H. G. Wells

The Invisible Man

H. G. Wells

• Lived in 1866 - 1946• An English autor known for his science fiction

books and called one of the Fathers of Science Fiction“ together with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback

• He worked also as a teacher, jurnalist and historian

• His best known books are The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds

The Invisible Man• Whole story of this science fiction novel is about

young man Griffin. He is travelling from one town to another and searching for place where he would again become visible after his experiment after which he becamed totally invisible. His life is quite difficult because when people around him notice that he is invisible they try to arrest him because they are afraid of him. He must escape everytime to some other village. He is very angry because of this and he starts to make terror in the village where he currently is. Dr. Kemp who is an old friend of Griffin is trying to help him, but then he contact the police and help them to catch Griffin. He is finallly caught and striked by police and some other people. He dies of the injuries. Then when he is on the ground, his dead body slowly becomes visible.

Vocabulary• Inn – word for a very small hotel in a town• Parlour – it´s a room where the guests of the

hotel are entertained, play games etc., also called saloon

• To struck – to hit or attack someone hardly• Vicarage – house where a town priest (vicar)

lives• To disobey – to blemish some rule or

injunction, to be naughty

Quotation• When at last crowd made way for Kemp to stand

back, there lay the bare and broken body of a young man of about thirty. His hair was white – not grey with age, but white as snow – and his eyes were bright like jewels. His Expression was one of anger and fear. „Cover his face!“ cried a man. „In God´s name, cover that face!“ Someone brought a sheet. They covered him, and carried him into the inn. And there it was, on a bed in all-lightened bedroom, among a crowd of excited people, that Griffin, the first of all men to make himself invisible, ended his strange and terrible life.

Pros and cons

• Really good plot with good kind of mystery

• Very dramatic and exciting story which is not boring

• Language and style of writing which is really easy and fast to read and understand

• Quite many characters and places because of his still escaping

• After some time this changing of places become a kind of stereotype

Film adaptations and summary

• The most known film based on this novel is The Invisible Man from director James Whale, which was considered one of the best horror films of 1930s. Also there were a lot of other films and series based on this topic.

• In my opinion this book has a really good plot which can´t bore you anytime, eventhough Griffin is all the time escaping from one town to another, but still it has a good sense of mystery in the plot and you will be excited from the begining till the end.

H. G. Wells