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Zusatztext “The creations of Mr. Wells . . . belong unreservedly to an age and degree of scientific knowledge far removed from the present! though I will not say entirely beyond the limits of the possible.” — Jules Verne Informationen zum Autor H.G. Wells was a professional writer and journalist, who published more than a hundred books, including novels, histories, essays and programmes for world regeneration. Wells's prophetic imagination was first displayed in pioneering works of science fiction, but later he became an apostle of socialism, science and progress. His controversial views on sexual equality and the shape of a truly developed nation remain directly relevant to our world today. He was, in Bertrand Russell's words, 'an important liberator of thought and action'. Brian Aldiss is a famed science fiction writer. Patrick Parrinder has written on H.G. Wells, science fiction, James Joyce and the history of the English novel. Since 1986 he has been Professor of English at the University of Reading. Andy Sawyer is a Librarian at the University of Liverpool with a particular interest in science fiction. He has annotated four volumes in this series. Klappentext The first modern tale of alien invasion! H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds remains one of the most influential science fiction novels ever published. The night after a shooting star is seen streaking through the sky from Mars! a cylinder is discovered on Horsell Common in London. At first! naïve locals approach the cylinder armed just with a white flag - only to be quickly killed by an all-destroying heat-ray! as terrifying tentacled invaders emerge. Soon the whole of human civilisation is under threat! as powerful Martians build gigantic killing machines! destroy all in their path with black gas and burning rays! and feast on the warm blood of trapped! still-living human prey. The forces of the Earth! however! may prove harder to beat than they at first appear. The War of the Worlds has been the subject of countless adaptations! including an Orson Welles radio drama which caused mass panic when it was broadcast! with listeners confusing it for a news broadcast heralding alien invasion; a musical version by Jeff Wayne; and! most recently! Steven Spielberg's 2005 film version! starring Tom Cruise. This Penguin Classics edition includes a full biographical essay on Wells! a further reading list and detailed notes. The introduction! by Brian Aldiss! considers the novel's view of religion and society. For more than seventy years! Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1!700 titles! Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors! as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. Book One: The Coming of the Martians Chapter 1 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 scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize 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 improbabl...
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The creations of Mr. Wells . . . belong unreservedly to an age and degree of scientific knowledge far removed from the present, though I will not say entirely beyond the limits of the possible. Jules Verne
