Summary

This story was written by H G Wells, sometimes called the ‘father’ of science fiction, in 1897. The story takes place in an ordinary village among ordinary people in the south of England about a hundred years ago. One winter’s day, a strange figure arrives at the inn in the small village of Iping. The landlady is pleased to have a winter guest and makes sure he has everything he needs. When the visitor takes off his hat and coat, however, the landlady is shocked. His head is completely covered in bandages. He becomes an increasingly difficult guest and it soon becomes clear that he has no money to pay his bill.
When a burglary takes place in the village and the stranger is not in his room at the time, the suspicions of the local people fall on him. His behavior becomes wilder and more irrational, and the villagers begin to realize that he is not all he seems. Then they make the shocking discovery that under his bandages, the man is invisible. He leaves the inn, creating terror wherever he goes. He becomes more and more violent as he pursues his mad dream of power. The fights and chase scenes which follow are comical. The ending, however, is tragic, with Wells making the point that scientific discovery must not be allowed to develop without social and ethical control.

About the author

Herbert George Wells was an important English writer in his own day and is remembered today as an innovative writer in the new genre of science fiction. Born in 1866, he came from a poor background, which was unusual for a writer at that time. He won a scholarship to study science at university. With a first-class degree in biology, he briefly became a teacher. His career in the classroom was ended by a sharp kick in the kidneys from an unhappy pupil, which left him too unwell to continue teaching. He then lived on a small income from journalism and short stories, until his literary career took off with his first science fiction novel, The Time Machine, in 1895.
Wells wrote with tremendous energy throughout his life, producing many science fiction stories, short stories, sociological and political books, autobiographical novels and histories. He became very successful as a writer, perhaps because his work was both popular and intellectual, and he lived in some style. He married twice and had a reputation as a womanizer. He moved in socialist circles and used fiction to explore his political ideas.
As he grew older, Wells wrote more and more social comment rather than science fiction. He drew on his own experiences as a young man growing up in poverty. ‘Who needs invented stories,’ as he wrote himself in 1933, ‘when day by day we can watch Mr. Hitler in Germany?’

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