hg wells war of the worlds first edition

He brings horror to very familiar doorsteps. 'The dramatic effectiveness of the novel lies in the detailed realism with which Wells destroys Richmond, Kingston, and Wimbledon. Wells's best-known work, a catastrophe novel narrated by two unnamed brothers as southern England is invaded by Martians. Housed in a custom clamshell box by James Tapley, with the exterior featuring wraparound artwork of the Martian invasion, and the inner front cover featuring a different illustration of same.

Hint of sunning to spine, small diagonal crease to rear endpaper, with some faint, scattered foxing to endpapers and right edge of textblock contents are otherwise clean, with hinges sound an uncharacteristically bright, Near Fine copy.

First Impression, Currey's state A, with the 16pp publisher's catalogue at rear dated 'Autumn mdcccxcvii.' Octavo (19.75cm) original grey cloth, with titles stamped in black on spine and front cover viii,303, + 16pp of publisher's ads at rear. With horror his narrator describes how the Martians suck the blood from living humans for sustenance, and how it's clear that man is not being conquered so much a corralled. Wells quickly moves the story from the countryside to the evacuation of London itself and the loss of all hope as England's military suffers defeat after defeat. But soon the Martians reveal their true nature as death machines 100-feet tall rise up from the pit and begin laying waste to the surrounding land. At first the Martians seem laughable, hardly able to move in Earth's comparatively heavy gravity even enough to raise themselves out of the pit created when their spaceship landed. Things then progress from a series of seemingly mundane reports about odd atmospheric disturbances taking place on Mars to the arrival of Martians just outside of London. The novel begins ominously, as the lone voice of a narrator tells readers that 'No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's.' This is the granddaddy of all alien invasion stories, first published by H.G.

Hg wells war of the worlds first edition