"I have been greatly influenced in my life, work, and attitudes by the writings of H. G. Wells," Hammonds has written. An English writer, he has published several important works about Wells. In the following excerpt, Hammond analyzes the imagery in "The Door in the Wall" and illustrates how it contributes to the theme of opposition between reality and imagination.

'The Door in the Wall,' one of Wells's most deservedly familiar short stories, is the story of a prominent politician, Lionel Wallace, who is haunted by the vision of an enchanted garden glimpsed in childhood. The story makes extensive use of archetypal and dream imagery and interweaves within its narrative a pattern of leitmotivs characteristic of Wells as man and writer.

The door and the wall are described in such unforgettably vivid terms that the image is fixed indelibly on the imagination:

"There was,' he...