Product Description

With his face swaddled in bandages, his eyes hidden behind dark glasses and his hands covered even indoors, Griffin – the new guest at The Coach and Horses – is at first assumed to be a shy accident-victim. But the true reason for his disguise is far more chilling: he has developed a process that has made him invisible, and is locked in a struggle to discover the antidote. Forced from the village, and driven to murder, he seeks the aid of an old friend, Kemp. The horror of his fate has affected his mind, however – and when Kemp refuse to help, he resolves to wreak his revenge.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24101 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

About the Author
H.G. Wells was a professional writer and journalist, who published more than a hundred books, including novels, histories, essays and programmes for world regeneration. Wells's prophetic imagination was first displayed in pioneering works of science fiction, but later he became an apostle of socialism, science and progress. His controversial views on sexual equality and the shape of a truly developed nation remain directly relevant to our world today. He was, in Bertrand Russell's words, 'an important liberator of thought and action'. Christopher Priest has won many awards for his writing, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction, the World Fantasy Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award. His works include a hommage to Wells in The Space Machine. Patrick Parrinder has written on H.G. Wells, science fiction, James Joyce and the history of the English novel. Since 1986 he has been Professor of English at the University of Reading.

Customer Reviews

Great Book
Fantastic book. Thinking that it has been written at the end of 19th century. The story makes you fell a little angry and dissapointed in the main character Griffin (the Invisible Man). On the other hand you have to sympathise with him and feel for him.

This is one of the books that everybody should read. Very well written and I will deffinetely read more from this author.

Recomended.

Mad science and social inhibition
The story of invisibility and its consequences has been dealt with in both fantasy and philosophy, I'm not exactly sure but I think it may have been Plato who suggested that anyone acquiring the power of invisibility would become corrupted by the lack of social inhibition.

Wells' tale transports the narrative into a more modern context, however I did not think that the narrative was slapstick or humourous. The story begins with a stranger visitor taking up residence in a guest house and is believed disfigured because of his appearence, the story unfolds with an explanation of how the stranger has discovered invisibility by experimentation and is hopeful about reversing the process but events transpire to frustrate these attempts. Finally the story centres on a village under siege from an unseen menace whose intend is to kill and terrorise.

There are a lot of scenes during which gentlemen scientists sit around having protracted conversations about their discoveries and adventures, the manners and morals of an earlier age are stamped all over the work, like all of Wells' books and I think this is a positive selling point. As a result I think the original story is considered less daunting than many of the retellings, such as HOLLOW MAN [DVD] [2000] or even, arguably, Predator / Predator 2: Special Edition Collection (2005) [1987] [DVD] but its not a humourous book like some of the humorous retellings, ie Memoirs Of An Invisible Man [DVD] [1992].

I would recommend this to anyone who's interested in Wells' fiction, classic science fiction or general readers, it has been overshadowed by Wells' more noted books like The War of the Worlds or The Time Machine (Penguin Classics) but I think its on a par with those books.

Disappointing
Definitely my least favourite of the author's four main SF novels. The theme of the misguided scientist corrupted by his own discovery is handled much better in the Island of Dr Moreau. Much of this novel struck me as overly comedic, indeed rather slapstick. The other characters aside from the eponymous one are unmemorable ciphers. A disappointment.