Orakel Classics
The Invisible Man
The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells, prepared as a public-domain Orakel edition with 28 chapter-aware companion links.
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CHAPTER I.: THE STRANGE MAN’S ARRIVAL
CHAPTER I.: THE STRANGE MAN’S ARRIVAL from The Invisible Man. 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. He was wrapped up from head to foot, and the brim of his soft felt hat hid every inch of his face but the shiny tip of his nose; the snow had piled itself against his
Open2CHAPTER II.: MR. TEDDY HENFREY’S FIRST IMPRESSIONS
CHAPTER II.: MR. TEDDY HENFREY’S FIRST IMPRESSIONS from The Invisible Man. At four o’clock, when it was fairly dark and Mrs. Hall was screwing up her courage to go in and ask her visitor if he would take some tea, Teddy Henfrey, the clock-jobber, came into the bar. “My sakes! Mrs. Hall,” said he, “but this is terrible weather for thin boots!” The snow outside was falling
Open3CHAPTER III.: THE THOUSAND AND ONE BOTTLES
CHAPTER III.: THE THOUSAND AND ONE BOTTLES from The Invisible Man. So it was that on the twenty-ninth day of February, at the beginning of the thaw, this singular person fell out of infinity into Iping village. Next day his luggage arrived through the slush—and very remarkable luggage it was. There were a couple of trunks indeed, such as a rational man might need, but in addition there were a box of books—big, fat books, of which some were just in an incomprehensible
Open4CHAPTER IV.: MR. CUSS INTERVIEWS THE STRANGER
CHAPTER IV.: MR. CUSS INTERVIEWS THE STRANGER from The Invisible Man. I have told the circumstances of the stranger’s arrival in Iping with a certain fulness of detail, in order that the curious impression he created may be understood by the reader. But excepting two odd incidents, the circumstances of his stay until the extraordinary day of the club festival may be passed over very cursorily. There were a number of skirmishes with Mrs. Hall on matters of domestic discipline, but in
Open5CHAPTER V.: THE BURGLARY AT THE VICARAGE
CHAPTER V.: THE BURGLARY AT THE VICARAGE from The Invisible Man. The facts of the burglary at the vicarage came to us chiefly through the medium of the vicar and his wife. It occurred in the small hours of Whit Monday, the day devoted in Iping to the Club festivities. Mrs. Bunting, it seems, woke up suddenly in the stillness that comes before the dawn, with the strong impression that the door of their bedroom had opened and closed. She did not arouse her husband at first, but sat
Open6CHAPTER VI.: THE FURNITURE THAT WENT MAD
CHAPTER VI.: THE FURNITURE THAT WENT MAD from The Invisible Man. Now it happened that in the early hours of Whit Monday, before Millie was hunted out for the day, Mr. Hall and Mrs. Hall both rose and went noiselessly down into the cellar. Their business there was of a private nature, and had something to do with the specific gravity of their beer. They had hardly entered the cellar when Mrs. Hall found she had forgotten to bring down a bottle of sarsaparilla from their
Open7CHAPTER VII.: THE UNVEILING OF THE STRANGER
CHAPTER VII.: THE UNVEILING OF THE STRANGER from The Invisible Man. The stranger went into the little parlour of the “Coach and Horses” about half-past five in the morning, and there he remained until near midday, the blinds down, the door shut, and none, after Hall’s repulse, venturing near
Open8CHAPTER VIII.: IN TRANSIT
CHAPTER VIII.: IN TRANSIT from The Invisible Man. The eighth chapter is exceedingly brief, and relates that Gibbons, the amateur naturalist of the district, while lying out on the spacious open downs without a soul within a couple of miles of him, as he thought, and almost dozing, heard close to him the sound as of a man coughing, sneezing, and then swearing savagely to himself; and looking, beheld nothing. Yet the voice was indisputable. It continued to swear with
Open9CHAPTER IX.: MR. THOMAS MARVEL
CHAPTER IX.: MR. THOMAS MARVEL from The Invisible Man. You must picture Mr. Thomas Marvel as a person of copious, flexible visage, a nose of cylindrical protrusion, a liquorish, ample, fluctuating mouth, and a beard of bristling eccentricity. His figure inclined to embonpoint; his short limbs accentuated this inclination. He wore a furry silk hat, and the frequent substitution of twine and shoe-laces for buttons, apparent at critical points of his costume, marked a man
Open10CHAPTER X.: MR. MARVEL’S VISIT TO IPING
CHAPTER X.: MR. MARVEL’S VISIT TO IPING from The Invisible Man. After the first gusty panic had spent itself Iping became argumentative. Scepticism suddenly reared its head—rather nervous scepticism, not at all assured of its back, but scepticism nevertheless. It is so much easier not to believe in an invisible man; and those who had actually seen him dissolve into air, or felt the strength of his arm, could be counted on the fingers of two hands. And of these witnesses Mr.
Open11CHAPTER XI.: IN THE “COACH AND HORSES”
CHAPTER XI.: IN THE “COACH AND HORSES” from The Invisible Man. Now in order clearly to understand what had happened in the inn, it is necessary to go back to the moment when Mr. Marvel first came into view of Mr. Huxter’s
Open12CHAPTER XII.: THE INVISIBLE MAN LOSES HIS TEMPER
CHAPTER XII.: THE INVISIBLE MAN LOSES HIS TEMPER from The Invisible Man. It is unavoidable that at this point the narrative should break off again, for a certain very painful reason that will presently be apparent. While these things were going on in the parlour, and while Mr. Huxter was watching Mr. Marvel smoking his pipe against the gate, not a dozen yards away were Mr. Hall and Teddy Henfrey discussing in a state of cloudy puzzlement the one Iping
Open13CHAPTER XIII.: MR. MARVEL DISCUSSES HIS RESIGNATION
CHAPTER XIII.: MR. MARVEL DISCUSSES HIS RESIGNATION from The Invisible Man. When the dusk was gathering and Iping was just beginning to peep timorously forth again upon the shattered wreckage of its Bank Holiday, a short, thick-set man in a shabby silk hat was marching painfully through the twilight behind the beechwoods on the road to Bramblehurst. He carried three books bound together by some sort of ornamental elastic ligature, and a bundle wrapped in a blue table-cloth. His rubicund
Open14CHAPTER XIV.: AT PORT STOWE
CHAPTER XIV.: AT PORT STOWE from The Invisible Man. Ten o’clock the next morning found Mr. Marvel, unshaven, dirty, and travel-stained, sitting with the books beside him and his hands deep in his pockets, looking very weary, nervous, and uncomfortable, and inflating his cheeks at infrequent intervals, on the bench outside a little inn on the outskirts of Port Stowe. Beside him were the books, but now they were tied with string. The bundle had been abandoned in the
Open15CHAPTER XV.: THE MAN WHO WAS RUNNING
CHAPTER XV.: THE MAN WHO WAS RUNNING from The Invisible Man. In the early evening time Dr. Kemp was sitting in his study in the belvedere on the hill overlooking Burdock. It was a pleasant little room, with three windows—north, west, and south—and bookshelves covered with books and scientific publications, and a broad writing-table, and, under the north window, a microscope, glass slips, minute instruments, some cultures, and scattered bottles of reagents. Dr. Kemp’s solar
Open16CHAPTER XVI.: IN THE “JOLLY CRICKETERS”
CHAPTER XVI.: IN THE “JOLLY CRICKETERS” from The Invisible Man. The “Jolly Cricketers” is just at the bottom of the hill, where the tram-lines begin. The barman leant his fat red arms on the counter and talked of horses with an anaemic cabman, while a black-bearded man in grey snapped up biscuit and cheese, drank Burton, and conversed in American with a policeman off
Open17CHAPTER XVII.: DR. KEMP’S VISITOR
CHAPTER XVII.: DR. KEMP’S VISITOR from The Invisible Man. Dr. Kemp had continued writing in his study until the shots aroused him. Crack, crack, crack, they came one after the
Open18CHAPTER XVIII.: THE INVISIBLE MAN SLEEPS
CHAPTER XVIII.: THE INVISIBLE MAN SLEEPS from The Invisible Man. Exhausted and wounded as the Invisible Man was, he refused to accept Kemp’s word that his freedom should be respected. He examined the two windows of the bedroom, drew up the blinds and opened the sashes, to confirm Kemp’s statement that a retreat by them would be possible. Outside the night was very quiet and still, and the new moon was setting over the down. Then he examined the keys of the bedroom and the two
Open19CHAPTER XIX.: CERTAIN FIRST PRINCIPLES
CHAPTER XIX.: CERTAIN FIRST PRINCIPLES from The Invisible Man. Kemp walked across the room and picked up the fragments of broken glass. “All the facts are out about you,” said Kemp, standing up with the glass in his hand; “all that happened in Iping, and down the hill. The world has become aware of its invisible citizen. But no one knows you are
Open20CHAPTER XX.: AT THE HOUSE IN GREAT PORTLAND STREET
CHAPTER XX.: AT THE HOUSE IN GREAT PORTLAND STREET from The Invisible Man. For a moment Kemp sat in silence, staring at the back of the headless figure at the window. Then he started, struck by a thought, rose, took the Invisible Man’s arm, and turned him away from the
Open21CHAPTER XXI.: IN OXFORD STREET
CHAPTER XXI.: IN OXFORD STREET from The Invisible Man. “In going downstairs the first time I found an unexpected difficulty because I could not see my feet; indeed I stumbled twice, and there was an unaccustomed clumsiness in gripping the bolt. By not looking down, however, I managed to walk on the level passably
Open22CHAPTER XXII.: IN THE EMPORIUM
CHAPTER XXII.: IN THE EMPORIUM from The Invisible Man. “So last January, with the beginning of a snowstorm in the air about me—and if it settled on me it would betray me!—weary, cold, painful, inexpressibly wretched, and still but half convinced of my invisible quality, I began this new life to which I am committed. I had no refuge, no appliances, no human being in the world in whom I could confide. To have told my secret would have given me away—made a mere show and
Open23CHAPTER XXIII.: IN DRURY LANE
CHAPTER XXIII.: IN DRURY LANE from The Invisible Man. “But you begin now to realise,” said the Invisible Man, “the full disadvantage of my condition. I had no shelter—no covering—to get clothing was to forego all my advantage, to make myself a strange and terrible thing. I was fasting; for to eat, to fill myself with unassimilated matter, would be to become grotesquely visible
Open24CHAPTER XXIV.: THE PLAN THAT FAILED
CHAPTER XXIV.: THE PLAN THAT FAILED from The Invisible Man. He moved nearer his guest as he spoke in such a manner as to prevent the possibility of a sudden glimpse of the three men who were advancing up the hill road—with an intolerable slowness, as it seemed to
Open25CHAPTER XXV.: THE HUNTING OF THE INVISIBLE MAN
CHAPTER XXV.: THE HUNTING OF THE INVISIBLE MAN from The Invisible Man. For a space Kemp was too inarticulate to make Adye understand the swift things that had just happened. They stood on the landing, Kemp speaking swiftly, the grotesque swathings of Griffin still on his arm. But presently Adye began to grasp something of the
Open26CHAPTER XXVI.: THE WICKSTEED MURDER
CHAPTER XXVI.: THE WICKSTEED MURDER from The Invisible Man. The Invisible Man seems to have rushed out of Kemp’s house in a state of blind fury. A little child playing near Kemp’s gateway was violently caught up and thrown aside, so that its ankle was broken, and thereafter for some hours the Invisible Man passed out of human perceptions. No one knows where he went nor what he did. But one can imagine him hurrying through the hot June forenoon, up the hill and on to the open
Open27CHAPTER XXVII.: THE SIEGE OF KEMP’S HOUSE
CHAPTER XXVII.: THE SIEGE OF KEMP’S HOUSE from The Invisible Man. “You have been amazingly energetic and clever,” this letter ran, “though what you stand to gain by it I cannot imagine. You are against me. For a whole day you have chased me; you have tried to rob me of a night’s rest. But I have had food in spite of you, I have slept in spite of you, and the game is only beginning. The game is only beginning. There is nothing for it, but to start the Terror. This announces the
Open28CHAPTER XXVIII.: THE HUNTER HUNTED
CHAPTER XXVIII.: THE HUNTER HUNTED from The Invisible Man. Mr. Heelas, Mr. Kemp’s nearest neighbour among the villa holders, was asleep in his summer house when the siege of Kemp’s house began. Mr. Heelas was one of the sturdy minority who refused to believe “in all this nonsense” about an Invisible Man. His wife, however, as he was subsequently to be reminded, did. He insisted upon walking about his garden just as if nothing was the matter, and he went to sleep in the
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