Description
'The man's become inhuman ... He has cut himself off from his kind. His blood be upon his own head.' One night in the depths of winter, a bizarre and sinister stranger wrapped in bandages and eccentric clothing arrives in a remote English village. His peculiar, secretive activities in the room he rents spook the locals. Speculation about his identity becomes horror and disbelief when the villagers discover that, beneath his disguise, he is invisible. Griffin, as the man is called, is an embittered scientist who is determined to exploit his extraordinary gifts, developed in the course of brutal self-experimentation, in order to conduct a Reign of Terror on the sleepy inhabitants of England. As the police close in on him, he becomes ever more desperate and violent. In this pioneering novella, subtitled 'A Grotesque Romance', Wells combines comedy, both farcical and satirical, and tragedy - to superbly unsettling effect. Since its publication in 1897, The Invisible Man has haunted not only popular culture (in particular cinema) but also the greatest and most experimental novels of the twentieth century.
About the Author
Matthew Beaumont is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at University College London. He is the author of Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London, Chaucer to Dickens (2015) and The Spectre of Utopia: Utopian and Science Fictions at the Fin de Si`ecle (2012). He has edited Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward and Walter Pater's Studies in the History of the Renaissance for Oxford World's Classics.
Reviews
[An] informative introduction... reading these OWC editions has enhanced my pleasure hugely; the introductions are always well written and give just the right amount of information to inform without overloading the reader with lots of irrelevant detail or academic jargon. * Leah Galbraith, FictionFan *
Very smart-looking new editions of SF classics. * David V Barrett, Fortean Times *
The ideas that Wells explores are as relevant as ever * Desperate Reader *
Book Information
ISBN 9780198702672
Author H. G. Wells
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Series Oxford World's Classics
Weight(grams) 146g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 128mm * 12mm
About the Author
Matthew Beaumont is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at University College London. He is the author of Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London, Chaucer to Dickens (2015) and The Spectre of Utopia: Utopian and Science Fictions at the Fin de Si`ecle (2012). He has edited Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward and Walter Pater's Studies in the History of the Renaissance for Oxford World's Classics.
Reviews
[An] informative introduction... reading these OWC editions has enhanced my pleasure hugely; the introductions are always well written and give just the right amount of information to inform without overloading the reader with lots of irrelevant detail or academic jargon. * Leah Galbraith, FictionFan *
Very smart-looking new editions of SF classics. * David V Barrett, Fortean Times *
The ideas that Wells explores are as relevant as ever * Desperate Reader *
Book Information
ISBN 9780198702672
Author H. G. Wells
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Series Oxford World's Classics
Weight(grams) 146g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 128mm * 12mm
