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The War of the Worlds

by H. G. Wells

At the end of the 19th century, no one believes Mars is watching.

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Original language: EnglishLevel: Advanced2,425 characters · ≈ 4 minSource: Project Gutenberg

Opening lines

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 scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise 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…

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About the book

The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells about an attempted invasion of Earth by Martians of greater intelligence and more advanced weapons than humans. The invaders seek to eliminate humankind because their own older, smaller world has reached the last stage of exhaustion. Told in first person by an unnamed protagonist in Surrey, it is one of the earliest stories to detail a conflict between humankind and an extraterrestrial race.

About the author

Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres, who wrote more than forty novels and dozens of short stories. He is best known today for his groundbreaking science fiction, including The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds.

Summary prepared with AI from Wikipedia: The War of the Worlds (CC BY-SA)

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