A picture for the book The War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds


H.G. Wells' most notorious science fiction novel, The War of the Worlds (1898) was first serialized in Pearson's Magazine in England (1897), and Cosmopolitan in the U.S. on October 30, 1938, the day before Halloween. The story was broadcast on The Mercury Theatre on the Air radio show by Orson Welles, freaking out countless listeners who thought the martian invasion "coverage" was real.

This book is featured in our collection of Books for Young Readers, Science Fiction Study Guide, and The Unreliable Narrator.

The War of the Worlds, coverThe War of the Worlds invasion


Book I - The Eve of the War

Book I - The Falling-Star

Book I - On Horsell Common

Book I - The Cylinder Unscrews

Book I - The Heat-Ray

Book I - The Heat-Ray in Chobham Road

Book I - How I Reached Home

Book I - Friday Night

Book I - The Fighting Begins

Book I - In the Storm

Book I - At the Window

Book I - What I Saw of the Destruction of Weybridge and Shepperton

Book I - How I Fell in with the Curate

Book I - In London

Book I - What had Happened in Surrey

Book I - The Exodus from London

Book I - The "Thunder Child"

Book II - Under Foot

Book II - What We Saw from the Ruined House

Book II - The Days of Imprisonment

Book II - The Death of the Curate

Book II - The Stillness

Book II - The Work of Fifteen Days

Book II - The Man on Putney Hill

Book II - Dead London

Book II - Wreckage

Return to the H.G. Wells library.