The first modern tale of alien invasion, H.
Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators..
With more than 1, 700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world.
The introduction, by Brian Aldiss, considers the novel\'s view of religion and society.
This Penguin Classics edition includes a full biographical essay on Wells, a further reading list and detailed notes.
The War of the Worlds has been the subject of countless adaptations, including an Orson Welles radio drama which caused mass panic when it was broadcast, with listeners confusing it for a news broadcast heralding alien invasion; a musical version by Jeff Wayne; and, most recently, Steven Spielberg\'s 2005 film version, starring Tom Cruise.
The forces of the Earth, however, may prove harder to beat than they at first appear.
Soon the whole of human civilisation is under threat, as powerful Martians build gigantic killing machines, destroy all in their path with black gas and burning rays, and feast on the warm blood of trapped, still-living human prey.
At first, naive locals approach the cylinder armed just with a white flag - only to be quickly killed by an all-destroying heat-ray, as terrifying tentacled invaders emerge.
The night after a shooting star is seen streaking through the sky from Mars, a cylinder is discovered on Horsell Common in London.
Wells\'s The War of the Worlds remains one of the most influential science fiction novels ever published.
G.
The first modern tale of alien invasion, H
