The War of the Worlds

From H. G. Wells to Orson Welles, Jeff Wayne, Steven Spielberg and Beyond

Peter J. Beck

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781474229876
• eBook ISBN: 9781474229890
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: English Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

First published in 1897, H.G. Wells's alien invasion narrative The War of the Worlds was a landmark work of science fiction and one that continues to be adapted and referenced in the 21st century. Chronicling the novel's contexts, its origins and its many multi-media adaptations, this book is a complete biography of the life – and the afterlives – of The War of the Worlds. Exploring the original text's compelling sense of place and vivid recreation of Wells's Woking home and the concerns of fin-de-siécle Britain, the book goes on to chart the novel's immediate international impact. Starting with the initial serialisations in US newspapers, Peter Beck goes on to examine Orson Welles's legendary 1938 radio adaptation, TV and film adaptations from George Pal to Steven Spielberg, Jeff Wayne's rock opera and the numerous other works that have taken their inspiration from Wells's original. Drawing on new archival research, this is a comprehensive account of the continuing impact of The War of the Worlds.

Table of contents

• Also Available from Bloomsbury
• Dedication
• Title
• Contents 
• List of Tables
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• List of Abbreviations
• Herbert George Wells: Chronology
• H. G. Wells: Books Published, 1895–1900
• Map: H. G. Wells and The War of the Worlds
• Part I Introduction
• Chapter 1 H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds: An enduring Present-Day Story
• Chapter 2 Wells’s Powerful Sense of Place
• Chapter 3 Wells’s Strong Sense of Time: Contextualizing The War of the Worlds
• Part II Writing and Publishing The War of the Worlds
• Chapter 4 Wells’s Personal Setting
• Chapter 5 Struggling for Recognition as a New Writer
• Chapter 6 Wells’s ‘Literary Factory’ in Woking
• Chapter 7 Writing The War of the Worlds
• Chapter 8 The War of the Worlds: Storyline and Methodology
• Chapter 9 Leaving Woking for Worcester Park
• Part III Taking Wells’s The War of the Worlds to the World in an Ever-Expanding Range of Multimedia Adaptations
• Chapter 10 The War of the Worlds’ Multimedia Afterlife
• Chapter 11 Wells’s Martians Invade Boston and New York: Serializing The War of the Worlds in American Newspapers, 1897–8
• Chapter 12 Wells’s Martians Invade the USA Yet Again: Orson Welles’s 1938 the War of the Worlds Broadcast
• Chapter 13 ‘Those Men from Mars’ Invade the Americas and Europe Again and Again After 1938: The Power of Radio Drama
• Chapter 14 The War of the Worlds Reaches Cinema and Television Screens Around the World: The Hollywood Films of 1953 and 2005
• Chapter 15 The War of the Worlds Inspires Jeff Wayne’s Rock Opera and Reaches the Music Stage Around the World
• Part IV The War of the Worlds’ Literary Heritage
• Chapter 16 The War of the Worlds’ Literary Heritage
• Part V Conclusion
• Chapter 17 Wells and The War of the Worlds
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright