1. Complete the following sentences by matching (a-h) to (1-8).

a) These creatures have weapons that… 1. …he had time to write.

b) Wells understood a great deal about… 2. … people thought it was real and they panicked.
c) Wells was given a free place at college… 3. …human behaviour and the psychology of terror.
d) While Wells recovered from an accident… 4. … two world wars.
e) Wells’s first novel was… 5. …no human being has ever known.
f) Wells feel in love with Moura Budgerd… 6. …to study science.
g) When Orson Wells made a radio broadcast of 7. … his translator.
The War of the Worlds…
h) Wells lived through… 8. … The Time Machine.

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2. Fill in the table with information from the text above.

The War of the Worlds

a) Author
b) The year it was published
c) Genre
d) Plot setting
Time

Place
e) Narrator
f) Characters

g) Wells’s well-known novels

h) Historical background

i) Major themes

WHAT’S UP WITH THE TITLE?

The War of the Worlds is an amazing title if you want to sell your book – but kind of a bogus one. And The War of the
Worlds did sell. It was more widely read than any other book written in 1897 about the Earth and Mars. Around the
time Wells was working on War of the Worlds, Kurd Lasswitz was working on Auf zwei Planeten, which literally
translates to On Two Planets. Now, if you had a choice, would you rather read a book titled The War of the Worlds or
one called On Two Planets? We'd rather read the one that mentions a war, so maybe the title did help the book sell.
Worlds
Back to the content of the title, then. Let's start with the most obviously problematic part: "Worlds." Yes, there are two
worlds involved here, but most of the action is really focused on a very small part of the earth: the southern part of
England. In Wells's book, the rest of the world is basically unharmed, and they're only affected because they send aid to
England. Hmm… why isn't this called "The War of Mars vs. Britain"?
"Worlds" in the title does make a bit of sense because the war does force everyone to re-consider the Earth's place in
the universe. As the narrator points out, thanks to the war, people have a sense of the world as a single unit: the
invasion "has done much to promote the conception of the commonwealth of mankind".
The War
Now, "Worlds" might be the most obviously problematic part of the title, but we think there's something intentionally
weird about the "The" in "The War." That might sound crazy, but seriously, what if that "The" were an "A"? "A War"
implies that there's going to be other wars; by contrast "The War" says that there's only one war of the worlds and this
is it. "The" sounds more definite and important.
But as the narrator notes at the end of the book, there might very well be more wars of the worlds. The Martians might
have invaded Venus and maybe Earth will invade Venus too. Mars vs. Earth might actually be the First War of the
Worlds, as this book almost promises there's going to be others. But that's an idea that comes at the end of the book.
It's only when you come to the last few pages that you can see that the "The" in the title is potentially wrong. We've
been reading the book as if it was about a singular event, but at the end we realize that this might just be the
beginning. Tricked!

3. Based on the information given, identify:

a) the title of the books written in 1897.
b) the book which had more success.
c) the reason stated to consider the use of the word “worlds” incoherent.
d) the reason stated to consider the use of the word “worlds” acceptable.
e) what the use of “the” implies in the title of the novel.

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Don’t forget:

In his 1st novel, Time Machine, H. G. Wells criticizes British society and warns that human progress is not
inevitable and that progress may bring misfortunate to Humankind. He predicts the negative effects upon
society that technological advances might have it they are not used responsibly or intelligently.
Historical context
Victorian Age: The period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death, on 22 January 1901. It
was a long period of peace, prosperity and national self-confidence for Britain. In international relations,
the era was a long period of peace, known as the Pax Britannica, and economic, colonial, and industrial
consolidation.

Industrial Revolution: The Industrial Revolution was the transition from hand production methods to
machines in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. During the Industrial
Revolution there was the triumph of a middle class of businessmen and ordinary working people found
increased opportunities for employment in the factories, but these were often under strict working
conditions with long working hours dominated by a pace set by machines, dirty living conditions, a low
income and child labour.

Darwinism: It is a theory of biological evolution developed by Charles Darwin and others, stating that all
species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that
increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce.
The origin of the Species (1859): The book introduced the scientific theory that populations evolve over the
course of generations through a process of natural selection (the survival of the fittest). It presented
evidence that the diversity of life arose by common descent through a branching pattern of evolution.

Science Fiction: A genre in which the stories often tell about science and technology of the future. Science
fiction texts also include a human element, explaining what effect new discoveries, happenings and
scientific developments will have on us in the future.
- Aliens
- Space travel
- Time travel
- Futuristic setting

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- Advanced technology
- Dystopia
- Social awareness
- Scientific rules mixed with fiction
- Speculation

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