First serialised in 1897 and then unblished in book form, The War of the Worlds was part of a phenomenal body of work by English author H. G. Wells. Trained in science, Wells foresaw and possibly inspired the advent of aircraft, tanks, space travel, nuclear weapons, satellite television and even something resembling the world wide web.
A SHINY OBJECT
The novel is the first-person narrative of two unnamed brothers: one in Surrey south west of London, the other a medical student in the capital itself. We begin in an observatory in Surrey where the narrator spies flashes of light through a telescope. He suggests it is Martian activity, but is dismissed by his astronomer friend. However, a large shiny cylindrical object then lands on Earth and opens to reveal its passengers.
“A big grayish, rounded bulk, the size, perhaps, of a bear, was rising slowly and painfully out of the cylinder. As it bulged up and caught the light it glistened like wet leather […] The whole creature heaved and pulsated convulsively. A lank tentacular appendage gripped the edge of the cylinder; another swayed in the air.”
“Un bulto redondeado, grisáceo y del tamaño aproximado al de un oso se levantaba con gran lentitud y gran dificultad saliendo del cilindro. Al salir y ser iluminado por la luz relució como el cuero mojado [...] El cuerpo palpitaba de manera violenta. Un delgado apéndice tenticular se aferró al borde del cilindro; otro se agitó en el aire”.
BURNED ALIVE
Initial attempts to pacify the Martians are met with instant human incineration via lasers called ‘heat-rays’. The army is called in, but more Martians arrive. As the battle commences, the narrator and his wife run away. But the narrator realises that these beings are far superior to the best of Earth’s scientists when he encounters one of their fighting machines.
“[a] monstrous tripod, higher than many houses, striding over the young pine-trees, and smashing them aside in its career.”
“[...] un trípode monstruoso, más alto que muchas casas, y que pasaba sobre los pinos y los aplastaba en su carrera”.
Separated from his wife, the narrator heads to London. Then he begins to describe the experience of his younger brother, who, like other Londoners, is initially relaxed about an impending alien invasion. This does not last.
THE MARTIANS ARE COMING!
Having destroyed the affluent suburbs of London, Martians attack the city with a poisonous black smoke.
“It was the dawn of the great panic. London, which had gone to bed on Sunday night oblivious and inert, was awakened in the small hours of Monday morning to a vivid sense of danger [...] “Black Smoke!” he heard people crying, and again “Black Smoke!”
“Aquello fue el alba del gran pánico. Londres, que el domingo por la noche se había acostado estúpido e inerte, despertó en la madrugada del lunes para hacerse cargo de la inminencia del peligro [...]
–¡Humo negro! –gritaban unos y otros”.
The narrator’s brother decides that even Belgium seems preferable to England, and he secures passage on a steamer ship.
an alien tentacle
Meanwhile, his elder brother has taken refuge in the ruins of a house with a priest. But the priest begins to panic. The narrator is forced to knock him out, but then is horrified to discover that an alien tentacle is exploring the room, searching for prey.
“In the darkness I could just see the thing – like an elephant’s trunk more than anything else – waving towards me and touching and examining the wall, coals, wood, and ceiling. It was like a black worm swaying its blind head to and fro.”
“En la oscuridad pude ver el tentáculo, que se parecía a la trompa de un elefante. Serpenteó hacia mí y tocó las paredes, los carbones, la leña y el techo. Era como un gusano negro que meciera su ciega cabeza de un lado a otro”.
FLYING MACHINES
When the narrator finally ventures out, he finds London completely destroyed. By chance, he comes across a familiar artilleryman. But the man has bad news: the Martians have built a flying machine.
“It is all over with humanity,” I said. “If they can do that they will simply go round the world.”
He nodded.”
“–La humanidad está perdida —dije—. Si pueden hacer eso, darán la vuelta al mundo...
Él asintió”.
DEADLY PATHOGENS
As he wanders around amidst piles of bodies and destruction, the narrator decides it is better to die now rather than wait. He rushes up a hill where various alien war machines stand, but once there, is stunned by what he finds.
“A mighty space it was, with gigantic machines here and there [...] And scattered about it, some in their overturned war-machines, and a dozen of them stark and silent and laid in a row, were the Martians –dead!– slain by the putrefactive and disease bacteria against which their systems were unprepared.”
“Era un espacio muy grande y había en él máquinas gigantescas [...] Y diseminados por todas partes: algunos en sus máquinas de guerra derribadas; y una docena de ellos tendidos en una hilera silenciosa, se hallaban los marcianos..., ¡todos muertos! Destruidos por las bacterias de la corrupción y de la enfermedad, contra las cuales no tenían defensas”.
ADAPTATIONS
There have been numerous adaptations of The War of the Worlds, the majority given contemporary settings; the most notorious, an abridged 1938 US radio version narrated by Orson Welles, was allegedly so convincing that it caused listeners to panic. This, however, was nothing to the 1949 version in Quito, Ecuador that ended in the radio station that was broadcasting it being burnt to the ground by a mob. Of the films, the 1953 film is the most famous, while other adaptations include a musical opera from 1978, and an on-going series starring Gabriel Byrne.