H. G Wells

Brought to you by Penguin.
Shortlisted for the Best Solo Narration Award at the New York Festival Radio Awards 2020.

This Penguin Classic is performed by the critically acclaimed actor David Harewood, one of the stars of the television series Homeland. Harewood is also known for his roles in award-winning productions The Night Manager and Blood Diamond. This definitive recording includes an Introduction

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A quiet country village, a heavy snowstorm, a mysterious stranger...more than enough to rouse the townspeople to gossip and speculation. Who can he be, this suspicious-looking man who keeps his face hidden and his back to everyone?

When a strange, meteor-like object lands in the English countryside, the inhabitants of Earth find themselves victims of a terrible attack. Ruthless Martians, armed with heat rays and poisonous smoke, are intent on destroying humanity. As the unnamed narrator struggles to find his way across decimated wastelands, the fate of the planet hangs in the balance...First serialised in 1897, The War of the Worlds terrified and thrilled its readers, the fictional...

Dr. Moreau, a scientist expelled from his homeland for cruel experiments, finds a deserted island where he can create hideous creatures with manlike intelligence. But as the rigid order on Moreau's island dissolves, the consequences of his experiments emerge, and his creations revert to beasts more shocking than nature could devise.

A Modern Utopia is a novel by H. G. Wells. Because of the complexity and sophistication of its narrative structure A Modern Utopia has been called "not so much a modern as a postmodern utopia." The novel is best known for its notion that a voluntary order of nobility known as the Samurai could effectively rule a "kinetic and not static" world state so as to solve "the problem of combining progress with political stability." To this planet "out beyond...

This frighteningly prophetic tale from the progenitor of modern science fiction remains as powerful today as when it was written-more than a century ago. Firebrand activist Graham falls into a drug-induced sleep in 1897 London-and is stunned to wake in the year 2100 to a world he does not know. But the world knows him. When word spreads that the "Sleeper" has awakened, it rocks the foundations of what the planet has become: a dystopian existence...

"His goggling spectacles and ghastly bandaged face under the penthouse of his hat came with a disagreeable suddenness out of the darkness," Wells wrote in The Invisible Man. H.G. Wells described wonders of science and imagined possible futures, meanwhile critiquing his own society and contributing more to the science fiction genre than almost any other writer. This collection brings two of Well's most beloved classics together in one volume. It also...

"An Experiment in Autobiography" was first published in 1934. Within it, Wells recounts his childhood, school days, struggle to make money, his eventual literary success, and latter occupation as a prophet of socialism. A fascinating and unique look into the life and mind of this seminal author, "An Experiment in Autobiography" will appeal to all who have read and loved the works of H. G. Wells. Contents include: "47 High Street, Bromley, Kent",...

Modern warfare takes to the skies in this novel by a master of science fiction and fantasy. In 1907, young Bert Smallways, a brilliant mechanist and accidental aeronaut, finds himself a reluctant stowaway upon the very same airship that will begin the Great War. Soon, Smallways is swept away aboard the Vaterland, the flagship piloted by a belligerent German prince, whose mastery of technology heralds a new age of war that takes to the sky. Filled...

A gripping and entertaining tale of terror and suspense as well as a potent Faustian allegory of hubris and science run amok, The Invisible Man endures as one of the signature stories in the literature of science fiction. A brilliant scientist uncovers the secret to invisibility, but his grandiose dreams and the power he unleashes cause him to spiral into intrigue, madness, and murder. The inspiration for countless imitations and film adaptations,...