The War of the Worlds
Herbert WellsСерия книг: Classic bestseller
Описание
The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel written by H.G. Wells and first published in 1898.
It tells the story of an invasion of Earth by Martians who arrive in giant, three-legged machines and use heat rays and other advanced weapons to attack humanity. The novel is set in Victorian England and is narrated by an unnamed man who witnesses the invasion firsthand.
The story opens with the narrator describing the strange and unsettling events that begin to unfold in his quiet English town. The arrival of the Martian spacecraft, described as huge, cylinder-shaped objects, creates a sense of both fascination and fear. The subsequent attacks, using powerful heat rays that incinerate anything in their path, quickly turn the initial curiosity into widespread panic.
As the Martians advance, the narrator and other survivors struggle to understand the alien invaders, their motives, and their technology. The story explores themes of fear, alienation, and the fragility of human civilization in the face of overwhelming power.
Wells skillfully blends science fiction elements with realistic descriptions of human reactions to catastrophe. The novel's depiction of the Martian invasion and its devastating consequences is both chilling and thought-provoking. Wells's detailed descriptions of the alien technology, the Martians' physical appearance, and their behavior contribute to the story's sense of realism.
The novel's social commentary is also significant. It reflects the anxieties of the Victorian era, including the fear of scientific progress, the threat of social upheaval, and the vulnerability of humanity to external forces. The novel's enduring popularity and influence on science fiction are undeniable. It has been adapted numerous times for film, television, and radio. Its themes of alien invasion, technological advancement, and the human condition continue to resonate with readers today.
The War of the Worlds remains a classic of the science fiction genre, a testament to Wells's groundbreaking imagination and his ability to create a story that is both entertaining and insightful. The novel's enduring appeal lies in its exploration of universal human anxieties and its timely warning about the potential dangers of unchecked scientific progress.
Herbert Wells : об авторе
Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer. He was prolific in many genres, writing dozens of novels, short stories, and works of social commentary, satire, biography, and autobiography, including even two books on war games. He is now best remembered for his science fiction novels and is often called a "father of science fiction", along with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback. During his own lifetime, however, he was most prominent as a forward-looking, even prophetic social critic who devoted his literary talents to the development of a progressive vision on a global scale. A futurist, he wrote a number of utopian works and foresaw the advent of aircraft, tanks, space travel, nuclear weapons, satellite television and something resembling the World Wide Web. His science fiction imagined time travel, alien invasion, invisibility, and biological engineering. Brian Aldiss referred to Wells as the "Shakespeare of science fiction". His most notable science fiction works include The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897),The War of the Worlds (1898) and The War in the Air (1907). He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. Wells's earliest specialised training was in biology, and his thinking on ethical matters took place in a specifically and fundamentally Darwinian context. He was also from an early date an outspoken socialist, often (but not always, as at the beginning of the First World War) sympathising with pacifist views. His later works became increasingly political and didactic, and he wrote little science fiction, while he sometimes indicated on official documents that his profession was that of journalist. Novels such as Kipps and The History of Mr Polly, which describe lower-middle-class life, led to the suggestion that he was a worthy successor to Charles Dickens, but Wells described a range of social strata and even attempted, in Tono-Bungay (1909), a diagnosis of English society as a whole. A diabetic, Wells co-founded the charity The Diabetic Association (known today as Diabetes UK) in 1934.
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