The War of the Worlds

One of the grandest canvases in the entire history of world science fiction—almost unmatched in literature: a harsh, realistic picture of the confrontation between humankind and the unknown and the unknowable. In this respect, Wells’s novel has become an absolute classic. Standing alongside other representatives of the genre—“they came from outer space to enslave us”—it looks like a truly unreachable Everest.

War of the Worlds is perhaps his most famous science-fiction novel, and over the last one hundred ten years its fantastical elements have been broken up by followers, imitators, and plagiarists. Films have been made, sequels written, fan fiction produced, books inspired by it—and God knows what else. It would seem that only respectable and fairly indestructible remains should be left from the novel. Yet the book lives, and reading it is just as fascinating as it was one hundred ten years ago. The novel stays alive thanks to its realistic component—through vivid people like those who animate Dickens and Thackeray. In this most fantastic of novels, we see the true Victorian era—slow, confident, already in the final days of its life, yet not ready to capitulate and certainly not to die.