The War of the Worlds

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The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds first edition.jpg
1898 UK First Edition
Author H. G. Wells
Country England
Language English
Genre Science fiction novel
Published 1898[1] (William Heinemann)
Text The War of the Worlds at Wikisource


The War of the Worlds has two parts, Book One: The Coming of the Martians and Book Two: The Earth under the Martians. The unnamed narrator, a philosophically inclined author, struggles to return to his wife while seeing the Martians lay waste to the southern country outside London. Book One also imparts the experience of his brother, also unnamed, who describes events as they deteriorate in the capital, forcing him to escape the Martian onslaught by boarding a paddle steamer near Tillingham, on the Essex coast.

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. At the time of publication it was classified as a scientific romance, like his earlier novel The Time Machine. The War of the Worlds has been both popular (having never gone 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 has even influenced the work of scientists, notably Robert Hutchings Goddard.[5][6]



— H. G. Wells (1898), The War of the Worlds

The Coming of the Martians[edit]

The narrative opens in an astronomical observatory at Ottershaw where explosions are seen on the surface of the planet Mars, creating much interest in the scientific community. Later a "meteor" lands on Horsell Common, near the unnamed 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", with "two large dark-coloured eyes", and a lipless "V-shaped mouth" that drips saliva, surrounded by "Gorgon groups of tentacles". The narrator finds them "at once vital, intense, inhuman, crippled and monstrous".[7] They briefly emerge, have difficulty in coping with the Earth's atmosphere, rapidly retreating 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 military. A tense day begins, with much anticipation of military action by the narrator.

An army of Martian fighting-machines destroying England.

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 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 Martian's 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.

A Martian fighting-machine battling with HMS Thunder Child

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; a mass 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 millions 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 a gang of men who are trying to rob them. The three continue on together (Mrs. Elphinstone's husband is missing, and his fate is never learned). 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 the Continent 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, including the ship carrying the narrator's brother and his two travelling companions, to escape. Shortly after, all organised resistance has ceased, and the Martians roam the shattered landscape unhindered.

The Earth Under the Martians[edit]

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",[8] and the narrator realises that the Martian invaders may have "a purpose other than destruction" for their victims.[8] At a house in Sheen "a blinding glare of green light" and a loud concussion attend the arrival of the fifth Martian cylinder,[8] and both men are trapped beneath the ruins for two weeks. The narrator's relations with the Curate deteriorates 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 captive victims. 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 the artilleryman. 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 since been killed by an onslaught of earthly microbial infections 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."[9] 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 the patchworks of newly repaired track. At his home he discovers that his beloved wife has miraculously survived. The last chapter, entitled "Epilogue," reflects on the significance of the Martian invasion and the "abiding sense of doubt and insecurity" it has left in the narrator's mind.


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 Wells's 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.[10]

Scientific setting[edit]

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.[11][12] Much of his work is notable for making contemporary ideas of science and technology easily understandable to readers.[13]

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.[14] In 1894 a French astronomer observed a 'strange light' on Mars, and published his findings in the scientific journal Nature on 2 August of that year. Wells used this observation to open the novel, imagining these lights to be the launching of the Martian cylinders towards 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 Wells suggests the Martians have left behind.[10][15] 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.[10] 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.[16]

Physical location[edit]

'The Martian' in Woking.

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.[17]

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.[10] 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.[18]

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 neighbors in painful and eccentric ways -- then proceed via Kingston and Richmond to London, which I sack, selecting South Kensington for feats of peculiar atrocity."[19]

In the present day a 7 metre (23 feet) high sculpture of a tripod fighting machine, entitled 'The Martian', based on the description in The War of the Worlds, stands in Crown Passage close to the local railway station in Woking, designed and constructed by artist Michael Condron.[20]

Cultural setting[edit]

His depiction of suburban late Victorian culture in the novel was an accurate reflection of his own experiences at the time of writing.[21] 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.[22] 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.[18]


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.[23] Wells was paid ₤200 and Pearsons demanded to know the ending of the piece before committing to publish.[24]

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.[25] 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.[11] 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.[26]


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.[27]

Relation to invasion literature[edit]

The Battle of Dorking front cover

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.[28][29]

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.[28][29]

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.[29] 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.[30]

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.[31]

Scientific predictions and accuracy[edit]


Martian canals depicted by Percival Lowell.
The arid, lifeless surface of Mars as seen by the Viking Probe.

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.[32]

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.[15] 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.[33]

In 1895 Lowell published a book entitled 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.[15]

Space travel[edit]

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.[34]

However, the 16-year-old Robert H. Goddard was inspired by the story and spent much of his life inventing rockets.[5][6] The research into rockets begun by Goddard eventually culminated in the Apollo program's manned landing on the moon.

Total war[edit]

London during 'The Blitz' in World War II.

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 20th century progressed, particularly during the 1930s with the development of mobile weapons and technology capable of 'surgical strikes' on key military and civilian targets.[35]

Wells's vision of a war bringing total destruction without moral limitations in The War of the Worlds were 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.[36]

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".[37]

Weapons and armour[edit]

Wells's description of chemical weapons – the Black Smoke used by the Martian fighting machines to kill human beings in great numbers – was a daily reality less than 17 years later .[23] 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.[35]

Military theorists of the era, including 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".[38] 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.


Kudzu, an introduced species in the United States, is difficult to control.

Wells's dramatisation of an ecological threat posed by a rapidly growing alien organism, the Red Weed, which spreads over the English landscape, also has parallels in more modern times. Non-native species such as rabbits, foxes, and prickly pear have been introduced into the Australian landscape, with a devastating impact. Another example is the spread of Kudzu in the United States.[23] In Ireland and the United Kingdom Japanese knotweed has become an invasive species; it was introduced in the 19th century.[39] These species were not introduced with the intention of causing deliberate harm.


Wells's Mentor, Darwinist advocate T. H. Huxley.

Natural selection[edit]

H.G. Wells was a student of Thomas Henry Huxley, a proponent of the theory of natural selection.[40] 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.[40]

Human evolution[edit]

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 November 6, 1893, which suggests similar ideas.[41][42]

Colonialism and imperialism[edit]

Stamp showing British Empire at time of The War of the Worlds publication. Egypt was also under de facto British rule

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 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.[43] 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.[44] 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.[43]

Wells suggests this idea in the following passage:


—Chapter I, "The Eve of the War"

This also challenged the Victorian notion that the British Empire had a right to rule by their own superiority over subject races.[43]

Social Darwinism[edit]

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.[45]

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.[46]

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.[47]

Religion and science[edit]

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.[42] 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;[48] but the narrator twice prays to his god, and suggests that bacteria may have been divinely allowed to exist on Earth for a reason such as this.


A Princess of Mars cover.

Mars and Martians[edit]

Further information: Mars in fiction

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.[15]

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.[49]

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.[50]

Aliens and alien invasion[edit]

Further information: Invasion literature


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.[51]

In 1727 Jonathan Swift published Gulliver's Travels. The tale included a race of beings similar but not identical to humanity, who are obsessed with mathematics and are superior to humans. 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.[52] Voltaire's Micromégas (1752) includes two aliens, from Saturn and Sirius, who 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.[53]

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.[51]

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 LasswitzTwo 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.[54] 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.[55]

Early examples of influence on science fiction[edit]

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.[48]

War of the Worlds, 1927 reprint in Amazing Stories.

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.[23] Though this is actually a sequel to 'Fighters from Mars', a revised and unauthorised reprint of War of the Worlds, they both were first printed in the Boston Post in 1898.[56] Lazar Lagin published "Major Well Andyou" in USSR in 1962, an alternative view of events in "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.[25]

Later examples[edit]

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 War of the Worlds are occurring.


The Tripods trilogy of books features a central theme of invasion by alien-controlled tripods.

Other narratives, in addition to utilising the alien invasion trope, also involve the appearance of tripod alien fighting machines. The computer game Half-Life 2 makes an apparent homage to The War of the Worlds in the appearance of tripod fighting machines known as Striders, used by the alien invaders.[57] In the video game Unreal Tournament III, one of the vehicles used by the antagonist is a large "Darkwalker" tripod that functions similarly to those in War of the Worlds.


The War of the Worlds has spawned several feature films, as well as various radio dramas, comic-book adaptations, video games, a television series, and sequels or parallel stories by other authors.

Among the most famous, or infamous, adaptations 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 and led to outrage and panic by some listeners who had believed the events described in the program were real.[58]

In 1953 came the first 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.[59][60]

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 U.S. government, and that most people had just forgotten the previous invasion; the accidental awakening of the Martians results in another war.

In 1978 a best selling musical album of the story was produced by Jeff Wayne, with the voices of Richard Burton and David Essex.

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.

In August 2014 the user Henry Legg on Twitter live tweeted a modern adaption of The War of The Worlds using the hashtag #WotW.[61] The adaptation received around 500 retweets[62] but did confuse some Twitter users who thought that the tweets were referring to real life events.[63] Due to its success Henry Legg on Twitter suggested that The War of The Worlds Day might become an annual Twitter event.[64]

See also[edit]


  1. ^ Facsimile of the original 1st edition
  2. ^ David Y. Hughes and Harry M. Geduld, A Critical Edition of The War of the Worlds: H.G. Wells's Scientific Romance (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1993), p. 1.
  4. ^ Patrick Parrinder (2000). "Learning from Other Worlds: Estrangement, Cognition, and the Politics of Science Fiction and Utopia". P.132. Liverpool University Press
  5. ^ a b Goddard Biography
  6. ^ a b "Robert Goddard and His Rockets". NASA. 
  7. ^ Wells, The War of the Worlds, Book One, Ch. 4.
  8. ^ a b c Wells, The War of the Worlds, Book Two, Ch. 1.
  9. ^ Wells, The War of the Worlds, Book Two, Ch. 8.
  10. ^ a b c d Batchelor, John (1985). H.G. Wells. Cambridge University Press. pp. 23–24. ISBN 0-521-27804-X. 
  11. ^ a b Parrinder, Patrick (1997). H.G. Wells: The Critical Heritage. Routledge. pp. 4–5. ISBN 0-415-15910-5. 
  12. ^ Parrinder, Patrick (1981). The Science Fiction of H.G. Wells. Oxford University Press. pp. 15–16. ISBN 0-19-502812-0. 
  13. ^ Haynes, Rosylnn D. (1980). H.G. Wells Discover of the Future. Macmillan. p. 239. ISBN 0-333-27186-6. 
  14. ^ Batchelor, John (1985). H.G. Wells. Cambridge University Press. p. 50. ISBN 0-521-27804-X. 
  15. ^ a b c d Baxter, Stephen (2005). Glenn Yeffeth, ed. "H.G. Wells’ Enduring Mythos of Mars". War of the Worlds: fresh perspectives on the H.G. Wells classic/ edited by Glenn Yeffeth (BenBalla): 186–7. ISBN 1-932100-55-5. 
  16. ^ Haynes, Rosylnn D. (1980). H.G. Wells Discover of the Future. Macmillan. p. 240. ISBN 0-333-27186-6. 
  17. ^ Martin, Christopher (1988). H.G. Wells. Wayland. pp. 42–43. ISBN 1-85210-489-9. 
  18. ^ a b Flynn, John L. (2005). War of the Worlds: From Wells to Spielberg. Galactic Books. pp. 12–19. ISBN 0-9769400-0-0. 
  19. ^ Welles or Wells: The First Invasion from Mars, Phil Klass, The New York Times Review of Books, 1988
  20. ^ Pearson, Lynn F. (2006). Public Art Since 1950. Osprey Publishing. p. 64. ISBN 0-7478-0642-X. 
  21. ^ Lackey, Mercedes (2005). Glenn Yeffeth, ed. "In Woking's Image". War of the Worlds: fresh perspectives on the H.G. Wells classic/ edited by Glenn Yeffeth (BenBalla): 216. ISBN 1-932100-55-5. 
  22. ^ Franklin, H. Bruce (2008). War Stars. University of Massachusetts Press. p. 65. ISBN 1-55849-651-3. 
  23. ^ a b c d Gerrold, David (2005). Glenn Yeffeth, ed. "War of the Worlds". War of the Worlds: fresh perspectives on the H.G. Wells classic/ edited by Glenn Yeffeth (BenBalla): 202–205. ISBN 9781932100556. 
  24. ^ Parrinder, Patrick (1997). H.G. Wells: The Critical Heritage. Routledge. p. 8. ISBN 0-415-15910-5. 
  25. ^ a b Urbanski, Heather (2007). Plagues, Apocalypses and Bug-Eyed Monsters. McFarland. p. 156. ISBN 9780786429165. 
  27. ^ Aldiss, Brian W.; Wingrove, David (1986). Trillion Year Spree: the History of Science Fiction. London: Victor Gollancz. p. 123. ISBN 0-575-03943-4. 
  28. ^ a b Eby, Cecil D. (1988). The Road to Armageddon: The Martial Spirit in English Popular Literature, 1870–1914. Duke University Press. pp. 11–13. ISBN 0-8223-0775-8. 
  29. ^ a b c Batchelor, John (1985). H.G. Wells. CUP Archive. p. 7. ISBN 0-521-27804-X. 
  30. ^ Parrinder, Patrick (2000). Learning from Other Worlds. Liverpool University Press. p. 142. ISBN 0-85323-584-8. 
  31. ^ McConnell, Frank (1981). The Science Fiction of H.G. Wells. Oxford University Press. p. 134. ISBN 0-19-502812-0. 
  32. ^ Guthke, Karl S. (1990). The Last Frontier: Imagining Other Worlds from the Copernican Revolution to Modern Fiction. Translated by Helen Atkins. Cornell University Press. pp. 368–9. ISBN 0-8014-1680-9.
  33. ^ Seed, David (2005). A Companion to Science Fiction. Blackwell Publishing. p. 546. ISBN 1-4051-1218-2. 
  34. ^ Meadows, Arthur Jack (2007). The Future of the Universe. Springer. p. 5. ISBN 1-85233-946-2. 
  35. ^ a b Gannon, Charles E. (2005). Rumours of War and Infernal Machines. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 99–100. ISBN 0-7425-4035-9. 
  36. ^ Parrinder, Patrick (1997). H.G. Wells: The Critical Heritage. Routledge. pp. 11–12. ISBN 0-415-15910-5. 
  37. ^ Howard D. Black, "Real and Imagined Wars and Armies" in Jane Field (ed.) "The accurate and inaccurate predictions of Early Science Fiction"
  38. ^ Landships: Armored Vehicles for Colonial-era Gaming
  39. ^ "Japanese knotweed - Weed information - Organic Weed Management". 2006-08-22. Retrieved 2012-06-11. 
  40. ^ a b Williamson, Jack (2005). Glenn Yeffeth, ed. "The Evolution of the Martians". War of the Worlds: fresh perspectives on the H.G. Wells classic/ edited by Glenn Yeffeth (BenBella): 189–195. ISBN 9781932100556. 
  41. ^ Haynes, Rosylnn D. (1980). H.G. Wells Discover of the Future. Macmillan. pp. 129–131. ISBN 0-333-27186-6. 
  42. ^ a b Draper, Michael (1987). H.G. Wells. Macmillan. pp. 51–52. ISBN 0-333-40747-4. 
  43. ^ a b c Zebrowski, George (2005). Glenn Yeffeth, ed. "The Fear of the Worlds". War of the Worlds: fresh perspectives on the H.G. Wells classic/ edited by Glenn Yeffeth (BenBalla): 235–41. ISBN 1-932100-55-5. 
  44. ^ Roberts, Adam (2006). The History of Science Fiction. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 148. ISBN 0-333-97022-5. 
  45. ^ Parrinder, Patrick (2000). Learning from Other Worlds. Liverpool University Press. p. 137. ISBN 0-85323-584-8. 
  46. ^ McClellan, James Edward; Dorn, Harold (2006). Science and Technology in World History. JHU Press. pp. 378–90. ISBN 0-8018-8360-1. 
  47. ^ Roberts, Adam (2006). The History of Science Fiction. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 143–44. ISBN 0-333-97022-5. 
  48. ^ a b Batchelor, John (1985). H.G. Wells. Cambridge University Press. p. 28. ISBN 0-521-27804-X. 
  49. ^ Basalla, George (2006). Civilized Life in the Universe: Scientists on Intelligent Extraterrestrials. Oxford University Press US. p. 91. ISBN 9780195171815. 
  50. ^ Silverberg, Robert (2005). Glenn Yeffeth, ed. "Introduction". War of the Worlds: fresh perspectives on the H.G. Wells classic/ edited by Glenn Yeffeth (BenBalla): 12. ISBN 1-932100-55-5. 
  51. ^ a b Flynn, John L. (2005). War of the Worlds: From Wells to Spielberg. Galactic Books. pp. 18–19. ISBN 0-9769400-0-0. 
  52. ^ Guthke, Karl S. (1990). The Last Frontier: Imagining Other Worlds from the Copernican Revolution to Modern Fiction. Translated by Helen Atkins. Cornell University Press. pp. 300–301. ISBN 0-8014-1680-9.
  53. ^ Guthke, Karl S. (1990). The Last Frontier: Imagining Other Worlds from the Copernican Revolution to Modern Fiction. Translated by Helen Atkins. Cornell University Press. pp. 301–304. ISBN 0-8014-1680-9.
  54. ^ Hotakainen, Markus (2008). Mars: A Myth Turned to Landscape. Springer. p. 205. ISBN 0-387-76507-7. 
  55. ^ Westfahl, Gary (2000). Space and Beyond. Greenwood Publishing Groups. p. 38. ISBN 0-313-30846-2. 
  56. ^ Edison’s Conquest of Mars, "Forward" by Robert Godwin, Apogee Books 2005
  57. ^ "Half Life 2". Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
  58. ^ Brinkley, Alan (2010). "Chapter 23 - The Great Depression". The Unfinished Nation. p. 615. ISBN 978-0-07-338552-5. 
  59. ^ "War of the Worlds". Metacritic. Retrieved 28 September 2009. 
  60. ^ "War of the Worlds". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 3 February 2012. 
  61. ^ "War of the Worlds". Henry Legg. Retrieved 20 August 2014. 
  63. ^ "War of the Worlds". Joe Dunkley. Retrieved 20 August 2014. 


  • Coren, Michael (1993) The Invisible Man : The Life and Liberties of H.G. Wells. Publisher: Random House of Canada. ISBN 0-394-22252-0
  • Hughes, David Y. and Harry M. Geduld, A Critical Edition of The War of the Worlds: H.G. Wells's Scientific Romance. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1993. ISBN 0-253-32853-5
  • Roth, Christopher F. (2005) "Ufology as Anthropology: Race, Extraterrestrials, and the Occult." In E.T. Culture: Anthropology in Outerspaces, ed. by Debbora Battaglia. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.
  • Yeffeth, Glenn (Editor) (2005) The War of the Worlds: Fresh Perspectives on the H. G. Wells Classic. Publisher: Benbella Books ISBN 1-932100-55-5

External links[edit]