The War of the Worlds: A Critical Text of the 1898 London First Edition, With an Introduction, Illustrations and Appendices (Annotated Hg Wells) [Hardcover]

H. G. Wells (Author), Leon E. Stover (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2000 | ISBN-10: 0786407808 | ISBN-13: 978-0786407804 | Edition: annotated edition

H.G. Wells' novel, a "scientific romance," attained perhaps its greatest fame in another form, the infamous realistic 1939 radio broadcast "Invasion from Mars" by the redoubtable Orson Welles. It was also notably made into an early fifties science fiction adventure movie (and there have been other adaptations as well). So indelible is the association that the novel, like the panic inducing broadcast and the Hollywood flick, now is taken as little more than a light fantasy of outerspace terror and human heroism. This is far from the author's original vision. Like the other scientific romances treated in the Annotated H.G. Wells series, The War of the Worlds is a philosophical tale and as such, is profoundly ideological. The world of the Martians represents the progressive future of humanity in a cultural war with our world of tradition and reaction-these are the two worlds in question. The Mars from which the invaders come is united by a planet-wide system of irrigation canals; for Wells this indicates a socialist world-state, as claimed by the American astronomer Percival Lowell. The red planet is red in more than one sense, pointing the direction of terrestrial progress. The Martians in the novel are octopoidal monsters, bodily anticipating the tentacular, all-controlling totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century. To those familiar with Wells' works only through film, this acclaimed series annotated by the world's premier Wellsian scholar, Leon Stover, will be a real eye-opener. The historical, philosophical, and literary contexts of Wells' scientific romances are thoroughly examined. All editions are in library binding, with an introduction, appendices, bibliography and index.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

These volumes offer Wells's best-known work and one of his least known. The Sea Lady is one of his many fantasy novels that have been lost in the shadow of his sf. The 1902 story is a utopian nightmare and a predecessor to later works by authors like Orwell and Kafka. The War of the Worlds is Wells's 1898 anticolonialism commentary couched in an sf tale about invaders from Mars. Both volumes have critical texts, scholarly introductions, notes, illustrations, and indexes.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Leon Stover, professor emeritus at the Illinois Institute of Technology, author of numerous landmarks of intellectual history, is editor of The Annotated H.G. Wells in eight volumes (so far). He lives in Chicago.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 321 pages
• Publisher: Mcfarland & Co Inc Pub; annotated edition edition (December 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786407808
• ISBN-13: 978-0786407804
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,520,086 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent annotated series of hg wells' SF works, February 2, 2009

By 

marcabru - See all my reviews

This review is from: The War of the Worlds: A Critical Text of the 1898 London First Edition, With an Introduction, Illustrations and Appendices (Annotated Hg Wells) (Hardcover)

This is an excellent critical edition of the initial edition of the War of the Worlds by Leon Stover. Most reprints of this and other of Wells' SF novels typically use later revisions.

Stover argues effectively for the greater artistic merit of the initial editions. It is part of a series

of extensively annotated editions of Wells' science fiction. The editor also has a lengthy introduction which discusses the context and ideas permeating each novel. Stover makes good use of previous studies while also providing his own illuminating analyses. What I like is that Stover keeps close to what Wells wrote and said in his various books and recorded conversations rather than spinning some personal take on the novel. Please do not confuse this with a typical reprint of his sf novels. It is much more.

Serious readers of HG Wells should get the series.