The War of the Worlds (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: H. G. Wells
- First Published: 1897
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Science fiction
- Time of Work: Late nineteenth century
- Setting: Woking and London, England
- Principal Characters: The Anonymous Narrator, Ogilvy, The Artilleryman, The Curate
- Genres: Long fiction, Science fiction
- Subjects: Twentieth century, Nineteenth century, Extraterrestrial life, Science or scientists, Space ships, stations, or vehicles, Emotions, England or English people, Fear, War, Death or dying, Moral conditions, London, Earth, Bacteriology, Horror, Technology, Battles, Mars, Aliens, space
- Locales: London, England, Woking, England
The Story:
Although scientists had speculated about intelligent life on Mars, it came as a complete surprise to England when Martians landed, shot to Earth in flaming cylinders. At first the projectiles were taken to be shooting stars or meteorites. Then Ogilvy, the first to discover one of the cylinders, realized that it was hollow and that as it cooled he could hear something inside unscrewing the thing’s top.
Ogilvy informed a local journalist, Henderson, and soon a crowd, including the narrator, gathered around a cylinder. The narrator suspected the object had come...
[The entire page is 2199 words long]
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