A Critical Edition of the War of the Worlds: H.G. Wells's Scientific Romance

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Indiana University Press, 1993 - Fiction - 319 pages
What is t first believed to be falling stars or harmless meteorites turns out to be cylindrical Martian ships filled with nightmarish, tentacled invaders and their robotic war machines. When curious Englanders come to inspect the massive containers imbedded in the still-smoking countryside, metallic appendages emerge from the pits to kill every living thing in their path with strange heat rays. Then as the surrounding townships slowly devolve into chaos, the Martians begin constructing giant tripod war machines to track down and kill--or capture-- as many of the human "inferior animals" as possible. The nameless narrator, trapped in a house almost completely crushed by the impact of a starship, watches in horror as the seemingly unstoppable Martians build their mechanical armies, kill hundreds with poisonous gas-- and begin snacking on capture humans!

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Contents

THE COMING OF THE MARTIANS
52
The Eve of the War
53
The FallingStar
56
Copyright

29 other sections not shown

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About the author (1993)

H. G. Wells was born in Bromley, England on September 21, 1866. After a limited education, he was apprenticed to a draper, but soon found he wanted something more out of life. He read widely and got a position as a student assistant in a secondary school, eventually winning a scholarship to the Royal College of Science in South Kensington, where he studied biology. He graduated from London University in 1888 and became a science teacher. He also wrote for magazines. When his stories began to sell, he left teaching to write full time. He became an author best known for science fiction novels and comic novels. His science fiction novels include The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Wonderful Visit, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, The First Men in the Moon, and The Food of the Gods. His comic novels include Love and Mr. Lewisham, Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul, The History of Mr. Polly, and Tono-Bungay. He also wrote several short story collections including The Stolen Bacillus, The Plattner Story, and Tales of Space and Time. He died on August 13, 1946 at the age of 79.

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