Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer, now best remembered for his science fiction novels and often credited as being the father of science fiction.

'The Apple' is a strange tale about a young student who, in a third-class railway carriage, is unexpectedly offered the genuine fruit of the Tree of Knowledge from the Garden of Eden by a stranger with piercing grey eyes. The strange tale of how the stranger came to have the fruit is almost as unusual as the story of what the student then did with it.