A Vision of Judgment

This article is about the H.G. Wells short story. "A Vision of Judgement" is also a poem by Robert Southey, parodied in Byron's The Vision of Judgment.
"A Vision of Judgement"
Short story by H. G. Wells
Genre(s)Satire
Publication
Published inThe Butterfly, "A humorous and artistic magazine"[1]
Publication typeMagazine
Media typeShort story
Publication dateSeptember 1899

Written in the late 19th century by H. G. Wells and first published in The Butterfly (September 1899),[2] and collected in The Obliterated Man and Other Stories (December 1925),[3] "A Vision of Judgment" is a short story in 9 sections. It portrays a Last Judgment in which God and the archangel Gabriel laugh at sinners and saints alike, embarrassing them until they flee "up the sleeve of God." After every human soul has taken shelter there, all of humanity, "enlightened" and "in new clean bodies," is given a second chance. God shakes them—or rather us—"out of his sleeve upon the planet he had given us to live upon, the planet that whirled about green Sirius for a sun," saying "now that you understand me and each other a little better. . . . try again."[4]

"A Vision of Judgment" has been reprinted in The Complete Short Stories of H. G. Wells,[3] A Dream of Armageddon: The Complete Supernatural Tales.,[3] and various other collections and anthologies. Some of the publications were under the title "A Vision of Judgement."

  1. ^ The Butterfly. OCLC 3681938 – via OCLC Worldcat.
  2. ^ H. G. Wells (2009) [2006]. A Dream of Armageddon. Fall River Press. p. 365. ISBN 978-1-4351-1583-5. OCLC 463620813.
  3. ^ a b c See ISFDB listing in #External links
  4. ^ H.G. Wells, "A Vision of Judgment," §9, in The Short Stories of H.G. Wells (London: Ernest Benn, 1927), p. 114.