The Invisible Man (1897)

Summary: In a small english village an invisible man causes havoc when he starts to terrorise the locals

Things I liked:

Style: The author used a sort of epistological style as if he was recreating the story based on the hearsay and reports of people that
had been around at the time.

Short: I always appreciate a book that manages to deliver something in less than 300 pages that other take 900 to do.

Things I thought could be improved:

Number of characters: In some scenes, especially involving physical conflict, the author throws in a bunch of bystanders which makes the scene hard to follow in text. More work could have been put into differentiating or developing the characters; or it might have been better to just remake the
scene and leave them out.


Highlight:

Funnily enough I think I most enjoyed the 'tell me the whole plan' section where the invisible man reveals the events that occured beforehe arrived. I found them the most tense and scary. Maybe the story should have been that one.

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The Invisible Man (1897) by H.G. Wells. This is the science fiction classic that has given rise to many many spin-off stories and film adaptations. H.G. Wells was in his writing prime when he penned this brilliant book. The moral that I came up for this tale is never become invisible unless you can undo the effect. Or something like that.
Griffin is a scientist deeply interested in physics. When he manages to create a method of making a body's refractive index to that of air so that it neither absorbs nor reflects light and thus becomes invisible, he does it to himself but only after having figured out how to undo the effect.
But he loses the paper that has the undo formula on it.
Threatened with eviction by his landlord, Griffin disrobes and sets forth to destroy the man, only to end up destroying the building and his research. Naked, he steals food and clothing. The latter items necessary when he realizes the food he consumes can be seen within him, appearing to others as floating bits.
And so “The Stranger” gets rooms at an inn and attempts to create the missing formula from memory, to no avail. He becomes increasingly crazed at his inability to be seen again and to resume a “normal” life. The locals become increasingly disturbed by this temperamental shut-in and his terrible manners leading to his fits of temper. As days pass the locals become more suspicious of this person who hides his identity behind heavy clothing and facial bandage wraps.
When things come to a head, Griffin reveals his true identity and fights his way out of the inn and into a cold day outside, leaving his experiments behind as well as his precious notebooks.
The book chronicles the further adventures of Griffin in his attempt to fight both the elements and his fellow man. Increasing desperate at his plight, lacking clothes against the weather, the ability to procure either food or lodging in his naked state, and finding the entire countryside turned against this invisible menace, he turns a chance encounter with an old acquaintance into a temporary reprieve from his torments. But soon his faith in the fellow is betrayed, leading to an untimely death.
There are many psychological insights to be drawn from this tale but at heart it is a cautionary story about science and going too far. The Invisible Man is both a hero in his field of physics and a demon in his relationship with mankind.
And despite the terrible power that ( )

I wanted to like it. I try not to judge classics by modern reading and entertainment tastes. But this book was super slow and boring.

It had a lot of atmosphere. For a book originally published long before radio or movies or TV, I can see the value in long passages full of description.

The premise of the story was pretty straight-forward, in a science fiction sort of way. The main character turns himself invisible with somewhat nefarious intentions. He learns that being invisible isn't very easy and gets mad at the world.

I bumped up to 3 stars since it's a classic and one of the first ever modern works of science fiction. ( )

I wasn't expecting the first third of this to be a slapstick comedy, but that's how Wells plays it, with Mr Invisible tripping, slapping and pilfering from a variety of gormless villagers. It's tedious, and the action scenes are flat and one-paced.

There's an intermezzo where we get to the backstory and Wells explores, though insufficiently, the interesting practical and philosophical ramifications of invisibility. Then it's back to the narrative as the title character decisively rejects an offer of rehabilitation and goes on one last rampage as the dragnet of solid Victorian citizens closes in on him.

A decent enough mad scientist tale but not as deep as The Time Machine or as lurid as Dr Moreau. My favourite Wells is still Mr Polly. ( )

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