Babes in the Darkling Wood

Abstract

Wells described Babes in the Darkling Wood, written in 1939–40, as ‘the most comprehensive and ambitious dialogue novel I have ever attempted’.⁵⁷ It was clearly designed on a large scale and conceived as an attempt to discuss a range of issues and ideas which were topical on the eve of the Second World War and to stimulate his readers by an imaginative presentation of these ideas in fictional form. In short, it was to do for the Second World War what Mr. Britling and, to a lesser extent, Joan and Peter had achieved for the First: to verbalise the experiences and attitudes of a generation at a time of trauma.