Games

The War of the Worlds

H. G. Wells, 1898.

Before you read: Alien invasion with scenes of destruction. Better for older children.

A cylinder from Mars lands near London, and tripod machines with heat-rays begin wiping out towns. A narrator tries to survive and reach his wife as England falls. This is the book that started alien-invasion stories, and its ending is a famous surprise.

Start reading Study notes

Chapters

  1. I. The Eve Of The War
  2. II. The Falling Star
  3. III. On Horsell Common
  4. IV. The Cylinder Opens
  5. V. The Heat-Ray
  6. VI. The Heat-Ray In The Chobham Road
  7. VII. How I Reached Home
  8. VIII. Friday Night
  9. IX. The Fighting Begins
  10. X. In The Storm
  11. XI. At The Window
  12. XII. What I Saw Of The Destruction Of Weybridge And Shepperton
  13. XIII. How I Fell In With The Curate
  14. XIV. In London
  15. XV. What Had Happened In Surrey
  16. XVI. The Exodus From London
  17. XVII. The “Thunder Child”
  18. I. Under Foot
  19. II. What We Saw From The Ruined House
  20. III. The Days Of Imprisonment
  21. IV. The Death Of The Curate
  22. V. The Stillness
  23. VI. The Work Of Fifteen Days
  24. VII. The Man On Putney Hill
  25. VIII. Dead London
  26. IX. Wreckage
  27. X. The Epilogue

Public-domain text. First published in 1898; H. G. Wells died in 1946, so this text is in the public domain in the US, Canada, the EU and India. Summary and notes written by ViralScopeHub.

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