The War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells

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      Title: The War of the Worlds

      by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

      ISBN 978-3-7429-0034-0

      All rights reserved

      It is not permitted to reproduce or publish this work in whole or in part without prior written permission.

      The War of the Worlds

      by H. G. Wells

      ‘But who shall dwell in these worlds if they be inhabited?

       . . . Are we or they Lords of the World?

      . . . And how are all things made for man?’

       KEPLER (quoted in The Anatomy of Melancholy)

      CONTENTS

BOOK ONE — THE COMING OF THE MARTIANS
I THE EVE OF THE WAR
II THE FALLING STAR
III ON HORSELL COMMON
IV THE CYLINDER OPENS
V THE HEAT-RAY
VI THE HEAT-RAY IN THE CHOBHAM ROAD
VII HOW I REACHED HOME
VIII FRIDAY NIGHT
IX THE FIGHTING BEGINS
X IN THE STORM
XI AT THE WINDOW
XII WHAT I SAW OF THE DESTRUCTION OF WEYBRIDGE AND SHEPPERTON
XIII HOW I FELL IN WITH THE CURATE
XIV IN LONDON
XV WHAT HAD HAPPENED IN SURREY
XVI THE EXODUS FROM LONDON
XVII THE “THUNDER CHILD”

BOOK TWO — THE EARTH UNDER THE MARTIANS
I UNDER FOOT
II WHAT WE SAW FROM THE RUINED HOUSE
III THE DAYS OF IMPRISONMENT
IV THE DEATH OF THE CURATE
V THE STILLNESS
VI THE WORK OF FIFTEEN DAYS
VII THE MAN ON PUTNEY HILL
VIII DEAD LONDON
IX WRECKAGE
X THE EPILOGUE

      BOOK ONE

       THE COMING OF THE MARTIANS

      I

       THE EVE OF THE WAR

      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 and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall

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