The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth

The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth is a novel by H. G. Wells, first published in 1904. It opens with a scientific accident: two researchers, Mr. Redwood and Mr. Bensington, develop a substance known as “Herakleophorbia,” a chemical designed to accelerate growth in living organisms. When the compound escapes controlled experimentation, it begins to alter the natural balance of the world in unsettling and spectacular ways. Animals exposed to the substance grow to enormous size—wasps, rats, chickens, and plants all become towering, dangerous presences—while the effects spread quietly through rural England. Wells carefully follows the social and political reactions to these changes, contrasting scientific ambition with public fear, bureaucratic indecision, and moral panic. The narrative moves between domestic scenes and wider national consequences, showing how ordinary life is disrupted by unchecked experimentation. As the story progresses, the focus shifts from monstrous creatures to human children raised on the growth-inducing food, who mature into giants both physically and intellectually. These new beings represent a challenge not just to existing social structures, but to humanity’s assumptions about dominance, progress, and responsibility. With characteristic foresight, Wells uses speculative science fiction to question whether society is capable of adapting to radical change, or whether it will instinctively attempt to suppress it.