The Day of the Triffids

The Day of the Triffids is a 1951 post-apocalyptic novel by the English science fiction author John Wyndham. After most people in the world are blinded by an apparent meteor shower, an aggressive species of plant starts killing people. Although Wyndham had already published other novels using other pen name combinations drawn from his real name, this was the first novel published as "John Wyndham".
The story has been made into the 1962 feature film of the same name, three radio drama series (in 1957, 1968 and 2001) and two TV series (in 1981 and 2009). It was nominated for the International Fantasy Award in 1952, and in 2003 the novel was listed on the BBC's survey The Big Read.
It was the inspiration for the zombie movie "28 Days Later".
Summary.
The protagonist is Bill Masen, a biologist who has made his living working with triffids—tall, venomous, carnivorous plants capable of locomotion. Due to his background, Masen suspects they were bioengineered in the U.S.S.R. and accidentally released into the wild. Because of the excellent industrial quality of an oil produced by and obtained from the triffids, the result is triffid cultivation around the world.
The narrative begins with Bill Masen in hospital, his eyes bandaged after having been splashed with triffid poison from a stinger. During his convalescence he is told of an unexpected green meteor shower. The next morning, he learns that the light from the unusual display has rendered any who watched it blind (later in the book, Masen speculates that the "meteor shower" may have been orbiting satellite weapons, triggered accidentally). After unbandaging his eyes he finds the hospital in chaos, with staff and patients without sight. He wanders through a chaotic London full of blind inhabitants and slowly becomes enamoured of wealthy novelist Josella Playton, whom he rescues after discovering her being forcibly used as a guide by a blind man. Intrigued by a single light on top of the Senate House in an otherwise darkened London, Bill and Josella discover a group of sighted survivors led by a man named Beadley, who plans to establish a colony in the countryside. They decide to join the group.
The polygamy implicit in Beadley's scheme appalls some group members, especially the religious Miss Durrant—but before this schism can be dealt with, a man named Wilfred Coker stages a fire at the university and kidnaps a number of sighted individuals, including Bill and Josella. They are each chained to a blind person and assigned to lead a squadron of the blind, collecting food and other supplies, all the while beset by escaped triffids and rival scavengers.
Soon Masen's followers begin to fall sick and die of an unknown disease. When he wakes one morning to find the survivors have left him, he returns to the University Tower to seek Josella but his only lead is an address left behind by Beadley's group. Joined by a repentant Coker, Masen drives to the address, a country estate called Tynsham in Wiltshire. He finds part of the Beadley group, now led by Miss Durrant, who eventually tells him that Beadley went to Beaminster, in Dorset, a few days before he arrived. There has been no sign of Josella.
Masen and Coker decide to follow Beadley to Dorset. They find small groups of blind and sighted people along the way but no trace of Beadley. Eventually they decide to separate, Coker returning to help at Tynsham, while Masen heads for the Sussex Downs after remembering a remark Josella made about friends she had there.
En route, Masen rescues a young sighted girl named Susan, whom he finds trapped alone at home, while her young brother lies dead in the garden, killed by a triffid. He buries the boy and takes Susan with him. A few days later, during a night of heavy rain, they see a faint light in the distance. Upon reaching it, they discover Josella and her friends.
They attempt to establish a self-sufficient colony in Sussex with some success but they are constantly under threat from the triffids, which mass around the fenced exterior. Several years pass, until one day a representative of Beadley's faction lands a helicopter in their yard and reports that his group has established a colony on the Isle of Wight. Durrant's talk of Beaminster was a deliberate attempt to throw Masen off on his journey to find Beadley. While Bill and the others are reluctant to leave their own settlement, the group decide to see the summer out in Sussex before moving to the Isle of Wight.
Their plans are hurried by the arrival of the militaristic representatives of a new despotic and self-appointed government, who arrive in an armoured car. Masen recognises the leader as a ruthless young man he had encountered on a scavenging expedition in London and whom he had watched cold-bloodedly execute one of his own party who had fallen ill. The latter plans to give Masen a large number of blind people to care for, and use on the farm as slave labour; he will also take Susan as hostage. Feigning agreement, Masen's group throw a party, during which they encourage the visitors to get drunk. Creeping out of the house whilst the visitors are fast asleep, they disable the armoured car by pouring honey into the fuel tank and drive through the gates, leaving them open for the triffids to pour in. The novel ends with Masen's group on the Isle of Wight, determined one day to destroy the triffids and reclaim their world.
Publication history.
In the United States, Doubleday & Company holds the 1951 copyright. A condensed version of the book also was serialized in "Collier's" magazine in January and February 1951. An unabridged paperback edition was published in the late 1960s, in arrangement with Doubleday, under the Crest Book imprint of Fawcett Publications World Library.
Influences.
Wyndham frequently acknowledged the influence of H. G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds" (1897) on "The Day of the Triffids" — Wells's working title had been "The Day of the Tripods".
The triffids are related, in some editions of the novel, to brief mention of the theories of the Soviet agronomist and would-be biologist Trofim Lysenko, who eventually was thoroughly debunked. "In the days when information was still exchanged Russia had reported some successes. Later, however, a cleavage of methods and views had caused biology there, under a man called Lysenko, to take a different course" (Chapter 2). Lysenkoism at the time of the novel's creation was still being defended by some prominent international Stalinists."
During the Blitz, Wyndham was a fire watcher and later member of the Home Guard. He witnessed the destruction of London from the rooftops of "Bloomsbury." He described many scenes and incidents, including the uncanny silence of London on a Sunday morning after a heavy bombardment, in letters to his long-term partner Grace Wilson. These found their way into "The Day of the Triffids".
Critical reception.
The book has been praised by other science fiction writers. Karl Edward Wagner cited "The Day of the Triffids" as one of the thirteen best science-fiction horror novels. Arthur C. Clarke called it an "immortal story". Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas praised it, saying: "rarely have the details of [the] collapse been treated with such detailed plausibility and human immediacy, and never has the collapse been attributed to such an unusual and terrifying source". Forrest J. Ackerman wrote in "Astounding Science Fiction" that "Triffids" "is extraordinarily well carried out, with the exception of a somewhat anticlimactic if perhaps inevitable conclusion".
Brian Aldiss coined the disparaging phrase cosy catastrophe to describe the subgenre of post-war apocalyptic fiction in which society is destroyed save for a handful of survivors, who are able to enjoy a relatively comfortable existence. He singled out "The Day of the Triffids" as an example and described "Triffids" as "totally devoid of ideas". However, some more recent critics have argued against this view. Margaret Atwood wrote: "one might as well call World War II—of which Wyndham was a veteran—a 'cozy' war because not everyone died in it".
John Clute commented that the book was regularly chosen for school syllabuses, as it was "safe". Robert M. Philmus called it derivative of better books by H. G. Wells. Groff Conklin, reviewing the novel's first publication, characterised it as "a good run-of-the-mill affair" and "pleasant reading... provided you aren't out hunting science fiction masterpieces".
Cultural impact.
According to director Danny Boyle, the opening hospital sequence of "The Day of the Triffids" inspired Alex Garland to write the screenplay for "28 Days Later" (2002).
The short story "How to Make a Triffid" by Kelly Lagor includes discussions of the possible genetic pathways that could be manipulated to engineer the triffids.
Themes.
Science and Technology.
The Day of the Triffids touches on mankind's advances in science and technology as a possible contributor to the collapse of society that’s depicted in the novel.
In an essay entitled "Social Critique in the Major Novels of John Wyndham: Civilization's Secrets and Nature's Truths", Michael Douglas Green writes about other scientific contributions to the novel's apocalypse:
Post-WWII British Politics.
Critics have highlighted the parallels between the triffids and the decolonization that took place in Europe after 1945. In an essay entitled "The Politics of Post-Apocalypse: Ideologies on Trial in John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids", literary critic Jerry Määttä writes:
Robert Yeates, in his essay "Gender and Ethnicity in Post-Apocalyptic Suburbia", proposes another connection to colonialism:
At the time of the novel's writing there was an emerging welfare state in Great Britain after the formation of the Attlee ministry. Coker's forced shackling of sighted people to the blind echoes the sentiments that many middle class British citizens felt in the wake of the changes imposed by the Labour party after their 1945 election victory.
Loss of Identity.
The novel frequently brings into question the utility of individualism during the apocalypse. Colin Manlove highlights this phenomenon in his essay "Everything Slipping Away: John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids":
Sequels.
Simon Clark wrote a sequel "The Night of the Triffids" (2001). This is set 25 years after Wyndham's book, and focuses on the adventures of Bill Masen's son David, who travels to New York, USA. Big Finish Productions adapted it as an audio play in 2014. The dramatisation featuring Sam Troughton was later broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in June 2016.
In 2020, English science fiction and fantasy author John Whitbourn published a sequel, entitled "The Age of the Triffids". Set in the Isle of Wight "Colony" in the lead-up to the Millennium, it details the rallying of survivors from across Britain for one last attempt to defeat the triffid threat. For copyright reasons, the book is not for sale outside Canada and New Zealand.