The War of the Worlds

H. G. Wells, H.G. Wells

• Publisher: Race Point Publishing
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781631062452
• eBook ISBN: 9781627889988
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

Find yourself caught in the middle of an alien invasion in the late 1800s in this thrilling science fiction classic.

A classic science fiction novel, The War of the Worlds tells the story of the martian invasion of Planet Earth. This late-ninteenth century novel plays on the mood of the period in which it was written - a world with great fears for its security and long-term stability. H.G. Wells predicts the brutal savagery of twentieth-century warfare through the lens of interplanetary conflict. This edition features a new introduction by Aaron Parrett.

The Knickerbocker Classics bring together the works of classic authors from around the world in stunning gift editions to be collected and enjoyed.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF H. G. WELLS

1866		21 September		Herbert George Wells is born at 46 High Street, Bromley, Kent
1874				Wells enters Thomas Morley’s Commercial Academy
1877		1 January		Queen Victoria is proclaimed Empress of India
1878		25 May		Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore premieres at the Opera Comique, Strand, London
1879		October		Wells leaves Morley’s for the National School in Somerset where he stays only a few months
1880		January		Wells boards briefly at Midhurst Grammar School as a student-teacher
		Summer		The arrangements at Midhurst not working out, Wells’s parents contract him as a draper’s apprentice at the Southsea Drapery Emporium, Hyde’s
		2 August		Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is adopted as the standard time throughout Great Britain
1881		10 October		The D’Oyly Carte Savoy Theatre opens and is the first building in Britain fully lit by electricity
1883		23 May		Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island is published by Cassell & Co., London
		Summer		Wells is released from his apprenticeship and returns to Midhurst Grammar School as a student teacher
1884		4 January		The Fabian Society is founded
		Autumn		Wells wins a scholarship to the Normal School of Science, London where he studies biology under Thomas Henry Huxley
1887		21 June		Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee Thanksgiving service is held at Westminster Abbey
		November		Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet appears in Beeton’s Christmas Annual
1888				Wells’s short story “The Chronic Argonauts” is published by the Royal College of Science
1889				Wells receives his diploma from the College of Preceptors and begins teaching at Henley House School, Kilburn, London
		6 August		London’s Savoy Hotel opens
1890				Wells receives his Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology from the University of London
1891		April		Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray is published by Ward Lock & Co., London
				Wells marries his cousin, Isabel Mary Wel...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Epigraph page
• CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• BOOK ONE: THE COMING OF THE MARTIANS
• I. THE EVE OF THE WAR
• II. THE FALLING STAR
• III. ON HORSELL COMMON
• IV. THE CYLINDER OPENS
• V. THE HEAT-RAY
• VI. THE HEAT-RAY IN THE CHOBHAM ROAD
• VII. HOW I REACHED HOME
• VIII. FRIDAY NIGHT
• IX. THE FIGHTING BEGINS
• X. IN THE STORM
• XI. AT THE WINDOW
• XII. WHAT I SAW OF THE DESTRUCTION OF WEYBRIDGE AND SHEPPERTON
• XIII. HOW I FELL IN WITH THE CURATE
• XIV. IN LONDON
• XV. WHAT HAD HAPPENED IN SURREY
• XVI. THE EXODUS FROM LONDON
• XVII. THE “THUNDER CHILD”
• BOOK TWO: THE EARTH UNDER THE MARTIANS
• I. UNDER FOOT
• II. WHAT WE SAW FROM THE RUINED HOUSE
• III. THE DAYS OF IMPRISONMENT
• IV. THE DEATH OF THE CURATE
• V. THE STILLNESS
• VI. THE WORK OF FIFTEEN DAYS
• VII. THE MAN ON PUTNEY HILL
• VIII. DEAD LONDON
• IX. WRECKAGE
• X. THE EPILOGUE
• THE LIFE AND TIMES OF H. G. WELLS
• FURTHER READING