Things to Come (1933)
- The Croquet Player (1936)
- Brynhild (1937)
- Star Begotten (1937)
- The Camford Visitation (1937)
- Apropos of Dolores (1938)
- The Brothers (1938)
- The Holy Terror (1939)
- Babes in the Darkling Wood (1940)
- All Aboard for Ararat (1940)
- You Can't Be Too Careful (1941)
- Anticipations
- Certain Personal Matters
- Crux Ansata
- The Discovery of the Future
- An Englishman Looks at the World
- Experiment in Autobiography
- The Fate of Man
- First and Last Things
- Floor Games
- The Future in America
- God the Invisible King
- In the Fourth Year
- Little Wars
- Mankind in the Making
- Mind at the End of Its Tether
- Mr. Belloc Objects to "The Outline of History"
- The New America
- The New World Order
- New Worlds for Old
- The Open Conspiracy
- The Outline of History
- Russia in the Shadows
- The Science of Life
- A Short History of the World
- The Story of a Great Schoolmaster
- This Misery of Boots
- Travels of a Republican Radical in Search of Hot Water
- War and the Future
- The Way the World Is Going
- The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind
- World Brain
- A Year of Prophesying
- "Æpyornis Island"
- "The Argonauts of the Air"
- "The Beautiful Suit"
- "The Chronic Argonauts"
- "The Cone"
- "The Country of the Blind"
- "The Crystal Egg"
- "A Deal in Ostriches"
- "The Diamond Maker"
- "The Door in the Wall"
- "A Dream of Armageddon"
- "The Empire of the Ants"
- "In the Abyss"
- "The Land Ironclads"
- "Mr. Ledbetter's Vacation"
- "The Lord of the Dynamos"
- "The Man Who Could Work Miracles"
- "The New Accelerator"
- "The Pearl of Love"
- "The Plattner Story"
- "The Queer Story of Brownlow's Newspaper"
- "The Red Room"
- "The Sea Raiders"
- "The Star"
- "The Stolen Body"
- "A Story of the Days to Come"
- "A Story of the Stone Age"
- "Triumphs of a Taxidermist"
- "The Truth About Pyecraft"
- "A Vision of Judgment"
- Things to Come (1936)
- The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1937)
- Political views
- G. P. Wells
- Anthony West (son)
- Joseph Wells (father)
- Simon Wells (great-grandson)
- H. G. Wells Society
- Lunar crater
- Time After Time (1979 film)