![](\"https://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_War_of_the_Worlds_by_Henrique_Alvim_Corrêa_05.jpg\")
The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells. It was written between 1895 and 1897, and serialised in Pearson's Magazine in the UK and Cosmopolitan magazine in the US in 1897. The full novel was first published in hardcover in 1898 by William Heinemann. The War of the Worlds is one of the earliest stories to detail a conflict between humankind and an extraterrestrial race. The novel is the first-person narrative of an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and his younger brother in London as southern England is invaded by Martians and is one of the most commented-on works in the science fiction canon.
","wikipedia_plot_html":"\n\n\n\nYet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.
— H. G. Wells (1898), The War of the Worlds
The novel opens in the mid-1890s, with aliens on Mars plotting an invasion of Earth because their resources were dwindling. The main narrative begins when an object thought to be a meteor lands on Horsell Common, near the narrator's home. It turns out to be an artificial cylinder. Martians emerge briefly, but have difficulty coping with Earth's atmosphere and gravity. When humans approach the cylinder with a white flag, the Martians incinerate them. Military forces arrive that night.
\n\nThe next day, the narrator takes his wife to safety in Leatherhead. That night, he sees a three-legged Martian \"fighting-machine\" (tripod), armed with a heat-ray and a chemical weapon: the poisonous \"black smoke\". Tripods have wiped out the army around the cylinder and destroyed most of Woking. The narrator and a fleeing artilleryman try to escape, but are separated during a Martian attack. As refugees try to cross the River Thames, the army destroys a tripod, and the Martians retreat. The narrator travels to Walton, where he meets a curate.
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The Martians attack again and people begin to flee London, including the narrator's brother, who travels with a Mrs Elphinstone and her sister-in-law to keep them safe. They reach the coast and buy passage to Continental Europe. Tripods attack, but a torpedo ram, HMS Thunder Child, destroys two of them before being destroyed itself, and the evacuation fleet escapes. Soon, all organised resistance collapses, and Martians roam the shattered landscape unhindered.
\n\n\nAt the beginning of Book Two, the narrator and the curate witness a Martian machine seizing people and tossing them into a carrier. The narrator realises that the Martian invaders may have plans for their victims. When a fifth Martian cylinder lands, both men are trapped beneath the ruins of a house. The narrator describes Martian anatomy and how they use living creatures' blood to nourish themselves. The two men's relationship deteriorates, and eventually, the narrator knocks the curate unconscious. A Martian removes the curate's body, but the narrator escapes detection.
\n\nThe Martians abandon the cylinder's crater, and the narrator emerges from the collapsed house and heads for West London. En route, he finds Martian red weed everywhere, prickly vegetation spreading wherever there is abundant water, but slowly dying. On Putney Heath, he encounters the artilleryman again. After abandoning him, he begins to go mad from his trauma, finally attempting suicide by approaching a stationary fighting machine. To his surprise, he discovers that all the Martians have been killed by an onslaught of earthly pathogens, to which they had no immunity.
\n\nThe narrator suffers a nervous breakdown and is nursed back to health by a kind family. Eventually, he returns to Woking, and discovers that his wife has survived. In the last chapter, he reflects on the Martian invasion, its impact on humanity's view of itself and the future, and the effect it has had on his mind.
\n\n","wikipedia_adaptation_html":"\nAs of 2023, The War of the Worlds had inspired seven films, as well as various radio dramas, comics, video games, television series, and sequels or parallel stories by other authors. Most are set in different locations or eras to the original novel. Among the adaptations is the 1938 radio broadcast narrated and directed by Orson Welles. The first two-thirds of the 60-minute broadcast were presented as a series of news bulletins, often described as having led to outrage and panic by listeners who believed the events described in the program to be real.[64] However, later critics point out that the supposed panic was exaggerated by newspapers of the time, seeking to discredit radio as a source of news and information[65] or exploit racial stereotypes.[66]
\n\nThe first film adaptation was The War of the Worlds, produced in 1953 by George Pal, directed by Byron Haskin, and starring Gene Barry.[67] In 2005, Steven Spielberg directed another film version, starring Tom Cruise.[68][69]
\n\nIn 1978, Jeff Wayne produced a musical album of the story, with the voices of Richard Burton and David Essex. Wayne has also toured two live concert musical versions.[70][71]
\n\n"},"wikipedia_html":"War of the Worlds is a television series produced by Fox Networks Group and StudioCanal–backed Urban Myth Films. The series is created and written by Howard Overman and directed by Gilles Coulier and Richard Clark. The series is an adaptation of The War of the Worlds, an 1898 novel by H. G. Wells about Earth coming to terms in the wake of a sudden Martian invasion. It is the third television adaptation of the novel. It stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Gabriel Byrne, along with an ensemble supporting cast, including a number of co-stars who change over time.
","wikipedia_plot_html":"\nThe series takes place in contemporary Britain and France, but it serves as a re-imagining of the classic H. G. Wells novel.[1]
\n\n\n\n","wikipedia_adaptation_html":"","zzzDataFetchWhen0":1685803053213,"zzzTraceFailures0":"","zzzDataFetchWhen1":1685803050141,"zzzTraceFailures1":""},{"item":{"value":"Q65051955","label":"War of the Worlds"},"Rotten_Tomatoes_ID":"tv/war_of_the_worlds_2020","Wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Worlds_(2019_TV_series)","InstanceLabel":"television series","TV_Start":"2019-10-28T00:00:00Z","TV_Start_Precision":11,"Based_On":"Q213019","Director":"Q5562034","OriginalLanguage":"Q150"},{"item":{"value":"Q65051955","label":"War of the Worlds"},"Rotten_Tomatoes_ID":"tv/war_of_the_worlds_2020","Wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Worlds_(2019_TV_series)","InstanceLabel":"television series","TV_Start":"2019-10-28T00:00:00Z","TV_Start_Precision":11,"Based_On":"Q213019","Director":"Q7324759","OriginalLanguage":"Q1860"},{"item":{"value":"Q65051955","label":"War of the Worlds"},"Rotten_Tomatoes_ID":"tv/war_of_the_worlds_2020","Wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Worlds_(2019_TV_series)","InstanceLabel":"television series","TV_Start":"2019-10-28T00:00:00Z","TV_Start_Precision":11,"Based_On":"Q213019","Director":"Q7324759","OriginalLanguage":"Q150"}]}In this new take on War of the Worlds, when astronomers detect a transmission from another star, it is definitive proof of intelligent extra-terrestrial life. Earth's population waits for further contact with bated breath, but does not have to wait long. Within days, mankind is all but wiped out, with just pockets of humanity left in an eerily deserted world. As alien ships appear in the sky, the survivors ask a burning question — who are these attackers and why are they hell-bent on our destruction?
— Den of Geek[2]