The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds is an 1898 science fiction book by H. G. Wells. It is about Martians attacking Earth. A 1938 radio broadcast version by Orson Welles frightened many people, who thought it was real even though there was a warning at the start telling people it was fiction.
Plot
The book is set in Britain at the turn of the 19th century and is told by a first-person narrator. The Martians are jealous of Earth’s more livable environment and launch themselves to Earth in capsules fired from cannons. They easily defeat the human military with their giant war machines, aircraft, poison gas, and heat rays. The narrator travels through the now ruined Britain and encounters invasive alien plants, Martian robots, and the Martians themselves-- who are strange slug-like beings with tentacles who feed on human blood. Eventually, the Martian invasion is stopped when the Martians become infected by Earth germs that they have no immunity to and die.
The War Of The Worlds Media
The War of the Worlds, by H. G. Wells. Librivox recording by Rebecca Dittman. Book 1, Chapter 1.
First Martian emerging from the cylinder that had fallen from the sky. Illustration by Henrique Alvim Corrêa
An art installation in Woking depicts a tripod and (out of picture) a Martian Cylinder. "The Woking Martian"; Michael Condron, 1998
A reprint of The War of the Worlds was cover-featured on the July 1951 issue of Famous Fantastic Mysteries.
The Battle of Dorking initiated invasion literature
Martian canals depicted by Percival Lowell
Wells's mentor, Darwinist advocate T. H. Huxley
A Canadian postage stamp showing the British Empire at the time of The War of the Worlds’ publication.
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