When it comes to Science-Fiction – H.G.Wells is the name you will hear a lot. H.G.Wells is known as the father of science fiction.
He wrote many novels at the end of 19th century like “The Time Machine”, “The War Of The Worlds”, “The Island of Doctor Moreau” and “The Invisible Man”, All these books are still equally popular!
This book is considered as the Masterwork in science-fiction genre, The Invisible Man was originally serialized in Pearson’s Magazine in 1897, and published as a novel the same year.
H.G.Wells writes novels with simplicity, even a guy who doesn’t know ABC of science can understand his novels very well, because Well’s doesn’t dig into the details how things work and all. His novels are always straight forward, I am saying this because I read his novel “The Time Machine” where he explains only how time travel can be achieved not how the time machine works!
The book start in village of Iping in West Sussex, there comes a mysterious stranger to stay at the local inn, The Coach and Horses.
The stranger wears a long black coat, gloves, his face is hidden entirely by bandages, large goggles, and a wide-brimmed hat, the stranger is very aggressive and always demanding to be left alone. The stranger spend most of his time in the room with his set of chemicals and he only comes out at the night. He soon becomes the talk of the village.
After this the story is told by different people who saw this stranger and what they think he is and they share the experience of there encounter with the stranger. Meanwhile a series of mysterious theft occurs in the village in which the victims doesn’t see the thief, they only hear some strange sound like someone is walking down the stairs, opening of door, closing of door but no sight of thief.
The Invisible Man
One day when Innkeepers goes to Strangers room, they see the clothes are scattered all over the floor but the stranger is nowhere to be seen, they see the chemicals bottles scattered all over the room , broken glasses and furniture thrown all over the place. Later in the evening when Mrs. Hall [Owner of the Inn - The Coach and Horses] confronts the stranger about this, he reveals in front of five to six people that he is the Invisible Man and removes the Bandages from his face and removes all his clothes and vanishes as thin air.
Then he captures Thomas Marvel with his invisibility and forces him to become his assistant and force him to steal his books from the Inn The Coach and Horses.
The Invisible Man becomes the talk of every village in West Sussex and The news about the Mysteries Invisible Man appears in every news paper. People are so scared that they start to walk in groups and after the evening every house is closed!
The best part of the book is the experience shared by Invisible Man with his friend Dr.Kemp, When he meets him in house badly injured. The Invisible Man tells how he felt difficulty to walk down the stairs because he is not able to see his foots and how he felt difficulty to hold the objects like Cup etc, because he cannot see his palm. How he escaped some road accidents when people unknowingly kicked him to the road because he is invisible. He also explains how he felt difficulty to eat food because the food he eats is visible until it is digested.
The Invisible Man
The Invisible Man reveals the secret of invisibility to Kemp and also his early experiment with invisibility and also he tells why he came to Iping.
This is one of the excellent work by H.G.Wells who first introduced the idea of invisibility inspired by this novels many Hollywood and Bollywood films are made. I recommend this book to all Sci-Fi lovers and also for those who love classics.
I give it : 4/5.
Translation compilation
