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The War of the Worlds


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Alien life, invasion, evolution, and the possible extinction of the human race are all found in Wells' 1898 novel The War of the Worlds.
The book tells the story of a Martian invasion of Earth. The Martians, fleeing their own planet because its resources are depleted, invade our Earth, landing in England, sweeping through the countryside, destroying or capturing everything in their path.

Any effort by the humans to thwart the Martian advance is crushed; the alien invaders seem unstoppable. Unstoppable until the very end of the book when a common germ eliminates the Martian threat. The Martians have no natural immunity to the germ - and capitulate.

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Recent Forum Posts on The War of the Worlds

Did Wells ever do an illustration of the fighting machines?

I have seen dozens and dozens of depictions of the Martian tripods, and all of them seem to be different, making it difficult for me to imagine what Wells actually intended the fighting machines to look like. This begs the question, "Did Wells ever do any sketches or drawings of what he himself thought the tripods looked like?"

Posted By Boingo at Sun 15 Apr 2007, 1:49 PM in The War of the Worlds || 2 Replies

Best reprint with original illustrations?

Hello Everyone, I want to read War of the Worlds, but I'd like to have all the accompanying illustrations from the original if possible. Can someone please suggest a reprint with all the original illustrations? an ISBN number would be appreciated. Thank You.

Posted By agbates at Sun 9 Jul 2006, 10:57 PM in The War of the Worlds || 0 Replies

War of the Worlds vs Time Machine

I have read the War of the Worlds and the Time Machine both by HG Wells and am looking for imput on the themes connecting the two. They dont have a whole lot in common but am trying to draw something from the veiw of technology or something from them. Like the advancement of technology cannot stop the progression of nature. The martians die from bacteria and the evolution of the Eloi end up leaving them as "cattle" dispite being the upper class. I dont have much to work with and would love any and all ideas

Posted By Unregistered at Fri 12 May 2006, 7:19 PM in The War of the Worlds || 0 Replies

War Of The Worlds as social commentary

Looking a little into the sensibilities and social commentary of H.G. Wells one can see that The War Of The Worlds was addditionally part of his ongoing crusade towards the need for the establishment of social democracy as the ultimate form of government. For this reason (amongst others) he is regarded as something of a prophet on scientific and social development. Wells loathed the purely Capitalist (now labelled Neocon) view of the world that he saw as causing the atomisation of society into enclaved groups of haves and have-nots. The director John Carpenter has continued this crusade for the modern generation with his society/sci-fi genre along with the writings of Kurt von Vonnegut. In a very Scandinavian style of sensibility, he sensed the animalistic nature of society that would descend to the lowest common denominator of "me-ism" without the establishment of an underlying perpetuating values system whereby common folk could trust themselves to a system devised for the greater common good. This may seem very paternalistic and colonial in nature but Wells did perceive that people are very fallible (all too human) and far from being as "unknowable" as we presume ourselves to be, this cohesive system would be infinitely preferable to Law of the Jungle style economics. By demonstrating some of the main types of basic humanistic reactions to an event such as the invasion of Martians (or hurricane in New Orleans, if you will) he categorises a range of human emotions within each sub-type (soldier, padre, astrologist, common citizen, rich, poor, etc.) and casts himself as a member of the American 4th estate (journalist) as eternal seeker of truth. The intention is to demonstrate (through the defeat of the invaders by the simplest organism on the planet) that Man is not nearly as clever as he or she perceives themselves to be without a cohesive society from within which to operate..

Posted By hidflect at Sat 17 Sep 2005, 4:53 AM in The War of the Worlds || 0 Replies

This is how it's done!

Being a self-proclaimed WotW enthusiast, I've read the book several times. This is how it's done. Eloquent writing, beautiful descriptive prose, and an exciting story. An all-around perfect book. 10/10. Personally, my favorite chapter is the first appearance of the Tripod-fighting machine. It's really actually quite frightening. Particularly coupled with Edward Gorey's eerie illustration for that chapter. Or Peter Fussey's one. But, they're all great. This is a masterpiece. Literally.

Posted By Falling-star at Mon 15 Aug 2005, 9:39 PM in The War of the Worlds || 0 Replies

War of the Worlds

Art imitating life is the best way of describing the latest Spielberg film, War of the Worlds. When huge spider-like 'Tripods' stalk the American landscape in search of more blood to suck out of the terrified masses who run in vain to escape, we become witness to a CGI special effects extravaganza of mass destruction being meted out by aliens intent on world domination. --and they are apparently unstoppable. H.G. Wells' classic sci-fi novel (written in 1898), terrifies us to this day with its horrific tale about invaders from another world whose planned harvesting of the earth is carried out with cruel precision as they mobilize their machines into action. The terror and chaos that follows in the wake of the devestating power and command that these invaders are capable of, reminds us of another kind of domination attempt taking place in this country and elsewhere throughout the world. More at Glass Onion

Posted By EV Rider at Fri 1 Jul 2005, 8:57 AM in The War of the Worlds || 7 Replies

Theme Development

This is one of the greatest books I have ever read. I had to read it for my grade 11 book report and I could not put it down. The only thing that I am having trouble with is the theme and the theme development. I think that I have the basic theme of "The main theme of the book The War of the Worlds is the human response to and how we can cope with disasters. In this story, the disaster is the invasion of Earth by Martians. The disaster is used to show how different people react to disasters. One person might question their faith, while another might question their abilities and someone else might question their beliefs.", but I could really use some advice on wheather I am right or wrong and how this theme is developed. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I am not great at finding things like this I just like to read books, not comment on them.

Posted By nathane at Tue 12 Apr 2005, 6:53 PM in The War of the Worlds || 2 Replies

Jeff Waynes

I would like to comment that War of the WOrlds is one of the best books ever. It has been made into a radio show, a musical, Two movies (with the second one out soon I hope :)) and no matter who you are, you probably at least know the plot-because so many films/books have used the same ideas to their own story.
Jeff Waynes musical version is excellent, and if a movie had been made around that, with the music and everything, I think it would have been a box office hit. Unfortunatly, hollywood decided to change almost everything, until the only similarities were that they were matians and that they were invading earth. It was now set in America, after WWII and they wern't tripods any more-they floated. And Thunder-Child was nowhere to be seen, nor the red weed!
This book is a must read, and Jeff Waynes version is a must hear!
Bye

Posted By Charles Ross at Tue 24 May 2005, 6:07 PM in The War of the Worlds || 0 Replies

Cool Book

I picked this book because it was short and I needed to do a literary analysis. When I started to read it, it was a really kick @$$ book. I liked it alot and know I am starting to read "The Time Machine". I hope it is as good as "The War of the Worlds".

Posted By Jonathan Rawe at Tue 24 May 2005, 6:07 PM in The War of the Worlds || 0 Replies

English

War of the worlds was a real science fictional story and video to me.I have read the book several times and fell in love with it straight away.I have been a truly life time fan of the author as i have read all his books and i will do so untill they have all been read by myself.I found the story FANTASTIC and also GREAT.I recomend this book to any body with a triller and sci-fi taste.It was truly BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!!!

Posted By Katie Davids at Tue 24 May 2005, 6:07 PM in The War of the Worlds || 0 Replies

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