The Hampdenshire Wonder
By J.D. Beresford/Jeffrey Segal
SNT 29.5.1982
Jonathan Newth/Vicky Ireland
128K
The play deals with prodigies or wonder kids. The Hampdenshire Wonder might be the first science fiction novel on the theme and was written in 1911.
It begins on a train with a man reading a book. In any event, a mother comes on the train with an unusual infant. The baby has an abnormally large head and is mildly deformed. More important, the baby is non-responsive except for his stare. This stare makes even adults feel inferior. The whole incident horrifies the passengers, on the whole because of the odd nature of the infant, but they express a clear disdain for any deformed child who is allowed outside a freak show.
His origins are as follows. His father Ginger Stott is a gifted cricket player. The details of his cricket playing skill went over my head, but what seems to matter is his determination to have a son similarly gifted in cricket. He later abandons his son for being “a freak” who would never be a cricket player. His mother Ellen has more of a role in his life. She may also be the source of his gifts. At first she seems a somewhat unusual woman who maintains her independence until late in life. She even proposes marriage to Ginger instead of the other way round. He vents a bit, through describing her, about the restrictions women face in that age. Later she becomes the almost worshipful mother of a super-human child.
As for the character himself he remains somewhat enigmatic. In the beginning he rarely speaks or reacts. Yet curiously it is in these parts that he seems the most super-human and strange. Indeed his later education somehow appears to do little except allow him to express what he always knew. That education begins at the age of four. By five he understands the sum of human knowledge up to that point.
None of this gives him much pleasure. Humans seem so beneath him he finds little they do to be of interest. The praise or condemnation he faces seems to bother those around him more than it does him. He even finds it difficult to talk to people, as the smartest ones remain far below his level. This leaves him isolated and somewhat hard to understand. In the end he dies, or is murdered, before reaching eight years of age.
The book is interesting for a variety of reasons. First it comes in the Edwardian age before WW I or WW II. This period is sometimes seen as more jubilant about progress. Indeed the book is quite enamored with progress. It highlights the aristocratic tendencies that still survived. It also dealt with the issues of the deformed and disabled.
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This sounds like a fascinating tale. The era it was written in makes it all the better. Thanks !
Thanks for sharing this. I've heard of the book but have never read it or even seen a copy.