The Door in the Wall

The Door in the Wall Summary | Part 1 Summary

The Door in the Wall begins with the narrator, Redmond, recalling a story that his friend Lionel Wallace had once told him. The story had been told in such a way that he had no choice but to believe it at the time, with the atmosphere of a long dinner, drinks, and intimate lighting adding to its believability. However, once Redmond had woken up the next morning, he was no longer sure of the story's accuracy. After further reflection, he decided that whether or not the story was actually true, Wallace had honestly believed that it was. Redmond also reveals that Lionel Wallace is dead.

At this point, the story flashes back to Lionel Wallace's confession to Redmond. Wallace begins by telling Redmond that he feels that certain things are missing from his life. He is filled, at times, with such an intense longing that the everyday occurrences of life do not interest him. Redmond reflects on this, recalling a photograph of Wallace in which the latter wears an apathetic expression. He also remembers a woman who had loved Wallace saying that in an instant, interest and life could remove themselves from him. It was not always like that; Wallace had excelled, both at school, which he had attended with Redmond, and throughout his career. Wallace was only 39 years old as he was telling this story over dinner, and he had a bright career ahead of him.

Redmond explains that Wallace had first told him of the door in the wall in school and then told him again a month before he died. Wallace had believed that the door in the wall was a "real door leading through a real wall to immortal realities." The door had first appeared to Wallace when he was five years old. He had been a very bright child, who was given the freedom usually reserved for older children. His mother had died during his birth, leaving him to be raised by a lenient governess and an absent, though demanding father. He had first seen the door in the wall while wandering down the West Kensington roads. Suddenly, there it stood: a green door in a white wall. He had wanted to open the door but felt that it would be wrong to do so, so he had walked past it, pretending to examine the wares of a neighboring storefront. He changed his mind at once, though, and ran to the door, opened it, stepped through, and closed it behind him. Beyond the door, Wallace found himself in the garden that he would never forget.

Wallace had tried to accurately explain the garden to Redmond. Once he stepped into the garden, he said, he was suddenly filled with a sense of happiness and calm, as if everything was right with the world. He thought perhaps it was something in the air. Everything was more beautiful in the garden, which stretched out farther then the eye could see, fading off into hills in the distance. Even more remarkably, he told Redmond, there were two large, spotted panthers playing with a ball in a small clearing edged with flowers. The young Wallace was not afraid of the large animals, and one panther had even come up to him and rubbed his furry head against Wallace's outstretched hand.

A girl had then appeared in the garden and come to him. She kissed and hugged Wallace before leading him through the garden, asking him questions in a quiet voice. Wallace could never remember the questions and answers, only the feeling of well-being he had when he was with her. A monkey came down from the trees and settled himself on Wallace's shoulder as they continued making their way through the garden.

Wallace recalls that the garden held many people, all with love and joy in their eyes. There were white doves, he says, and beautiful fountains. There, in the garden, he met friends, which were sorely missing in his solitary life. Just as he was playing a game he could never remember with his new friends, a gentle but grave woman dressed in a deep purple robe came and took him away from the group; she led Wallace to her gallery, where she sat beside him and opened the book that was in her lap. Within the pages of the book, Wallace saw the story of his life, told not merely with pictures but with moving images. Wallace had skipped through the book until he found an image of himself at the green door, trying to decide whether or not to open it. It was then that the woman stopped Wallace from turning the page.

Wallace had asked the women what came next, and she had finally allowed him to turn the page. There, Wallace saw himself on the streets of West Kensington; he was sobbing, because he wanted to go back to the garden and continue playing with his new friends. Then suddenly, the image was not just a page in the women's book, but reality. Wallace was once again out on the lonely streets. As a young boy sobbing on the streets of London, he soon drew a crowd, so he left for home to escape it. There was much questioning from his governess and father, neither of whom believed his story.

The tale Wallace tells Redmond was the entirety of what Wallace could remember of the garden. He is never sure whether it was reality or only some intensely vivid daydream that he cannot shake, but he cried and dreamed often of the garden, he said. He never looked for it again, though, until several years had passed. He said that there was even a period of time during which he did not think of it at all.