The Invisible Man [Kindle Edition]

H. G. (Herbert George) Wells (Author)

Book Description

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Two of Wells's masterpieces get the red-carpet treatment here in these luxurious editions. Along with annotated texts, they feature scholarly introductions and appendixes, bibliographies, illustrations, and indexes. Though they are perhaps a tad pricey for most public libraries, academic collections supporting English departments should definitely invest in these volumes.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Wells's masterpieces get the red-carpet treatment here in these luxurious editions...academic collections supporting English departments should definitely invest in this volume" -- Library Journal

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 207 KB
• Print Length: 154 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1450517935
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0082Q69I6
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,482 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
  • #5 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Drama > British & Irish

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 76 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Extremely Influential, Extremely Memorable February 2, 2004

By Gary F. Taylor HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback

On the surface, THE INVISIBLE MAN concerns a scientist named Griffin who has discovered the means to invisibility--but who has gone mad in the process. When frustrated in his efforts to restore himself to visibility, he determines to embark upon a reign of terror that will make him master of the world. It is worth noting, however, that Wells was very much a social writer and that his novels are inevitably commentaries on various social evils. Once you scratch the surface of THE INVISIBLE MAN you will find that it is very much a parable of class structure that dominated British life during the Victorian age: there are many "invisible men;" this particular one, however, is in a very literal situation.

And it is the literal situation from which the novel draws most of its power. Invisibility sounds attractive--but what if you were to actually become so? How would you cope with the ordinary details of every day life? Griffin does not cope well at all, and although Wells suggests that his madness have arisen from a number of sources, he also implies that it may arise from the fact of invisibility itself, again twisting the context back into the social criticism on which the novel seems based.

First published in 1897, THE INVISIBLE MAN is one of Wells earliest novels, and for all its charms it creaks a bit in terms of plot and structure. Some may disagree, but to my mind the most effective portion of the novel are the chapters in which Griffin relates his adventures to fellow scientist Kemp--but regardless of its flaws remains extremely influential and it has tremendous dash and style throughout. Short enough to be read in a single sitting, it is a quick and entertaining read and it is also quite witty in an underhanded, subversive sort of way. Extremely memorable!

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Still interesting November 1, 2009

By T. Simons TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

First, this edition: it's reasonably well-formatted for a free ebook, with few typos, although the table of contents is not clickable; it clocks in at 1,841 "locations."

As to the story itself:

This is H.G. Wells' foundational science-fiction tale of a mad scientist who discovers a way to turn himself invisible. It's a masterfully told story that's been entertaining readers for roughly a hundred years, and I'd lay good odds you'll find it well worth the read.

What many readers might miss, though (I certainly did, my first time through) is that this isn't just a sci-fi potboiler; it's a modernization of the Platonic story of the Ring of Gyges. Beyond being a master storyteller, Wells was also an ardent philosopher and socialist, and like all of his other tales, there's a major political point here -- that morality derives from society -- and some additional minor political themes, like the plight of the urban poor.

Wells' genius here was to take the Platonic story of a Ring of Invisibility that inevitably led its wearer to commit injustice, and revitalize it in a modern context and in a way that made a sophisticated philosophical point.

Where Plato's Glaucon states:

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"For all men believe in their hearts that injustice is far more profitable to the individual than justice, and he who argues as I have been supposing, will say that they are right. If you could imagine any one obtaining this power of becoming invisible, and never doing any wrong or touching what was another's, he would be thought by the lookers-on to be a most wretched idiot, although they would praise him to one another's faces, and keep up appearances with one another from a fear that they too might suffer injustice."
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Wells extrapolates to the present, not only making the story amenable to modern readers by substituting a scientific process for a magic ring, but also by building on Plato's point: not only does Wells' protagonist commit selfish injustice after selfish injustice, but his self-severance from society drives him into a murderous megalomania, and his end is quite the inverse of Plato's Gyges (who ended up king of Lydia and, supposedly, an ancestor of Croesus).

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars vivid, suspenseful, and good sci-fi December 8, 2005

By Robert J. Crawford TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

This is a absolutely wonderful book that can be read quickly, maybe even in one sitting. It is told in the first person by an observer who knows the invisible man and is appalled by the transformation that is taking place as both drugs and power corrupt his acquaintence's mind.

What is so fun about this book is the pace: you really feel like you are there. It is all realistically imagined, down to the slowness of the undigested food that can still be seen in the invisible's man stomach. This makes the book far better sci-fi than the films, with the possible exception of the one with Claude Rains, which is the best one and the closest to the original novel by far.

In addition to Mary SHelley and Jules Verne, Wells helped to set the standard for all hard sci-fi that followed. Thus, if you like sci-fi as literature, this is a MUST read. But if you want a really fun read, this is also good for that.

Warmly recommended.