Read between 13th January 2017 to 15th January,2017
Edition Details:
Format : E – book
Page Count : 111
Publisher :Atria Books
First Sentence:
The Stranger came early in February, one wintry day, through a biting wind and a driving snow, the last snowfall of the year, over the down, walking from Bramblehurst railway station, and carrying a little black portmanteau in his thickly gloved hand.
On 29th of February a stranger came in to the Iping village. The stranger that was covered from head to toe by a bandage decided to stay at the inn called Coach and Horses.
The stranger, all wrapped up, was different from the people of the village and soon became their object of interest.
Who was he ? Why was he covered from head to toe by a bandage? What was he doing here?
These were the questions that started perplexing them and the village people started speculating the reasons among themselves. And then the strange things started happening. The people couldn’t explain their occurrences and believed the stranger was behind these happenings.
Were the villagers right in assuming this?
Who was the stranger and why had he come to this village? What will be the consequences of his stay at this small village?
H G Wells was one of the pioneer of the science fiction and is called the father of science fiction along with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback. He was nominated four times for the Nobel prize. in literature The time machine first published in 1897 was one of his most famous works.
The invisible man was a 111 pages long book and i enjoyed reading it. The book is told as a report after all the incidents have happened. We are told the story from the point when the invisible man’s occurrence is first noticed by people and how his life turned out eventually.The events that were happening kept me intrigued. I must say when i was a kid there were times when i wished i had the power of being invisible but reading what the man had to go through, which seems fairly plausible, i’m glad that wish didn’t turned out to be true. When generally you think of being invisible you associate only the positives with it but reading that part made me realise that being invisible brings with it its own set of problems.
Talking about the character of the Invisible man, he is a prick. He likes bullying people. Initially i felt bad for him but as you go through the story and get to know him well you know there were things that he well deserved. There are times when he acts like a petulant kid and some times he likes wallowing in self pity. These lead to insanely funny circumstances.
Then there were times when i was wondering if the protagonist had been a decent guy then how did this story had turned out to be. It would have been fun to read that too.
In the end if you haven’t read the book then i would say you should definitely read it. It’s short, fun and engrossing.
Some quotes from the book:
The Anglo-Saxon genius for parliamentary government asserted itself; there was a great deal of talk and no decisive action.
Great and Strange ideas transcending experience often have less effect upon men and women than smaller, more tangible considerations.
Alone– it is wonderful how little a man can do alone! To rob a little, to hurt a little, and there is the end.
In the middle of the night she woke up dreaming of huge white heads like turnips, that came trailing after her, at the end of interminable necks, and with vast black eyes. But being a sensible woman, she subdued her terrors and turned over and went to sleep again.
I felt amazingly confident,—it’s not particularly pleasant recalling that I was an ass.
I went over the heads of the things a man reckons desirable. No doubt invisibility made it possible to get them, but it made it impossible to enjoy them when they are got.
“I never blame anyone,” said Kemp. “It’s quite out of fashion.”
All men, however highly educated, retain some superstitious inklings.
If you have read it then do tell me what did you feel about it.
You can get the book from the following links:
Kindle
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Paperback
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Project gutenberg
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