The War of the Worlds is a science-fiction classic. First released in serial form in 1897, The War of the Worlds was later released as a book in 1898 through William Heinemann of London. Though it was published after some of Wells' major works such as The Time Machine and The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds influenced many later works of science fiction and has been adapted numerous times.
The War of the Worlds describes the invasion of Earth by aliens from Mars; it is primarily set in the British countryside. The novel is narrated by a nameless protagonist who seeks to survive the relentless destruction caused by the Martians. The novel is written as a factual account of these fictional events. None of the main characters are named; instead, they are introduced by their occupations or social positions (in keeping with Wells' focus on social issues), and most of the novel focuses on the events occurring after the invasion of the Martians.
The War of the World’s geography is very accurate, partly because Wells used his own home as the setting for the novel. He moved to Woking, where the novel takes place, in 1895 with his second wife. Wells recounts biking around town and imagining that all the houses were burning, a mental image that helped to inspire the novel.
The War of The Worlds is heavily influenced by the scientific discoveries of the day, which is in keeping with the tendency of Wells’s work to make scientific concepts accessible to the British populace. In 1894, an astronomer thought that he had seen lights on the surface of Mars that indicated life on the planet, and this discovery inspired Wells to write the book. The novel was published after Wells published an essay about life on Mars in 1896. A less prevalent inspiration for the novel was the unification of Germany, which led to great anxiety and a number of novels describing the invasion of Britain by a foreign power. These were also written in a factual manner, which likely inspired Wells in his writing of this novel, which describes the invasion of Britain by a truly alien power.
The War of the Worlds has been adapted into films and other media quite frequently. The most famous is likely the 1938 radio broadcast, which was narrated by actor Orson Welles. It is so famous because it inspired mass panic and hysteria. Listeners didn’t realize that it was a play, and they thought that aliens were actually invading. Another well-known adaptation is the 2005 film, which stars Tom Cruise.
