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The War of the Worlds
by H. G. Wells
'But who shall dwell in these worlds if they be inhabited?... Are we or they Lords of the World?... And how are all things made for man?'
KEPLER (quoted in _The Anatomy of Melancholy_)
Contents
BOOK ONE.--THE COMING OF THE MARTIANS
I. THE EVE OF THE WAR.
II. THE FALLING STAR.
III. ON HORSELL COMMON.
IV. THE CYLINDER OPENS.
V. THE HEAT-RAY.
VI. THE HEAT-RAY IN THE CHOBHAM ROAD.
VII. HOW I REACHED HOME.
VIII. FRIDAY NIGHT.
IX. THE FIGHTING BEGINS.
X. IN THE STORM.
XI. AT THE WINDOW.
XII. WHAT I SAW OF THE DESTRUCTION OF WEYBRIDGE AND SHEPPERTON.
XIII. HOW I FELL IN WITH THE CURATE.
XIV. IN LONDON.
XV. WHAT HAD HAPPENED IN SURREY.
XVI. THE EXODUS FROM LONDON.
XVII. THE "THUNDER CHILD".
BOOK TWO.--THE EARTH UNDER THE MARTIANS
I. UNDER FOOT.
II. WHAT WE SAW FROM THE RUINED HOUSE.
III. THE DAYS OF IMPRISONMENT.
IV. THE DEATH OF THE CURATE.
V. THE STILLNESS.
VI. THE WORK OF FIFTEEN DAYS.
VII. THE MAN ON PUTNEY HILL.
VIII. DEAD LONDON.
IX. WRECKAGE.
X. THE EPILOGUE.
BOOK ONE
THE COMING OF THE MARTIANS
I.
THE EVE OF THE WAR.
No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as …