The War of the Worlds is a science fiction
novel by English author H. G. Wells, first
serialized in 1897 by Pearson's Magazine in
the UK and by Cosmopolitan magazine in the
US. The novel's first appearance in hardcover
was in 1898 from publisher William Heinemann
of London. Written between 1895 and 1897,
it is one of the earliest stories to detail
a conflict between mankind and an extraterrestrial
race. The novel is the first-person narrative
of both an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and
of his younger brother in London as southern
England is invaded by Martians. The novel
is one of the most commented-on works in the
science fiction canon.The plot has been related
to invasion literature of the time. The novel
has been variously interpreted as a commentary
on evolutionary theory, British imperialism,
and generally Victorian superstitions, fears,
and prejudices. Wells said that the plot arose
from a discussion with his brother Frank about
the catastrophic impact of the British on
indigenous Tasmanians. What would happen,
he wondered, if Martians did to Britain what
the British had done to the Tasmanians? The
Tasmanians however lacked the lethal pathogens
to defeat their invaders. At the time of publication,
it was classified as a scientific romance,
like Wells's earlier novel The Time Machine.
The War of the Worlds has been both popular
(having never been out of print) and influential,
spawning half a dozen feature films, radio
dramas, a record album, various comic book
adaptations, a television series, and sequels
or parallel stories by other authors. It was
most memorably dramatized in a 1938 radio
program that allegedly caused public panic
among listeners who did not know the Martian
invasion was fictional.
The novel has even influenced the work of
scientists, notably Robert H. Goddard, who,
inspired by the book, invented both the liquid
fuelled rocket and multistage rocket, which
resulted in the Apollo 11 Moon landing 71
years later.
== Plot ==
Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are
to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts
that perish, intellects vast and cool and
unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious
eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans
against us.
=== The Coming of the Martians ===
The narrative opens by stating that as humans
on Earth busied themselves with their own
endeavours during the mid-1890s, aliens on
Mars began plotting an invasion of Earth because
their own resources are dwindling. The narrator
(who is unnamed throughout the novel) is invited
to an astronomical observatory at Ottershaw
where explosions are seen on the surface of
the planet Mars, creating much interest in
the scientific community. Months later, a
so called "meteor" lands on Horsell Common,
near the narrator's home in Woking, Surrey.
He is among the first to discover that the
object is an artificial cylinder that opens,
disgorging Martians who are "big" and "greyish"
with "oily brown skin", "the size, perhaps,
of a bear", each with "two large dark-coloured
eyes", and lipless "V-shaped mouths" which
drip saliva and are surrounded by two "Gorgon
groups of tentacles". The narrator finds them
"at once vital, intense, inhuman, crippled
and monstrous". They briefly emerge, have
difficulty in coping with the Earth's atmosphere
and gravity, and rapidly retreat into their
cylinder. A human deputation (which includes
the astronomer Ogilvy) approaches the cylinder
with a white flag, but the Martians incinerate
them and others nearby with a heat-ray before
beginning to assemble their machinery. Military
forces arrive that night to surround the common,
including Maxim guns. The population of Woking
and the surrounding villages are reassured
by the presence of the British Army. A tense
day begins, with much anticipation of military
action by the narrator.
After heavy firing from the common and damage
to the town from the heat-ray which suddenly
erupts in the late afternoon, the narrator
takes his wife to safety in nearby Leatherhead,
where his cousin lives, using a rented, two-wheeled
horse cart; he then returns to Woking to return
the cart when in the early morning hours,
a violent thunderstorm erupts. On the road
during the height of the storm, he has his
first terrifying sight of a fast-moving Martian
fighting-machine; in a panic he crashes the
horse cart, barely escaping detection. He
discovers the Martians have assembled towering
three-legged "fighting-machines" (tripods),
each armed with a heat-ray and a chemical
weapon: the poisonous "black smoke". These
tripods have wiped out the army units positioned
around the cylinder and attacked and destroyed
most of Woking. Sheltering in his house, the
narrator sees a fleeing artilleryman moving
through his garden, who later tells the narrator
of his experiences and mentions that another
cylinder has landed between Woking and Leatherhead,
cutting off the narrator from his wife. The
two try to escape via Byfleet just after dawn,
but are separated at the Shepperton to Weybridge
Ferry during a Martian afternoon attack on
Shepperton. One of the Martian fighting-machines
is brought down in the River Thames by artillery
as the narrator and countless others try to
cross the river into Middlesex, as the Martians
retreat back to their original crater. This
gives the authorities precious hours to form
a defence-line covering London. After the
Martians' temporary repulse, the narrator
is able to float down the Thames in a boat
toward London, stopping at Walton, where he
first encounters the curate, his companion
for the coming weeks.
Towards dusk, the Martians renew their offensive,
breaking through the defence-line of siege
guns and field artillery centred on Richmond
Hill and Kingston Hill by a widespread bombardment
of the black smoke; an exodus of the population
of London begins. This includes the narrator's
younger brother, a medical student, also unnamed,
who flees to the Essex coast after the sudden,
panicked, predawn order to evacuate London
is given by the authorities, a terrifying
and harrowing journey of three days, amongst
thousands of similar refugees streaming from
London. The brother encounters Mrs. Elphinstone
and her younger sister-in-law, just in time
to help them fend off three men who are trying
to rob them. Since Mrs Elphinstone's husband
is missing, the three continue on together.
After a terrifying struggle to cross a streaming
mass of refugees on the road at Barnet, they
head eastward. Two days later, at Chelmsford,
their pony is confiscated for food by the
local Committee of Public Supply. They press
on to Tillingham and the sea. There they manage
to buy passage to Continental Europe on a
small paddle steamer, part of a vast throng
of shipping gathered off the Essex coast to
evacuate refugees. The torpedo ram HMS Thunder
Child destroys two attacking tripods before
being destroyed by the Martians, though this
allows the evacuation fleet to escape, including
the ship carrying the narrator's brother and
his two travelling companions. Shortly thereafter,
all organised resistance has ceased, and the
Martians roam the shattered landscape unhindered.
=== The Earth under the Martians ===
At the beginning of Book Two the narrator
and the curate are plundering houses in search
of food. During this excursion the men witness
a Martian fighting-machine enter Kew, seizing
any person it finds and tossing them into
a "great metallic carrier which projected
behind him, much as a workman's basket hangs
over his shoulder", and the narrator realises
that the Martian invaders may have "a purpose
other than destruction" for their victims.
At a house in Sheen "a blinding glare of green
light" and a loud concussion attend the arrival
of the fifth Martian cylinder, and both men
are trapped beneath the ruins for two weeks.
The narrator's relations with the curate deteriorate
over time, and he eventually is forced to
knock him unconscious to silence his now loud
ranting; but the curate is overheard outside
by a Martian, who finally removes his unconscious
body with one of its handling machine tentacles.
The reader is then led to believe the Martians
will perform a fatal transfusion of the curate's
blood to nourish themselves, as they have
done with other captured victims viewed by
the narrator through a small slot in the house's
ruins. The narrator just barely escapes detection
from the returned foraging tentacle by hiding
in the adjacent coal-cellar.
The Martians eventually abandon the cylinder's
crater, and the narrator emerges from the
collapsed house where he had observed the
Martians up close during his ordeal; he then
approaches West London. En route, he finds
the Martian red weed everywhere, a prickly
vegetation spreading wherever there is abundant
water. On Putney Heath, he once again encounters
the artilleryman, who briefly persuades him
of a grandiose plan to rebuild civilization
by living underground; but, after a few hours,
the narrator perceives the laziness of his
companion and abandons him. Now in a deserted
and silent London, he begins to slowly go
mad from his accumulated trauma, finally attempting
to end it all by openly approaching a stationary
fighting-machine. To his surprise, he quickly
discovers that all the Martians have been
killed by an onslaught of earthly pathogens,
to which they had no immunity: "slain, after
all man's devices had failed, by the humblest
things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon
this earth". The narrator continues on, finally
suffering a brief but complete nervous breakdown,
which affects him for days; he is finally
nursed back to health by a kind family. Eventually,
he is able to return by train to Woking via
a patchwork of newly repaired tracks. At his
home, he discovers that his beloved wife has
miraculously survived. The last chapter reflects
on the significance of the Martian invasion
and the "abiding sense of doubt and insecurity"
it has left in the narrator's mind.
== Style ==
The War of the Worlds presents itself as a
factual account of the Martian invasion. The
narrator is a middle-class writer of philosophical
papers, somewhat reminiscent of Doctor Kemp
in The Invisible Man, with characteristics
similar to author Wells at the time of writing.
The reader learns very little about the background
of the narrator or indeed of anyone else in
the novel; characterisation is unimportant.
In fact none of the principal characters are
named, aside from the astronomer Ogilvy.
== Scientific setting ==
Wells trained as a science teacher during
the latter half of the 1880s. One of his teachers
was T. H. Huxley, famous as a major advocate
of Darwinism. He later taught science, and
his first book was a biology textbook. He
joined the scientific journal Nature as a
reviewer in 1894. Much of his work is notable
for making contemporary ideas of science and
technology easily understandable to readers.The
scientific fascinations of the novel are established
in the opening chapter where the narrator
views Mars through a telescope, and Wells
offers the image of the superior Martians
having observed human affairs, as though watching
tiny organisms through a microscope. Ironically
it is microscopic Earth lifeforms that finally
prove deadly to the Martian invasion force.
In 1894 a French astronomer observed a 'strange
light' on Mars, and published his findings
in the scientific journal Nature on the second
of August that year. Wells used this observation
to open the novel, imagining these lights
to be the launching of the Martian cylinders
toward Earth. American astronomer Percival
Lowell published the book Mars in 1895 suggesting
features of the planet's surface observed
through telescopes might be canals. He speculated
that these might be irrigation channels constructed
by a sentient life form to support existence
on an arid, dying world, similar to that which
Wells suggests the Martians have left behind.
The novel also presents ideas related to Charles
Darwin's theory of natural selection, both
in specific ideas discussed by the narrator,
and themes explored by the story.
Wells also wrote an essay titled 'Intelligence
on Mars', published in 1896 in the Saturday
Review, which sets out many of the ideas for
the Martians and their planet that are used
almost unchanged in The War of the Worlds.
In the essay he speculates about the nature
of the Martian inhabitants and how their evolutionary
progress might compare to humans. He also
suggests that Mars, being an older world than
the Earth, might have become frozen and desolate,
conditions that might encourage the Martians
to find another planet on which to settle.
== Physical location ==
In 1895 Wells was an established writer and
he married his second wife, Catherine Robbins,
moving with her to the town of Woking in Surrey.
Here he spent his mornings walking or cycling
in the surrounding countryside, and his afternoons
writing. The original idea for The War of
the Worlds came from his brother during one
of these walks, pondering on what it might
be like if alien beings were suddenly to descend
on the scene and start attacking its inhabitants.Much
of The War of the Worlds takes place around
Woking and the surrounding area. The initial
landing site of the Martian invasion force,
Horsell Common, was an open area close to
Wells's home. In the preface to the Atlantic
edition of the novel he wrote of his pleasure
in riding a bicycle around the area, imagining
the destruction of cottages and houses he
saw, by the Martian heat-ray or their red
weed. While writing the novel, Wells enjoyed
shocking his friends by revealing details
of the story, and how it was bringing total
destruction to parts of the South London landscape
that were familiar to them. The characters
of the artilleryman, the curate, and the brother
medical student were also based on acquaintances
in Woking and Surrey.Wells wrote in a letter
to Elizabeth Healey about his choice of locations:
"I'm doing the dearest little serial for Pearson's
new magazine, in which I completely wreck
and sack Woking – killing my neighbours
in painful and eccentric ways – then proceed
via Kingston and Richmond to London, which
I sack, selecting South Kensington for feats
of peculiar atrocity."A 7-metre (23 feet)
high sculpture of a tripod fighting machine,
entitled The Martian, based on descriptions
in the novel stands in Crown Passage close
to the local railway station in Woking, designed
and constructed by artist Michael Condron.
== Cultural setting ==
His depiction of suburban late Victorian culture
in the novel was an accurate reflection of
his own experiences at the time of writing.
In the late 19th Century the British Empire
was the predominant colonial and naval power
on the globe, making its domestic heart a
poignant and terrifying starting point for
an invasion by Martians with their own imperialist
agenda. He also drew upon a common fear which
had emerged in the years approaching the turn
of the century, known at the time as fin de
siècle or 'end of the age', which anticipated
apocalypse at midnight on the last day of
1899.
== Publication ==
In the late 1890s it was common for novels,
prior to full volume publication, to be serialised
in magazines or newspapers, with each part
of the serialisation ending upon a cliff hanger
to entice audiences to buy the next edition.
This is a practice familiar from the first
publication of Charles Dickens' novels in
the nineteenth century. The War of the Worlds
was first published in serial form in Pearson's
Magazine in April – December 1897. Wells
was paid £200 and Pearsons demanded to know
the ending of the piece before committing
to publish.The complete volume was published
by William Heinemann in 1898 and has been
in print ever since.
Two unauthorised serialisations of the novel
were published in the United States prior
to the publication of the novel. The first
was published in the New York Evening Journal
between December 1897 and January 1898. The
story was published as Fighters from Mars
or the War of the Worlds. It changed the location
of the story to a New York setting. The second
version changed the story to have the Martians
landing in the area near and around Boston,
and was published by the Boston Post in 1898,
which Wells protested against. It was called
Fighters from Mars, or the War of the Worlds
in and near Boston. Both pirated versions
of the story were followed by Edison's Conquest
of Mars by Garrett P. Serviss. Even though
these versions are deemed as unauthorised
serialisations of the novel, it is possible
that H. G. Wells may have, without realising
it, agreed to the serialisation in the New
York Evening Journal.
== Reception ==
The War of the Worlds was generally received
very favourably by both readers and critics
upon its publication. There was, however,
some criticism of the brutal nature of the
events in the narrative.
== Relation to invasion literature ==
Between 1871 and 1914 over 60 works of fiction
for adult readers describing invasions of
Great Britain were published. The seminal
work was The Battle of Dorking (1871) by George
Tomkyns Chesney, an army officer. The book
portrays a surprise German attack, with a
landing on the South coast of England, made
possible by the distraction of the Royal Navy
in colonial patrols and the army in an Irish
insurrection. The German army makes short
work of English militia and rapidly marches
to London. The story was published in Blackwood's
Magazine in May 1871, and so popular that
it was reprinted a month later as a pamphlet
which sold 80,000 copies.The appearance of
this literature reflected the increasing feeling
of anxiety and insecurity as international
tensions between European Imperial powers
escalated towards the outbreak of the First
World War. Across the decades the nationality
of the invaders tended to vary, according
to the most acutely perceived threat at the
time. In the 1870s the Germans were the most
common invaders. Towards the end of the nineteenth
century, a period of strain on Anglo-French
relations, and the signing of a treaty between
France and Russia, the French became the more
common menace.There are a number of plot similarities
between Wells's book and The Battle of Dorking.
In both books a ruthless enemy makes a devastating
surprise attack, with the British armed forces
helpless to stop its relentless advance, and
both involve the destruction of the Home Counties
of southern England. However The War of the
Worlds transcends the typical fascination
of invasion literature with European politics,
the suitability of contemporary military technology
to deal with the armed forces of other nations,
and international disputes, with its introduction
of an alien adversary.Although much of invasion
literature may have been less sophisticated
and visionary than Wells's novel, it was a
useful, familiar genre to support the publication
success of the piece, attracting readers used
to such tales. It may also have proved an
important foundation for Wells's ideas as
he had never seen or fought in a war.
== Scientific predictions and accuracy ==
=== 
Mars ===
Many novels focusing on life on other planets
written close to 1900 echo scientific ideas
of the time, including Pierre-Simon Laplace's
nebular hypothesis, Charles Darwin's theory
of natural selection, and Gustav Kirchhoff's
theory of spectroscopy. These scientific ideas
combined to present the possibility that planets
are alike in composition and conditions for
the development of species, which would likely
lead to the emergence of life at a suitable
geological age in a planet's development.By
the time Wells wrote The War of the Worlds
there had been three centuries of observation
of Mars through telescopes. Galileo in 1610
observed the planet's phases, and in 1666
Giovanni Cassini identified the polar ice
caps. In 1878 Italian astronomer Giovanni
Schiaparelli observed geological features
which he called canali (Italian for "channels").
This was mistranslated into English as "canals"
which, being artificial watercourses, fuelled
the belief in intelligent extraterrestrial
life on the planet. This further influenced
American astronomer Percival Lowell.In 1895
Lowell published a book titled Mars, which
speculated about an arid, dying landscape,
whose inhabitants built canals to bring water
from the polar caps to irrigate the remaining
arable land. This formed the most advanced
scientific ideas about the conditions on the
red planet available to Wells at the time
The War of the Worlds was written, but the
concept was later proved erroneous by more
accurate observation of the planet, and later
landings by Russian and American probes such
as the two Viking missions, that found a lifeless
world too cold for water to exist in its liquid
state.
=== Space travel ===
The Martians travel to the Earth in cylinders,
apparently fired from a huge space gun on
the surface of Mars. This was a common representation
of space travel in the nineteenth century,
and had also been used by Jules Verne in From
the Earth to the Moon. Modern scientific understanding
renders this idea impractical, as it would
be difficult to control the trajectory of
the gun precisely, and the force of the explosion
necessary to propel the cylinder from the
Martian surface to the Earth would likely
kill the occupants.However, the 16-year-old
Robert Goddard was inspired by the story and
spent much of his life building rockets. The
research into rockets begun by Goddard eventually
culminated in the Apollo program's manned
landing on the Moon, and the landing of robotic
probes on Mars.
=== Total war ===
The Martian invasion's principal weapons are
the Heat-Ray and the poisonous Black Smoke.
Their strategy includes the destruction of
infrastructure such as armament stores, railways,
and telegraph lines; it appears to be intended
to cause maximum casualties, leaving humans
without any will to resist. These tactics
became more common as the twentieth century
progressed, particularly during the 1930s
with the development of mobile weapons and
technology capable of surgical strikes on
key military and civilian targets.Wells's
vision of a war bringing total destruction
without moral limitations in The War of the
Worlds was not taken seriously by readers
at the time of publication. He later expanded
these ideas in the novels When the Sleeper
Wakes (1899), The War in the Air (1908), and
The World Set Free (1914). This kind of total
war did not become fully realised until the
Second World War.As noted by Howard Black:
"In concrete details the Martian Fighting
Machines as depicted by Wells have nothing
in common with tanks or dive bombers, but
the tactical and strategic use made of them
is strikingly reminiscent of Blitzkrieg as
it would be developed by the German armed
forces four decades later. The description
of the Martians advancing inexorably, at lightning
speed, towards London; the British Army completely
unable to put up an effective resistance;
the British government disintegrating and
evacuating the capital; the mass of terrified
refugees clogging the roads, all were to be
precisely enacted in real life at 1940 France."
Ironically this 1898 prediction came far closer
to the actual land fighting of World War II
than Wells did much later, much closer to
the actual war, in the 1934 The Shape of Things
to Come.
=== Weapons and armour ===
Wells's description of chemical weapons – the
Black Smoke used by the Martian fighting machines
to kill human beings in great numbers – became
a reality in World War I. The comparison between
lasers and the Heat-Ray was made as early
as the later half of the 1950s when lasers
were still in development. Prototypes of mobile
laser weapons have been developed and are
being researched and tested as a possible
future weapon in space.Military theorists
of the era, including those of the Royal Navy
prior to the First World War, had speculated
about building a "fighting-machine" or a "land
dreadnought". Wells later further explored
the ideas of an armoured fighting vehicle
in his short story "The Land Ironclads". There
is a high level of science fiction abstraction
in Wells's description of Martian automotive
technology; he stresses how Martian machinery
is devoid of wheels, using the "muscle-like"
contractions of metal discs along an axis
to produce movement. Electroactive polymers
currently being developed for use in sensors
and robotic actuators are a close match for
Wells' description.
== Interpretations ==
=== 
Natural selection ===
H. G. Wells was a student of Thomas Henry
Huxley, a proponent of the theory of natural
selection. In the novel, the conflict between
mankind and the Martians is portrayed as a
survival of the fittest, with the Martians
whose longer period of successful evolution
on the older Mars has led to them developing
a superior intelligence, able to create weapons
far in advance of humans on the younger planet
Earth, who have not had the opportunity to
develop sufficient intelligence to construct
similar weapons.
=== Human evolution ===
The novel also suggests a potential future
for human evolution and perhaps a warning
against overvaluing intelligence against more
human qualities. The Narrator describes the
Martians as having evolved an overdeveloped
brain, which has left them with cumbersome
bodies, with increased intelligence, but a
diminished ability to use their emotions,
something Wells attributes to bodily function.
The Narrator refers to an 1893 publication
suggesting that the evolution of the human
brain might outstrip the development of the
body, and organs such as the stomach, nose,
teeth, and hair would wither, leaving humans
as thinking machines, needing mechanical devices
much like the Tripod fighting machines, to
be able to interact with their environment.
This publication is probably Wells's own "The
Man of the Year Million", first published
in the Pall Mall Gazette on 6 November 1893,
which suggests similar ideas.
=== Colonialism and imperialism ===
At the time of the novel's publication the
British Empire had conquered and colonised
dozens of territories in Africa, Australia,
North and South America, the Middle East,
South and Southeast Asia, and the Atlantic
and Pacific islands.
While Invasion Literature had provided an
imaginative foundation for the idea of the
heart of the British Empire being conquered
by foreign forces, it was not until The War
of the Worlds that the reading public was
presented with an adversary completely superior
to themselves. A significant motivating force
behind the success of the British Empire was
its use of sophisticated technology; the Martians,
also attempting to establish an empire on
Earth, have technology superior to their British
adversaries. In The War of the Worlds, Wells
depicted an imperial power as the victim of
imperial aggression, and thus perhaps encouraging
the reader to consider imperialism itself.Wells
suggests this idea in the following passage:
And before we judge them [the Martians] too
harshly, we must remember what ruthless and
utter destruction our own species has wrought,
not only upon animals, such as the vanished
Bison and the Dodo, but upon its own inferior
races. The Tasmanians, in spite of their human
likeness, were entirely swept out of existence
in a war of extermination waged by European
immigrants, in the space of fifty years. Are
we such apostles of mercy as to complain if
the Martians warred in the same spirit?
=== Social Darwinism ===
The novel also dramatises the ideas of race
presented in Social Darwinism, in that the
Martians exercise over humans their 'rights'
as a superior race, more advanced in evolution.Social
Darwinism suggested that the success of these
different ethnic groups in world affairs,
and social classes in a society, were the
result of evolutionary struggle in which the
group or class more fit to succeed did so;
i.e., the ability of an ethnic group to dominate
other ethnic groups or the chance to succeed
or rise to the top of society was determined
by genetic superiority. In more modern times
it is typically seen as dubious and unscientific
for its apparent use of Darwin's ideas to
justify the position of the rich and powerful,
or dominant ethnic groups.Wells himself matured
in a society wherein the merit of an individual
was not considered as important as their social
class of origin. His father was a professional
sportsman, which was seen as inferior to 'gentle'
status; whereas his mother had been a domestic
servant, and Wells himself was, prior to his
writing career, apprenticed to a draper. Trained
as a scientist, he was able to relate his
experiences of struggle to Darwin's idea of
a world of struggle; but perceived science
as a rational system, which extended beyond
traditional ideas of race, class and religious
notions, and in fiction challenged the use
of science to explain political and social
norms of the day.
=== Religion and science ===
Good and evil appear relative in The War of
the Worlds, and the defeat of the Martians
has an entirely material cause: the action
of microscopic bacteria. An insane clergyman
is important in the novel, but his attempts
to relate the invasion to Armageddon seem
examples of his mental derangement. His death,
as a result of his evangelical outbursts and
ravings attracting the attention of the Martians,
appears an indictment of his obsolete religious
attitudes; but the narrator twice prays to
God, and suggests that bacteria may have been
divinely allowed to exist on Earth for a reason
such as this.
== Influences ==
=== 
Mars and Martians ===
The novel originated several enduring Martian
tropes in science fiction writing. These include
Mars being an ancient world, nearing the end
of its life, being the home of a superior
civilisation capable of advanced feats of
science and engineering, and also being a
source of invasion forces, keen to conquer
the Earth. The first two tropes were prominent
in Edgar Rice Burroughs "Barsoom" series beginning
with A Princess of Mars in 1912.Influential
scientist Freeman Dyson, a key figure in the
search for extraterrestrial life, also acknowledges
his debt to reading H. G. Wells' fictions
as a child.The publication and reception of
The War of the Worlds also established the
vernacular term of 'martian' as a description
for something offworldly or unknown.
=== Aliens and alien invasion ===
==== 
Antecedents ====
Wells is credited with establishing several
extraterrestrial themes which were later greatly
expanded by science fiction writers in the
20th Century, including first contact and
war between planets and their differing species.
There were, however, stories of aliens and
alien invasion prior to publication of The
War of the Worlds.In 1727 Jonathan Swift published
Gulliver's Travels. The tale included a people
who are obsessed with mathematics and more
advanced than Europeans scientifically. They
populate a floating island fortress called
Laputa, 4½ miles in diameter, which uses
its shadow to prevent sun and rain from reaching
earthly nations over which it travels, ensuring
they will pay tribute to the Laputians. Voltaire's
Micromégas (1752) includes two beings from
Saturn and Sirius who, though human in appearance,
are of immense size and visit the Earth out
of curiosity. At first they think the planet
is uninhabited, due to the difference in scale
between them and the peoples of Earth. When
they discover the haughty Earth-centric views
of Earth philosophers, they are greatly amused
by how important Earth beings think they are
compared to greater beings in the universe
such as themselves.In 1892 Robert Potter,
an Australian clergyman, published The Germ
Growers in London. It describes a covert invasion
by aliens who take on the appearance of human
beings and attempt to develop a virulent disease
to assist in their plans for global conquest.
It was not widely read, and consequently Wells's
vastly more successful novel is generally
credited as the seminal alien invasion story.The
first science fiction to be set on Mars may
be Across the Zodiac: The Story of a Wrecked
Record (1880) by Percy Greg. It was a long-winded
book concerned with a civil war on Mars. Another
Mars novel, this time dealing with benevolent
Martians coming to Earth to give humankind
the benefit of their advanced knowledge, was
published in 1897 by Kurd Lasswitz – Two
Planets (Auf Zwei Planeten). It was not translated
until 1971, and thus may not have influenced
Wells, although it did depict a Mars influenced
by the ideas of Percival Lowell. Other examples
are Mr. Stranger's Sealed Packet (1889), which
took place on Mars, Gustavus W. Popes's Journey
to Mars (1894), and Ellsworth Douglas's Pharaoh's
Broker, in which the protagonist encounters
an Egyptian civilisation on Mars which, while
parallel to that of the Earth, has evolved
somehow independently.
==== Early examples of influence on science
fiction ====
Wells had already proposed another outcome
for the alien invasion story in The War of
the Worlds. When the Narrator meets the artilleryman
the second time, the artilleryman imagines
a future where humanity, hiding underground
in sewers and tunnels, conducts a guerrilla
war, fighting against the Martians for generations
to come, and eventually, after learning how
to duplicate Martian weapon technology, destroys
the invaders and takes back the Earth.Six
weeks after publication of the novel, the
Boston Post newspaper published another alien
invasion story, an unauthorised sequel to
The War of the Worlds, which turned the tables
on the invaders. Edison's Conquest of Mars
was written by Garrett P. Serviss, a now little
remembered writer, who described the famous
inventor Thomas Edison leading a counterattack
against the invaders on their home soil. Though
this is actually a sequel to 'Fighters from
Mars', a revised and unauthorised reprint
of The War of the Worlds, they both were first
printed in the Boston Post in 1898. Lazar
Lagin published Major Well Andyou in USSR
in 1962, an alternative view of events in
The War of the Worlds from the viewpoint of
a traitor.
The War of the Worlds was reprinted in the
United States in 1927, before the Golden Age
of science fiction, by Hugo Gernsback in Amazing
Stories. John W. Campbell, another key science
fiction editor of the era, and periodic short
story writer, published several alien invasion
stories in the 1930s. Many well known science
fiction writers were to follow, including
Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Clifford Simak
and Robert A. Heinlein with The Puppet Masters
and John Wyndham with The Kraken Wakes.
==== Later examples ====
The theme of alien invasion has remained popular
to the present day and are frequently used
in the plots of all forms of popular entertainment
including movies, television, novels, comics
and video games.
Alan Moore's graphic novel, The League of
Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II, retells
the events in The War of the Worlds. In the
end of the first issue of Marvel Zombies 5,
it is revealed that the main characters will
visit a world called "Martian Protectorate"
where the events of The War of the Worlds
are occurring.
=== Tripods ===
The Tripods trilogy of books features a central
theme of invasion by alien-controlled tripods.
== Adaptations ==
The War of the Worlds has spawned seven films,
as well as various radio dramas, comic-book
adaptations, video games, a television series,
and sequels or parallel stories by other authors.
The most famous, or infamous, adaptation is
the 1938 radio broadcast that was narrated
and directed by Orson Welles. The first two-thirds
of the 60-minute broadcast were presented
as a news bulletin, often described as having
led to outrage and panic by listeners who
believed the events described in the program
to be real. In some versions of the story,
up to a million people ran outside in terror.
However, later critics point out that the
supposed panic was exaggerated by newspapers
of the time, seeking to discredit radio as
a source of information or exploit racial
stereotypes. According to research by A. Brad
Schwartz, fewer than 50 Americans seems to
have fled outside in the wake of the broadcast
and it is not clear how many of them heard
the broadcast directly.In 1953 came the first
The War of the Worlds theatrical film produced
by George Pal and directed by Byron Haskin,
starring Gene Barry. Steven Spielberg directed
a 2005 film adaptation starring Tom Cruise,
which received generally positive reviews.In
1978 a best selling musical album of the story
was produced by Jeff Wayne, with the voices
of Richard Burton and David Essex. Two later,
somewhat different live concert musical versions
based on the original album have since been
mounted by Wayne and toured throughout the
UK. Both versions of this stage production
utilized narration, lavish projected computer
graphics, and a large Martian fighting machine
on stage.
In the 1980s a joint American-Canadian venture
produced the television series War of the
Worlds that ran for two seasons and was a
direct sequel to George Pal's 1953 feature
film. Its premise was that the Martians had
not died off but were instead stored in suspension
by the US government and that most people
had just forgotten the previous invasion;
the accidental awakening of the Martians results
in another war.
A Hey Arnold! Halloween special was aired
to parody The War of the Worlds. The costumes
that the main characters wore referenced a
species from Star Trek.
A 2001 animated series of Justice League begins
with a three-part saga called "Secret Origins"
and features tripod machines invading and
attacking the city.
The Great Martian War 1913–1917 is a 2013
made-for-television science fiction film docudrama
that adapts The War of the Worlds and unfolds
in the style of an episode of the History
TV Channel. The film is an alternate history
of World War I in which Europe and its allies,
including America, fight the Martian invaders
instead of Germany and its allies. The docudrama
includes both new and digitally altered film
footage shot during the War to End All Wars
to establish the scope of the interplanetary
conflict. The film's original 2013 UK broadcast
was during the first year of the World War
I centennial; the first US cable TV broadcast
came in 2014, almost 10 months later.
In the spring of 2017, the BBC announced that
it will be producing in 2018 a Victorian period,
three-episode mini-series adaptation of the
Wells novel.
Colin Morgan (Merlin, Humans) stars in The
Coming of the Martians, a faithful audio dramatisation
of H. G. Wells' classic 1897 story, directed
by Lisa Bowerman and adapted by Nick Scovell,
will be released in July 2018 by Sherwood
Sound Studios as a Collector's USB Edition,
Limited Edition DVD, 2-Disc CD and Download
format. It will be produced in native 5.1
surround sound.
There is also a novel adaptation, set in Victorian
Britain of 1898 about HMS Thunder Child, called
The Last Days of Thunder Child by C.A. Powell.
ISBN 978-1484088265
== See also ==
Deus ex machina
Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century
The Space Machine
