The Invisible Man
by H. G. Wells
Published: 1897
Genres: Classic, Science Fiction
Format: eBook (192 pages)
Source: Purchased
This masterpiece of science fiction is the fascinating story of Griffin, a scientist who creates a serum to render himself invisible, and his descent into madness that follows.
I really liked the writing in The Invisible Man, but I thought the storytelling was awful. H. G. Wells has a way with words and I really enjoyed his turn of phrase. Phrases like “the inhuman bludgeoning of all tentative advances of curiosity (p. 19),”violently firing out its humanity (p. 33)” and “The Anglo-Saxon genius for parliamentary government asserted itself; there was a great deal of talk and no decisive action (p. 28).” And he uses the word “hobbledehoy” which had the Downton Abbey fangirl in me grinning. But the story itself moved at a snail pace. It took me a week to read 30 pages. I thought it was told from the least interesting perspective possible –from the outside observers instead of the invisible man’s view and what he was struggling with. These outsiders noticed something was not quite right (“Look how much time he spends alone!”) but not to the point that I found it very interesting. When the plot finally picked up, instead of some much needed action the cool stuff was recapped in a conversation where he just describes all the action in the most dull way imaginable. I had to make myself finish this book and keep pencils far, far away from my eyes.
The science behind the invisibility was pretty interesting. It was based on the idea that our world is an illusion of light. I thought that was a fascinating way to look at the world. (See I didn’t hate everything about it).
I found the main character interesting if not likable. He’s an anti-hero. I’m pretty sure his antagonist was all the stupid people in the whole world. He was kind of arrogant. Obviously he learns the bad things about invisibility. I was surprised about the little things that he struggles with, though. I could tell a lot of thought went into what it would really be like. For example, the fact that he can’t sleep because his eyelids are invisible. The crappy thing about being invisible is that it’s easy to get things, but hard to enjoy them. And you get kind of lonely. H. G. Wells did have a good point that the only really good use for invisibility is murder.
I’m not sure if I was supposed to get something out of this book. At the end I felt like the moral was “Mean people suck but it’s better than being alone.”
Overall, I found it tedious but the writing was good. I enjoyed War of the Worlds so much more.
Content Rating: None.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
Kami says
It has been a while since I’ve tackled an H.G. Wells book. I feel like all those old school classic horror stories, Frankenstein, Dracula, The Invisible Man, etc., are told from an outside source. I don’t know why they did it that way, but I’d like a better POV as well!
Pamela D says
I am disappointed to hear that The Invisible Man wasn’t very good. I have read other books by him that I had enjoyed. It sounds like I would share your frustrations, if I read it. Great review.
pushkaraj ahire says
yes it is clearly a frustrations. :)
Jayanth kumar. says
I felt very happy after reading the book of INVISIBLE MAN by “H.G WELL”
Rudra says
I enjoyed reading Invisible Man. I found the plot intresting. But I didn’t like the hero having a tragic end.
karishma yadav says
The book is quite interesting. I enjoyed i as I like reading science fiction.
Kirtie gupta says
Nice!!!!
sridharan says
yeah, what a story !!
one must read this story ones in his life
avisha says
Its suprlerb book it was in my course of class 12 by CBSE when I starting reading I felt I am watching a suspense movie…. Awsm novel
Soniya says
Yaeh !!!!!!!!Courteous contribution by Wells,isn’t it?It was on my english book when I thought It was bewildering one in my course book.
shivam says
It was a mystery story
Sam says
It has very interesting story
It really enjoyed this
FANTABOLOUS👍👍👍👍👍👍
It is very easy to understand😇😇
Soham majumdar says
Wanna Nice Book!!! This is thee most wonderful book I have ever read!! All Hail HG Wells!! This book is the most wonderful science friction.
Manpreet says
It was a wonderful story by H. G. Wells. I really liked it. And I think everyone should read this story
Bulbul says
I really enjoyed The Invisible Man..
It was fantastic ….👍👍
kashif husain ghazali says
hate this novel I want to be a scientist and novels which depict scientist as an arrogant man is completely baseless. i liked griffin very much ,no one has noticed his reason why he was killing people .
before having an idea for reign of terror he claimed that he would be working with kemp so as to find solution to his invisibility problem.
but the betrayal from his college professor and peole he encountered has made him wild.
he hated when people didnt understand him as a criminal rather than a person
gen says
Wow, I liked your comment. ‘Cause it is sad that people sometimes don’t even want to try understand the perspectives of all the characters.
And you really put yourself in really Griffin place.
Rajul says
I like your review