A Talk With Gryllotalpa

“A Talk With Gryllotalpa” is a short story by the English author H. G. Wells (1866–1946), first published in the Science Schools Journal in February 1887 under one of his early pen names, Septimus Browne.^[1][2][a]Wells founded the Science Schools Journal in 1886, with the help of his friend and fellow student William Burton, and was its first editor.^[3]

The story, told in the form of a conversation between the narrator and his friend Gryllotalpa, explores humanity’s place in the vastness of the universe, and one’s duty to one’s neighbours.

Synopsis

The story begins with the narrator pondering on an illustration he has seen in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, depicting Christian going through the dark valley where he meets Apollyon, the “foul fiend”, who is blocking his path.^[b]Apollyon is one of the names for the Devil.^[4] The picture is full of drama, with lightning, falling stars and hellish colours, while Christian and Apollyon are shown as “two of the littlest figures conceivable near the middle of the picture”.^[5]

As the narrator is contemplating the scene, his friend Gryllotalpa arrives,^[c]Gryllotalpa, the name of the mole cricket,^[1] symbolises his burrowing into scientific knowledge. and expresses his profound admiration for the picture, illustrating as it does humanity’s “infinitesimal littleness” in the face of infinite space and evolutionary time.^[5]

The narrator responds by arguing that perspective defines our world; a sun may be enormous, but in the human frame of reference, humanity is still “the biggest thing” in its world.^[5] He concludes by admitting that although the scientific efforts such as those advocated by his friend to aid in the development of humanity is a “vast thing”, the more immediate duty is to serve your neighbour.^[6]

See also

• H. G. Wells bibliographyList of publications written by H. G. Wells during the more than fifty years of his literary career.