The Day of the Triffids Summary
John Wyndham

The Day of the Triffids Summary

This novel of speculative fiction, written in the early-1950s, tells a story common to the genre of that era: traditional western ways and philosophies of life are decimated, and threatened with complete destruction, by a combination of mysterious events and the increasing control of a disguised, subversive, murderous entity; in this case, mobile and intelligent plants. As it chronicles the struggles of a small, desperate group of human survivors, the narrative explores themes relating to the conflict between morality and necessity, the nature of human frailty, and the social nature of being human.

The novel begins with the narrator's experience of waking up in hospital and knowing immediately that the environment, both in the hospital and in the larger environment of the world outside the hospital windows, is not what it should be. He describes the events of the day before—how large numbers of people, apparently all over the... View more of the The Day of the Triffids Summary