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''For a time I believed that mankind had been swept out of existence, and that I stood there alone, the last man left alive.'' When a strange, meteor-like object lands in the heart of England, the inhabitants of Earth find themselves victims of a terrible attack. A ruthless race of Martians, armed with heat rays and poisonous smoke, is intent on destroying everything that stands in its way. As the unnamed hero struggles to find his way across decimated wastelands, the fate of the planet hangs in the balance . . . H. G. Wells was a pioneer of modern science fiction. First serialised in the UK in 1897, The War of the Worlds is one of the earliest stories to depict conflict with an extraterrestrial race, and has influenced countless adaptations and sequels.
HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.
''That these man-like creatures were in truth only bestial monsters, mere grotesque travesties of men, filled me with a vague uncertainty of their possibilities far worse than any definite fear.'' Edward Prendick, the sole survivor of a shipwreck in the South Pacific, is set ashore on an island where he meets the mysterious Doctor Moreau. Horrified by the discovery that Moreau is performing vivisection on animals to form monstrous human hybrids, Prendick flees into the jungle. But he soon realises that the island is populated with Moreau''s terrible creations, and not all are divested of their savage habits . . .
H. G. Wells pioneered ideas of society, science and progress in his works, which are now considered modern classics. Written in 1896, The Island of Doctor Moreau is an imaginative exploration of the nature of cruelty and what it means to be human.
La Guerre des mondes (The War of the Worlds) est un roman de science-fiction écrit par H. G. Wells, publié en 1898. C'est une des premières oeuvres d'imagination dont le sujet est l'humanité confrontée à une race extraterrestre hostile, en plus d'être le reflet de l'angoisse de l'époque victorienne et de l'impérialisme. Le roman a été adapté en feuilletons radiophoniques (dont une version d'Orson Welles qui aurait défrayé la chronique en 19383), en jeux de rôle, en bande dessinée ainsi qu'en deux longs-métrages (le premier étant réalisé par Byron Haskin en 1953 et le second par Steven Spielberg en 2005).
La mayoria de la gente de este mundo parece vivir según un papel establecido; tienen un principio, un intermedio y un final, que son congruentes entre si y fieles a las reglas de su colectivo. Se puede decir que esas personas son de un tipo o de otro. Son, como diria la gente de teatro, ni mas ni menos que «actores de un papel». Tienen una clase, tienen un lugar, saben lo que son y lo que les corresponde, y el tamano de la lapida dice al final lo adecuadamente que han interpretado este papel. Pero hay también otro tipo de vida que no es tanto vivir como saborear una miscelanea de vidas. Uno es golpeado por alguna inesperada fuerza transversal, arrojado fuera de su estrato y vive de través durante el resto del tiempo, y, por decirlo asi, en una sucesión fragmentaria de experiencias. Este ha sido mi caso, y eso es lo que me ha impulsado a escribir algo de una naturaleza similar a una novela. He sido objeto de una inusual serie de impresiones que deseo contar sin mas dilación. He visto la vida desde niveles muy distintos, y en todos ellos la he observado con una especie de familiaridad y con buena fe.
This work by H. G. Wells was first published in 1910. In contrast to Wells' early speculative fiction works like The Time Machine, this is a comic novel set in the everyday world of the late Victorian and early Edwardian era in England. Despite the less than happy life-story of Mr. Polly, it is an amusing book, enlivened by Polly's inventive attitude towards the English language.
Alfred Polly's mother dies when he is only seven, and he is brought up by his father and a stern aunt. He is indifferently educated, and leaves school in his early teens to be employed as a draper's assistant. As the years pass, he finds himself more and more disenchanted with his occupation, but it is too late to change it. Eventually his father dies and leaves him a legacy which may be enough to set up in business for himself. He sets up his own shop in a small town and stumbles into an unhappy marriage. The business is not profitable, and in his middle-age, unhappy and dyspeptic, Mr. Polly comes up with an idea to bring an end to his troubles. Things, however, do not go as he planned, and lead to an unexpected result.
Wells' later work often displays his passion for social reform. Here, that passion is less obvious, but nevertheless he demonstrates his sympathy for middle-class people raised like Mr. Polly with but a poor education and trapped into either dead-end jobs or in failing retail businesses.
The History of Mr. Polly was well-received by critics at the time of publication and was subsequently made into both a film and two different BBC television serials.
Mr. Bedford Meets Mr. Cavor at Lympne As I sit down to write here amidst the shadows of vine-leaves under the blue sky of southern Italy, it comes to me with a certain quality of astonishment that my participation in these amazing adventures of Mr. Cavor was, after all, the outcome of the purest accident. It might have been any one. I fell into these things at a time when I thought myself removed from the slightest possibility of disturbing experiences. I had gone to Lympne because I had imagined it the most uneventful place in the world. Here, at any rate, said I, I shall find peace and a chance to work!
And this book is the sequel. So utterly at variance is destiny with all the little plans of men. I may perhaps mention here that very recently I had come an ugly cropper in certain business enterprises. Sitting now surrounded by all the circumstances of wealth, there is a luxury in admitting my extremity. I can admit, even, that to a certain extent my disasters were conceivably of my own making. It may be there are directions in which I have some capacity, but the conduct of business operations is not among these. But in those days I was young, and my youth among other objectionable forms took that of a pride in my capacity for affairs. I am young still in years, but the things that have happened to me have rubbed something of the youth from my mind. Whether they have brought any wisdom to light below it is a more doubtful matter.
b>In 1937, H. G. Wells proposed a predigital, freely available World Encyclopedia to represent a civilization-saving World Brain./b>br>br>In a series of talks and essays in 1937, H. G. Wells proselytized for what he called a "World Brain," as manifested in a World Encyclopedia--a repository of scientifically established knowledge--that would spread enlightenment around the world and lead to world peace. Wells, known to readers today as the author of The War of the Worlds and other science fiction classics, was imagining something like a predigital Wikipedia. The World Encyclopedia would provide a summary of verified reality (in about forty volumes); it would be widely available, free of copyright, and utilize the latest technology. br>br>Of course, as Bruce Sterling points out in the foreword to this edition of Wells''s work, the World Brain didn''t happen; the internet did. And yet, Wells anticipated aspects of the internet, envisioning the World Brain as a technical system of networked knowledge (in Sterling''s words, a "hypothetical super-gadget"). Wells''s optimism about the power of information might strike readers today as naïvely utopian, but possibly also inspirational.
One summer night, a strange cylinder falls to Earth. Few people are interested at first, but then the end of the cylinder unscrews and a strange, grey creature emerges. Can anything be done to stop this invasion ?
