Orakel Classics
The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, prepared as a public-domain Orakel edition with 29 chapter-aware companion links.
Chapters
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BOOK ONE: THE COMING OF THE MARTIANS
BOOK ONE: THE COMING OF THE MARTIANS from The War of the Worlds. This section is available as a chapter-aware Orakel companion.
Open2I.: THE EVE OF THE WAR.
I.: THE EVE OF THE WAR. from The War of the Worlds. 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 a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of
Open3II.: THE FALLING STAR.
II.: THE FALLING STAR. from The War of the Worlds. Then came the night of the first falling star. It was seen early in the morning, rushing over Winchester eastward, a line of flame high in the atmosphere. Hundreds must have seen it, and taken it for an ordinary falling star. Albin described it as leaving a greenish streak behind it that glowed for some seconds. Denning, our greatest authority on meteorites, stated that the height of its first appearance was about
Open4III.: ON HORSELL COMMON.
III.: ON HORSELL COMMON. from The War of the Worlds. I found a little crowd of perhaps twenty people surrounding the huge hole in which the cylinder lay. I have already described the appearance of that colossal bulk, embedded in the ground. The turf and gravel about it seemed charred as if by a sudden explosion. No doubt its impact had caused a flash of fire. Henderson and Ogilvy were not there. I think they perceived that nothing was to be done for the present, and
Open5IV.: THE CYLINDER OPENS.
IV.: THE CYLINDER OPENS. from The War of the Worlds. When I returned to the common the sun was setting. Scattered groups were hurrying from the direction of Woking, and one or two persons were returning. The crowd about the pit had increased, and stood out black against the lemon yellow of the sky—a couple of hundred people, perhaps. There were raised voices, and some sort of struggle appeared to be going on about the pit. Strange imaginings passed through my mind. As
Open6V.: THE HEAT-RAY.
V.: THE HEAT-RAY. from The War of the Worlds. After the glimpse I had had of the Martians emerging from the cylinder in which they had come to the earth from their planet, a kind of fascination paralysed my actions. I remained standing knee-deep in the heather, staring at the mound that hid them. I was a battleground of fear and
Open7VI.: THE HEAT-RAY IN THE CHOBHAM ROAD.
VI.: THE HEAT-RAY IN THE CHOBHAM ROAD. from The War of the Worlds. It is still a matter of wonder how the Martians are able to slay men so swiftly and so silently. Many think that in some way they are able to generate an intense heat in a chamber of practically absolute non-conductivity. This intense heat they project in a parallel beam against any object they choose, by means of a polished parabolic mirror of unknown composition, much as the parabolic mirror of a lighthouse
Open8VII.: HOW I REACHED HOME.
VII.: HOW I REACHED HOME. from The War of the Worlds. For my own part, I remember nothing of my flight except the stress of blundering against trees and stumbling through the heather. All about me gathered the invisible terrors of the Martians; that pitiless sword of heat seemed whirling to and fro, flourishing overhead before it descended and smote me out of life. I came into the road between the crossroads and Horsell, and ran along this to the
Open9VIII.: FRIDAY NIGHT.
VIII.: FRIDAY NIGHT. from The War of the Worlds. The most extraordinary thing to my mind, of all the strange and wonderful things that happened upon that Friday, was the dovetailing of the commonplace habits of our social order with the first beginnings of the series of events that was to topple that social order headlong. If on Friday night you had taken a pair of compasses and drawn a circle with a radius of five miles round the Woking sand-pits, I doubt if you
Open10IX.: THE FIGHTING BEGINS.
IX.: THE FIGHTING BEGINS. from The War of the Worlds. Saturday lives in my memory as a day of suspense. It was a day of lassitude too, hot and close, with, I am told, a rapidly fluctuating barometer. I had slept but little, though my wife had succeeded in sleeping, and I rose early. I went into my garden before breakfast and stood listening, but towards the common there was nothing stirring but a
Open11X.: IN THE STORM.
X.: IN THE STORM. from The War of the Worlds. Leatherhead is about twelve miles from Maybury Hill. The scent of hay was in the air through the lush meadows beyond Pyrford, and the hedges on either side were sweet and gay with multitudes of dog-roses. The heavy firing that had broken out while we were driving down Maybury Hill ceased as abruptly as it began, leaving the evening very peaceful and still. We got to Leatherhead without misadventure about nine
Open12XI.: AT THE WINDOW.
XI.: AT THE WINDOW. from The War of the Worlds. I have already said that my storms of emotion have a trick of exhausting themselves. After a time I discovered that I was cold and wet, and with little pools of water about me on the stair carpet. I got up almost mechanically, went into the dining room and drank some whisky, and then I was moved to change my
Open13XII.: WHAT I SAW OF THE DESTRUCTION OF WEYBRIDGE AND SHEPPERTON.
XII.: WHAT I SAW OF THE DESTRUCTION OF WEYBRIDGE AND SHEPPERTON. from The War of the Worlds. As the dawn grew brighter we withdrew from the window from which we had watched the Martians, and went very quietly
Open14XIII.: HOW I FELL IN WITH THE CURATE.
XIII.: HOW I FELL IN WITH THE CURATE. from The War of the Worlds. After getting this sudden lesson in the power of terrestrial weapons, the Martians retreated to their original position upon Horsell Common; and in their haste, and encumbered with the debris of their smashed companion, they no doubt overlooked many such a stray and negligible victim as myself. Had they left their comrade and pushed on forthwith, there was nothing at that time between them and London but batteries
Open15XIV.: IN LONDON.
XIV.: IN LONDON. from The War of the Worlds. My younger brother was in London when the Martians fell at Woking. He was a medical student working for an imminent examination, and he heard nothing of the arrival until Saturday morning. The morning papers on Saturday contained, in addition to lengthy special articles on the planet Mars, on life in the planets, and so forth, a brief and vaguely worded telegram, all the more striking for its
Open16XV.: WHAT HAD HAPPENED IN SURREY.
XV.: WHAT HAD HAPPENED IN SURREY. from The War of the Worlds. It was while the curate had sat and talked so wildly to me under the hedge in the flat meadows near Halliford, and while my brother was watching the fugitives stream over Westminster Bridge, that the Martians had resumed the offensive. So far as one can ascertain from the conflicting accounts that have been put forth, the majority of them remained busied with preparations in the Horsell pit until nine that night,
Open17XVI.: THE EXODUS FROM LONDON.
XVI.: THE EXODUS FROM LONDON. from The War of the Worlds. So you understand the roaring wave of fear that swept through the greatest city in the world just as Monday was dawning—the stream of flight rising swiftly to a torrent, lashing in a foaming tumult round the railway stations, banked up into a horrible struggle about the shipping in the Thames, and hurrying by every available channel northward and eastward. By ten o’clock the police organisation, and by midday even
Open18XVII.: THE “THUNDER CHILD”.
XVII.: THE “THUNDER CHILD”. from The War of the Worlds. Had the Martians aimed only at destruction, they might on Monday have annihilated the entire population of London, as it spread itself slowly through the home counties. Not only along the road through Barnet, but also through Edgware and Waltham Abbey, and along the roads eastward to Southend and Shoeburyness, and south of the Thames to Deal and Broadstairs, poured the same frantic rout. If one could have hung that
Open19BOOK TWO: THE EARTH UNDER THE MARTIANS.
BOOK TWO: THE EARTH UNDER THE MARTIANS. from The War of the Worlds. This section is available as a chapter-aware Orakel companion.
Open20I.: UNDER FOOT.
I.: UNDER FOOT. from The War of the Worlds. In the first book I have wandered so much from my own adventures to tell of the experiences of my brother that all through the last two chapters I and the curate have been lurking in the empty house at Halliford whither we fled to escape the Black Smoke. There I will resume. We stopped there all Sunday night and all the next day—the day of the panic—in a little island of daylight, cut off by the Black Smoke from the
Open21II.: WHAT WE SAW FROM THE RUINED HOUSE.
II.: WHAT WE SAW FROM THE RUINED HOUSE. from The War of the Worlds. After eating we crept back to the scullery, and there I must have dozed again, for when presently I looked round I was alone. The thudding vibration continued with wearisome persistence. I whispered for the curate several times, and at last felt my way to the door of the kitchen. It was still daylight, and I perceived him across the room, lying against the triangular hole that looked out upon the Martians. His
Open22III.: THE DAYS OF IMPRISONMENT.
III.: THE DAYS OF IMPRISONMENT. from The War of the Worlds. The arrival of a second fighting-machine drove us from our peephole into the scullery, for we feared that from his elevation the Martian might see down upon us behind our barrier. At a later date we began to feel less in danger of their eyes, for to an eye in the dazzle of the sunlight outside our refuge must have been blank blackness, but at first the slightest suggestion of approach drove us into the scullery in
Open23IV.: THE DEATH OF THE CURATE.
IV.: THE DEATH OF THE CURATE. from The War of the Worlds. It was on the sixth day of our imprisonment that I peeped for the last time, and presently found myself alone. Instead of keeping close to me and trying to oust me from the slit, the curate had gone back into the scullery. I was struck by a sudden thought. I went back quickly and quietly into the scullery. In the darkness I heard the curate drinking. I snatched in the darkness, and my fingers caught a bottle of
Open24V.: THE STILLNESS.
V.: THE STILLNESS. from The War of the Worlds. My first act before I went into the pantry was to fasten the door between the kitchen and the scullery. But the pantry was empty; every scrap of food had gone. Apparently, the Martian had taken it all on the previous day. At that discovery I despaired for the first time. I took no food, or no drink either, on the eleventh or the twelfth
Open25VI.: THE WORK OF FIFTEEN DAYS.
VI.: THE WORK OF FIFTEEN DAYS. from The War of the Worlds. For some time I stood tottering on the mound regardless of my safety. Within that noisome den from which I had emerged I had thought with a narrow intensity only of our immediate security. I had not realised what had been happening to the world, had not anticipated this startling vision of unfamiliar things. I had expected to see Sheen in ruins—I found about me the landscape, weird and lurid, of another
Open26VII.: THE MAN ON PUTNEY HILL.
VII.: THE MAN ON PUTNEY HILL. from The War of the Worlds. I spent that night in the inn that stands at the top of Putney Hill, sleeping in a made bed for the first time since my flight to Leatherhead. I will not tell the needless trouble I had breaking into that house—afterwards I found the front door was on the latch—nor how I ransacked every room for food, until just on the verge of despair, in what seemed to me to be a servant’s bedroom, I found a rat-gnawed crust and
Open27VIII.: DEAD LONDON.
VIII.: DEAD LONDON. from The War of the Worlds. After I had parted from the artilleryman, I went down the hill, and by the High Street across the bridge to Fulham. The red weed was tumultuous at that time, and nearly choked the bridge roadway; but its fronds were already whitened in patches by the spreading disease that presently removed it so
Open28IX.: WRECKAGE.
IX.: WRECKAGE. from The War of the Worlds. And now comes the strangest thing in my story. Yet, perhaps, it is not altogether strange. I remember, clearly and coldly and vividly, all that I did that day until the time that I stood weeping and praising God upon the summit of Primrose Hill. And then I
Open29X.: THE EPILOGUE.
X.: THE EPILOGUE. from The War of the Worlds. I cannot but regret, now that I am concluding my story, how little I am able to contribute to the discussion of the many debatable questions which are still unsettled. In one respect I shall certainly provoke criticism. My particular province is speculative philosophy. My knowledge of comparative physiology is confined to a book or two, but it seems to me that Carver’s suggestions as to the reason of the rapid death
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