Audiobook · read by volunteers
War of the Worlds (version 2)
H. G. Wells (1866–1946)
Read by Rebecca Dittman · 27 chapters · 6 h 35
About the book
The first sign is a flash on the surface of Mars, seen by astronomers who have no idea what it means. A few days later, a cylinder falls on the common near a quiet English village, and the world begins to learn what has been watching it. Told in the first person by an ordinary man who is simply trying to survive and to find his wife, The War of the Worlds follows the invasion across Surrey and into London with the cool, almost documentary tone of a witness. There are tripods striding over the fields, a terrible heat ray, a curate who loses his mind and a landscape suddenly emptied of its certainties. Over twenty-seven chapters and about six and a half hours, one reader carries you through the chaos. If you only know the story from films and radio dramas, the original is leaner, stranger and more thoughtful than you might expect.
Introduction
Herbert George Wells, known as H. G. Wells, lived from 1866 to 1946 and is often called one of the fathers of science fiction. The War of the Worlds was published in 1898, in the middle of a remarkable run of scientific romances that also included The Time Machine and The Invisible Man. In these books he took ideas from contemporary science and imagined their consequences with great inventiveness.
Wells wrote this novel at a time when Europe was preoccupied with military strength and imperial power, and the story turns that confidence upside down. English readers were used to seeing themselves as the colonisers; here, for once, they are on the receiving end of a technologically superior force. The narrator is not a hero but a careful observer, and the style is deliberately plain, almost like a report, which makes the strangeness of the events more convincing. The novel has inspired countless adaptations, including the famous radio broadcast of 1938, and has shaped the image of the alien invasion in popular culture.
This LibriVox version is a second recording of the book and is read by a single volunteer, Rebecca Dittman. It is divided into twenty-seven chapters, grouped under the two books of the original, and lasts about six and a half hours. It is a good choice for listeners who like vivid, fast-moving prose and who want to experience a classic of the genre in the voice and the order its author intended. Over a century later, the book still feels modern in its questions about human arrogance, survival and the fragile order of everyday life, which is why it deserves a fresh listen even if you know the story.
Public domain
H. G. Wells died in 1946: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text