The day of the triffids

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John Wyndham: The day of the triffids (1951, M. Joseph)

302 pages

English language

Published Nov. 11, 1951 by M. Joseph.

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(3 reviews)

When Bill Masen wakes up blindfolded in hospital there is a bitter irony in his situation. Carefully removing his bandages, he realizes that he is the only person who can see: everyone else, doctors and patients alike, have been blinded by a meteor shower. Now, with civilization in chaos, the triffids - huge, venomous, large-rooted plants able to 'walk', feeding on human flesh - can have their day.The Day of the Triffids, published in 1951, expresses many of the political concerns of its time: the Cold War, the fear of biological experimentation and the man-made apocalypse. However, with its terrifyingly believable insights into the genetic modification of plants, the book is more relevant today than ever before.

Comment by Liz Jensen on The Guardian:

As a teenager, one of my favourite haunts was Oxford's Botanical Gardens. I'd head straight for the vast heated greenhouses, where I'd pity my adolescent …

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Subjects

  • Plant mutation -- Fiction.
  • Meteorites -- Fiction.
  • Blind -- Fiction.
  • England -- Fiction.