In the following excerpt, Haynes examines Wells's depiction of the conflict between science and imagination in "The Door in the Wall."

'The Door in the Wall' ... partakes very largely of the aura of fairy tale, even of myth, albeit one that is psychologically valid It concerns the politician Lionel Wallace, who once, as a child of a joyless, inhibiting home, discovered a door to a visionary garden of happiness. This door presented itself to him as simultaneously attractive and illicit, and it has reappeared temptingly at critical moments throughout his distinguished public career. Hitherto he has remained true to the latter, passing by 'the door that goes into peace, into delight, into a beauty beyond dreaming, a kindness no man on earth can know.' Wallace is subsequently found dead in an excavation, having one night apparently mistaken the workmen's door in the hoarding for the door...