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This rather pessimistic view of the potential for mankind has inspired a lot of Science Fiction. The story comes across as a hopeful one despite this and where one person can make a difference. The storyline was closely followed by the 1960 film version with Rod Taylor which gave me nightmares for years.
Time travel as a concept also became very popular and this is Wells best remembered book apart from 'War Of The Worlds'.

The Island Of Doctor Moreau:-
A man is saved from a shipwreck but when he is taken to the island of Doctor Moreau he thinks he will meet a fate worse than death. Dr Moreau is a disgraced vivisectionist and seems to be experimenting on humans. Just what are the creatures on the island?

Wells' 'man-beasts' are hideous but it is the mind of Moreau and therefore man that Wells finds insupportable. He reminds us that we have a duty to conserve and protect not to wilfully try to create like God.

War Of The Worlds:-
Writing in the same century as Dickens, Wells' world was much darker than the dark satanic mills but he seems just as concerned with how people react and what humanity they retain.
The fear of invasion was more real to Wells than us now, with one hundred years of the 'Entente Cordiale' with France. The idea of Mars being inhabited was also one still being given credence after the discover 50 years earlier of the 'Canali'. Adding the two elements together and Mars being the God of War it is one more step to being invaded by the Martians themselves.

Wells gives us a step-by-step narrative of one man's experiences of the war. He also adds in descriptions 'passed on' to our narrator which feel more forced. He is trying to convey the immediacy, the fear and despair experienced by the human race at a dark point in its history. Wells had not experienced the mass slaughter of total war at the time of writing but the attacks by the

Martians in their tripods bringing wholesale destruction through the use of gas and heat rays is remarkably prescient of the Great War and the use of chemical weapons for the first time.
At the time of writing, there was a strong body of opinion that Mars could actually be populated - something like the sea-change going on now as we come round to the idea that we are not the only microbes in the galaxy.

The First Men In The Moon:-
When Cavor invents a capsule that he says will get to the Moon, Bedford is keen to take part in an adventure that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. The beings they encounter and their battle to survive form the bulk of this short novel.
The Invisible Man:-

When Griffin, a scientist, experiments and makes himself invisible, he thinks it marks the end of restraint and will bring great freedoms. Instead, he suffers from a kind of mania and causes much damage and destruction. Much of the story is about bringing this man 'to order'. He has disordered himself and therefore society and cannot exist.

This short novel sees the scientific experiments as exciting but dangerous. The invisible man free from the restraint of society becomes a danger to all and himself.

These are all books you may have read or perhaps thought you had read because of the amount of imitators out there. Now over one hundred years old, they are still very readable and many of the concepts they embody we are still struggling with today.

In 'The Island Of Doctor Moreau', the animal experimentation is still a moral problem. Travelling to the Moon or to Mars are still hot topics. Invisible men? Well alright, then the experimentation in the areas of gene therapy and stem cells also addresses the problem of what is right for society.

With all five books in one large softback, this is a very good value purchase and Wells continues to entertain. With a proposed new screen version of 'War Of The Worlds' it seems like an ideal time to catch up with one of the greats of Science Fiction.

Sue Davies