The Invisible Man Read online

  It seems to me that the ending of the first English edition — ‘And there, on a shabby bed in a tawdry, ill-lighted bedroom, ended the strange experiment of the Invisible Man’ — is more immediate and more haunting than the endings of the New York and Atlantic editions. I don’t think Wells improved the book when he introduced the Epilogue, which speculates about the fate of the Invisible Man’s secret scientific notebooks, as a framing device. The unsettling tawdriness of the original is replaced by a certain folksiness in the revised versions. I have, however, elected to include two short appendices in this edition. The first reprints the Epilogue; the second contains the three variant endings to Chapter XXVIII published in 1897, namely Pearson’s Weekly, Pearson’s second English edition, and Arnold’s first US edition. For a more detailed account of the publication history of The Invisible Man, readers might like to consult David Lake’s ‘Note on the Text’, which is included in the World’s Classics paperback, published in the United States, that he edited for Oxford University Press in 1996.

  Select Bibliography

  Biography and Letters

  Coren, Michael, The Invisible Man: The Life and Liberties of H. G. Wells (London: Bloomsbury, 1993).

  Sherborne, Michael, H. G. Wells: Another Kind of Life (London: Peter Owen, 2010).

  Smith, D. C., H. G. Wells: Desperately Mortal: A Biography (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986).

  Wells, H. G., The Correspondence of H. G. Wells, i. 1880–1903, ed. David C. Smith (London: Pickering & Chatto, 1998).

  Wells, H. G., Experiment in Autobiography: Discoveries and Conclusions of a Very Ordinary Brain (Since 1866), 2 vols. (London: Victor Gollancz, 1934).

  The Invisible Man and Wells’s Early Fiction

  Batchelor, John, H. G. Wells (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985).

  Bergonzi, Bernard, The Early H. G. Wells: A Study of the Scientific Romances (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1961).

  Bloom, Harold (ed.), H. G. Wells (New York: Chelsea House, 2005).

  Bowser, Rachel A., ‘Visibility, Interiority, and Temporality in The Invisible Man’, Studies in the Novel 45/1 (2013), 20–36.

  Cantor, Paul A., ‘The Invisible Man and the Invisible Hand: H. G. Wells’s Critique of Capitalism’, American Scholar 68/3 (1999), 89–102.

  Hammond, J. R., H. G. Wells and the Modern Novel (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1988).

  Haynes, Roslynn D., H. G. Wells: Discoverer of the Future (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1979).

  Holt, Philip, ‘H. G. Wells and the Ring of Gyges’, Science Fiction Studies 57 (July 1992), 236–47.

  Huntington, John, The Logic of Fantasy: H. G. Wells and Science Fiction (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982).

  James, Simon, Maps of Utopia: H. G. Wells, Modernity and the End of Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).

  McCarthy, Patrick A., ‘Heart of Darkness and the Early Novels of H. G. Wells: Evolution, Anarchy, Entropy’, Journal of Modern Literature 13/1 (1986), 37–60.

  McConnell, Frank (ed.), The Science Fiction of H. G. Wells (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981).

  McLean, Steven, H. G. Wells: Interdisciplinary Essays (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008).

  McLean, Steven, The Early Fiction of H. G. Wells: Fantasies of Science (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).

  Parrinder, Patrick, H. G. Wells (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1970).

  Parrinder, Patrick (ed.), H. G. Wells: The Critical Heritage (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972).

  Parrinder, Patrick, Shadows of the Future: H. G. Wells, Science Fiction and Prophecy (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1995).

  Partington, John S. (ed.), H. G. Wells’s Fin de Siècle: Twenty-First Century Reflections on the Early H. G. Wells (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2007).

  Philmus, Robert M., Into the Unknown: The Evolution of Science Fiction from Francis Godwin to H.G. Wells (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1970).

  Ray, Martin, ‘Conrad’s Invisible Professor’, The Conradian 11/1 (May 1986), 35–41.

  Wagar, W. Warren, H. G. Wells: Traversing Time (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 2004).

  Williams, Keith, H. G. Wells, Modernity and the Movies (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2007).

  Literary and Cultural Contexts

  Ball, Philip, Invisible: The Dangerous Allure of the Unseen (London: Bodley Head, 2014).

  Beaumont, Matthew, The Spectre of Utopia: Utopian and Science Fiction at the Fin de Siècle (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2012).

  Daly, Nicholas, Modernism, Romance, and the Fin de Siècle: Popular Fiction and British Culture, 1880–1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).

  Donghaile, Deaglán Ó, Blasted Literature: Victorian Political Fiction and the Shock of Modernism (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011).

  Dryden, Linda, The Modern Gothic and Literary Doubles: Stevenson, Wilde and Wells (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).

  Faulk, Barry J., Music Hall and Modernity: The Late Victorian Discovery of Popular Culture (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2004).

  Ferguson, Christine, Language, Science, and Popular Fiction in the Victorian Fin de Siècle: The Brutal Tongue (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006).

  Greenslade, William, Degeneration, Culture, and the Novel, 1880–1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).

  Grove, Allen W., ‘Röntgen’s Ghosts: Photography, X-Rays, and the Victorian Imagination’, Literature and Medicine 16/2 (1997), 141–73.

  Hurley, Kelly, The Gothic Body: Sexuality, Materialism, and Degeneration at the Fin de Siècle (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

  Ledger, Sally, and McCracken, Scott (eds.), Cultural Politics at the Fin de Siècle (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).

  Luckhurst, Roger, The Invention of Telepathy, 1870–1901 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).

  Marshall, Gail (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Fin de Siècle (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).

  Stiles, Anne, Popular Fiction and Brain Science in the Late Nineteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012).

  Stokes, John (ed.), Fin de Siècle/Fin du Globe: Fears and Fantasies of the Late Nineteenth Century (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992).

  Thatcher, David S., Nietzsche in England, 1890–1914: The Growth of a Reputation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1970).

  Further Reading in Oxford World’s Classics

  Conrad, Joseph, Heart of Darkness and Other Tales, ed. Cedric Watts.

  Stevenson, Robert Louis, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales, ed. Roger Luckhurst.

  Wells, H. G., The First Men in the Moon, ed. Simon James.

  Wells, H. G., The Island of Doctor Moreau, ed. Darryl Jones.

  Wells, H. G., The Time Machine, ed. Roger Luckhurst.

  Wells, H. G., The War of the Worlds, ed. Darryl Jones.

  A Chronology of H. G. Wells

  1866 (21 September) Herbert George Wells born in Bromley, Kent.

  1869 Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea; Matthew Arnold, Culture and Anarchy.

  1870 Elementary Education Act, providing compulsory education for all children 5–13 years old.

  1871 Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man; Edward Bulwer-Lytton, The Coming Race. The Paris Commune: revolutionary period, ending in destruction and massacre.

  1872 Samuel Butler, Erewhon.

  1874–80 HGW pupil at Morley’s Academy, Bromley.

  1877 Injury to father leaves Wells family in sudden poverty.

  1880 HGW apprenticed to Rodgers and Benyer, Drapers, for a month’s trial after which he is dismissed; his mother takes position as resident housekeeper, Uppark. Ray Lankester’s lecture Degeneration: A Chapter in Darwinism a big influence on HGW’s biological thought.

  1881 Attends Alfred Williams School, then Midhurst Grammar School; apprenticed to Hyde’s Drapery Emporium in Southsea.

  1882 Robert Louis Stevenson’s
Treasure Island.

  1883 HGW’s indentures cancelled.

  1884 Wins scholarship to Normal School of Science in South Kensington, where T. H. Huxley is dean.

  1885 Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; Richard Jefferies, After London.

  1886 HGW matriculates. Attends socialist meetings at home of William Morris. Founds and edits Science School Journal. Charles Howard Hinton, Scientific Romances. Colonial and Indian Exhibition held opposite Normal School of Science.

  1887 HGW’s first published work in Science Schools Journal. Fails geology exam at Normal School, so loses scholarship; teaches at Holt Academy in Wales. Severely injured in accident during football match, resulting in lung haemorrhage which forces him to convalesce. Edward Bellamy, Looking Backwards, influential utopian fiction; Gaspar Enrique, The Time Ship, Spanish novel featuring time machine. (13 November) ‘Bloody Sunday’ riots in London, following police charge on marchers in Trafalgar Square.

  1888 HGW returns to London; teaches at Henley House School. Publishes three parts of ‘The Chronic Argonauts’ in Science Schools Journal, which is the unfinished first version of The Time Machine.

  1889 Mark Twain’s time travel satire A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court; Elizabeth Corbett, New Amazonia, feminist utopia. London Dock Strike.

  1890 HGW passes Bachelor of Science exams and is awarded University of London degree. Elected Fellow of the Zoological Society. William Morris, News from Nowhere, socialist utopia written as riposte to Bellamy; William Booth, In Darkest England and the Way Out.

  1891 Tutor for University Tutorial College; publishes essay ‘The Rediscovery of the Unique’ in Fortnightly Review, his first major publication. Marries cousin Isabel Wells. Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray.

  1892 Max Nordau, Degeneration.

  1893 Recurrence of lung haemorrhage. Publishes A Text Book of Biology, his first book. Career as professional journalist begins. T. H. Huxley, Evolution and Ethics; Robert Blatchford’s political vision Merrie England, hugely influential in popularizing socialist ideas; George Griffith’s novel about futuristic war in London, Angel of the Revolution. Gilbert and Sullivan’s satirical Utopia, Limited operetta opens.

  1894 HGW elopes with Amy Catherine Robbins (‘Jane’). Seven episodes of ‘The Time Machine’ published by W. E. Henley in National Observer. Writes as journalist for Pall Mall Gazette, and for the Saturday Review under Frank Harris’s editorship. Publishes ‘Popularising Science’ in Nature. Camille Flammarion, Omega: The Last Days of the World.

  1895 (January–May) The Time Machine serialized in New Review, again edited by Henley; HGW declared ‘a man of genius’ by leading journalist W. T. Stead. Meets G. B. Shaw on opening night of Henry James’s play, Guy Domville. (May) The Time Machine issued. Also publishes Select Conversations with an Uncle; The Wonderful Visit; The Stolen Bacillus. (April–May) Arrest and prosecution of Oscar Wilde. Decadent movement in retreat. Max Nordau’s Degeneration; Grant Allen’s The British Barbarians: A Hill-Top Novel.

  1896 The Island of Doctor Moreau; The Wheels of Chance. Meets novelist George Gissing.

  1897 The Invisible Man; The Plattner Story; Thirty Strange Stories; The Star; Certain Personal Matters. Begins friendship with Arnold Bennett. Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.

  1898 The War of the Worlds. Suffers from lung damage again; recovering on south coast, meets Henry James and Joseph Conrad. Also travels to Italy, where stays with Gissing. Dislikes Rome intensely.

  1899 When the Sleeper Wakes; Tales of Space and Time.

  1900 House designed and built for HGW at Sandgate in Kent where he becomes near neighbour of Henry James. Love and Mr Lewisham.

  1901 Anticipations, HGW’s speculations on the year 2000. Rediscovers Mendel’s theory of ‘genetics’. First Men in the Moon, the last of his early scientific romances. Birth of first son.

  1902 Lecture ‘The Discovery of the Future’ at Royal Institution.

  1903 Joins Fabian Society. Birth of second son.

  1904 The Food of the Gods.

  1905 Kipps; A Modern Utopia. Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity.

  1906 In the Days of the Comet; The Future in America. Affairs with Dorothy Richardson, Rosamund Bland, Amber Reeves.

  1908 First and Last Things; The War in the Air; New Worlds for Old. Resigns from the Fabian Society after dispute with G. B. Shaw.

  1909 Tono-Bungay; Ann Veronica, HGW’s transparently autobiographical account of relationship with Amber Reeves, who gives birth to their daughter Anna-Jane at the end of the year. E. M. Forster publishes ‘The Machine Stops’, an anti-Wellsian dystopia.

  1910 The History of Mr Polly. Affair with Elizabeth von Arnim.

  1911 The New Machiavelli.

  1912 Marriage. Essay ‘The Contemporary Novel’ for Atlantic Monthly.

  1914 Birth of son Anthony, from affair with Rebecca West. Publishes The World Set Free, which predicts the invention of the atomic bomb (and became the inspiration for the physicist Leo Szilard). Henry James criticizes HGW in essay ‘The Younger Generation’. Great War begins after assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

  1915 Boon contains HGW’s savage parody of Henry James, which ends their friendship.

  1916 Visits western front; publishes Mr Britling Sees It Through and What Is Coming?

  1917 HGW has brief Christian phase. Writes positive review for Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Russian Revolution.

  1918 Joins Ministry of Information. Vote given to women over 30.

  1919 Joins committee to set up League of Nations and contributes to The Idea of a League of Nations; advocates world government. Publishes his controversial but bestselling Outline of History.

  1920 Visits Russia and meets Lenin, Trotsky, and Maxim Gorky.

  1921 Affair with Margaret Sanger. Red Army victory in Russian Civil War.

  1922 A Short History of the World. Mussolini in power in Italy.

  1923 Men Like Gods and The Dream. Affair with Odette Keun. Virginia Woolf’s essay ‘Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown’ famously attacks the novels of Bennett and Wells.

  1924 The Atlantic Edition of his works published: substantially reworks The Time Machine. Zamyatin’s Russian dystopia We, much influenced by Wells.

  1926 Fritz Lang science fiction film Metropolis.

  1928 The Open Conspiracy. Equal voting rights for men and women.

  1929 HGW begins to broadcast on BBC. Wall Street Crash.

  1930 The Science of Life, co-written with son G. P. Wells and Julian Huxley.

  1932 After Democracy. Aldous Huxley’s dystopia Brave New World, with one target: Wells’s utopian technocracy.

  1933 The Shape of Things of Come. Adolf Hitler elected as Chancellor of Germany.

  1934 HGW interviews both Stalin and F. D. Roosevelt. Publishes Experiment in Autobiography.

  1935 Alexander Korda’s film of The Shape of Things to Come.

  1938 Lecture tour of Australia.

  1939 The Holy Terror. Beginning of Second World War.

  1940 HGW stays in London during the Blitz.

  1941 Last novel, You Can’t Be Too Careful.

  1942 Science and the World Mind.

  1945 Last books: The Mind at the End of Its Tether; The Happy Turning. Allied victory in Europe. (January) liberation of Auschwitz; (April) British and American troops find Bergen-Belsen. (August) atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Election of Labour Government. HGW demonized as scientific technocrat in C. S. Lewis’s novel, That Hideous Strength.

  1946 (13 August) HGW dies in London.

  1967 First publication of H. G. Wells in Love, the annexe of his autobiography about his sexual relationships.

  The Invisible Man

  A Grotesque Romance

  Contents

  i. The Strange Man’s Arrival

  ii. Mr Teddy Henfrey’s First Impressions

  iii. The Thousand and One Bottles

  iv. Mr Cuss Interviews the Stranger


  v. The Burglary at the Vicarage

  vi. The Furniture that Went Mad

  vii. The Unveiling of the Stranger

  viii. In Transit

  ix. Mr Thomas Marvel

  x. Mr Marvel’s Visit to Iping

  xi. In the ‘Coach and Horses’

  xii. The Invisible Man Loses His Temper

  xiii. Mr Marvel Discusses His Resignation

  xiv. At Port Stowe

  xv. The Man Who Was Running

  xvi. In the ‘Jolly Cricketers’

  xvii. Dr Kemp’s Visitor

  xviii. The Invisible Man Sleeps

  xix. Certain First Principles

  xx. At the House in Great Portland Street

  xxi. In Oxford Street

  xxii. In the Emporium

  xxiii. In Drury Lane

  xxiv. The Plan that Failed

  xxv. The Hunting of the Invisible Man

  xxvi. The Wicksteed Murder

  xxvii. The Siege of Kemp’s House

  xxviii. The Hunter Hunted

  I

  The Strange Man’s Arrival

  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 save the shiny tip of his nose; the snow had piled itself against his shoulders and chest, and added a white crest to the burden he carried. He staggered into the ‘Coach and Horses’ more dead than alive, and flung his portmanteau down. ‘A fire,’ he cried, ‘in the name of human charity! A room and a fire!’ He stamped and shook the snow from off himself in the bar, and followed Mrs Hall into her guest parlour to strike his bargain. And with that much introduction, that and a couple of sovereigns* flung upon the table, he took up his quarters in the inn.