Book One: Chapters 1–4

BOOK ONE, THE COMING OF THE MARTIANS

Sumary: Chapter 1, The Eve of the War
The Narrator describes Earth in the early twentieth century. During the last few years of the
nineteenth century, Earth was being watched closely by a higher intelligence on Mars. Humans
are unaware and actually dismiss the idea of life on Mars as impossible. The beings on Mars
view humans much like humans view other animals, “as lowly and alien” as monkeys. Since
Mars is older and smaller than Earth, the lifespan and resources of the planet are running out.
The beings on Mars see the vast resources of Earth. The Narrator meets Ogilvy, an astronomer,
and visits his observatory outside of Ottershaw. The two look at Mars through the telescope and
see the venting of gases. They do not know that they are seeing the launch of projectiles toward
Earth. While the projectiles travel toward Earth, life goes on peacefully, as no one is aware of the
impending threat.

Summary: Chapter 2, The Falling Star

A falling star is seen over Winchester. Ogilvy investigates and finds the crash site of a large
metal cylinder in Horsell Common. It is still extremely hot, so he is unable to get very close.
Ogilvy does notice that the end which protrudes from the ground is slowly rotating. He connects
what he saw the previous night on Mars through his telescope and determines that there must be
men inside. He runs to town, but people dismiss his story. He finds a London journalist,
Henderson, and convinces him to come to the crash site. Finding that the cylinder has stopped
moving, they return to town, where Henderson telegraphs the newspaper. When the Narrator
reads of the crash site in his newspaper, he travels from his home in Woking to Horsell
Common.

Summary: Chapter 3, On Horsell Common

The Narrator arrives at the cylinder’s crash site, where a small crowd has gathered at the edge of
the crater. The table-sized end cap is no longer rotating, but he notices a yellowish-white metal
between the cap and the cylinder. He believes that the cylinder must be full of information from
Mars, and not living beings. He becomes impatient and returns home. He returns after the
evening papers have reported “a message received from Mars.” Henderson, Ogilvy, Stent (the
Astronomer Royal) and several workmen are trying to unearth the portion of the cylinder that is
still embedded in the ground. Ogilvy asks the Narrator to contact Lord Hilton, who owns the
property, to remove all of the onlookers, who are impeding the excavation. The Narrator is
pleased to be involved, finds out that Lord Hilton will be arriving by train soon, and heads to the
train station.

Summary: Chapter 4, The Cylinder Opens

The Narrator returns at sunset. Several hundred people have gathered. He elbows his way
through the crowd and hears Ogilvy yelling to keep everyone back, since no one knows what is
inside the cylinder. The end of the cylinder twists itself off and the Narrator stares into the dark
emptiness of the cylinder. Gray tentacles, the thickness of a walking-stick, emerge from the
cylinder, followed by a “rounded bulk” the size of a bear. The Narrator describes its movement
as slow and painful, due to the difference in gravity between Mars and Earth. He adds that it is
difficult to imagine the “strange horror” of a Martian’s appearance, with a V-shaped mouth, large
pair of eyes, rounded body and mass of tentacles. The Narrator retreats to a group of trees and
tries to watch. The crowd has almost entirely dispersed, but he can no longer see what is
happening in the pit around the cylinder.

Analysis: Book One: Chapters 1–4

The unnamed Narrator’s expository descriptions of late-nineteenth-century Earth highlight the
egocentrism of humans, which becomes a theme in the novel. Humans are blissfully unaware
that the more advanced Martians are studying them because humans are ignorant of their place in
the order of the universe. Wells introduces the idea that all life contains hierarchies, and humans
view themselves at the top. Just as humans view animals as subordinates, Martians view Earth as
a place to serve their own needs. The vanity of humans becomes evident as they continue to
worry about the minutiae of their own lives while completely oblivious to the threat of a pending
catastrophe.

Ogilvy and Henderson are characters who conform to the archetypes of their respective
professions, which leads other characters to dismiss their claims. As a solitary “mad scientist”
type, Ogilvy’s myopic view prevents him from seeing an other-worldly invasion, in yet another
example of human egocentrism. It behooves Henderson to follow up on Ogilvy’s claims and also
plays to the archetype of the relentless newspaperman who will stop at nothing to get the scoop
on a hot story.

The Narrator’s actions at the crash site highlight how humans’ reliance on routine can lead to
willful ignorance in the face of the unknown. The Narrator is both inquisitive and bored with the
activity at the crash site, and his natural curiosity is at odds with his human desire to continue life
as usual. The Narrator’s inability to concentrate on work demonstrates his understanding that
something significant is taking place and his desire to be a part of it, but it also shows his
unwillingness to interrupt his daily habits to learn more.

The sight of the first Martian prompts various reactions in the witnesses, each of whom reveals a
different aspect of human nature. The narrator initially freezes at the sight of the Martians’
tentacles, a representation of the unknown. It is an act that illustrates humans’ innate fascination
with things that horrify them. Most of the crowd seeks solace among others who have also seen
the site, which shows humans’ social nature and their need to check their reality with that of
others. Humans’ first reaction to something new or foreign is often fear, a reaction that can be
seen throughout history and this story. When the Narrator’s natural curiosity turns to terror and
prompts him to flee, it demonstrates that fear of the unknown is a natural human reaction, and
the evolutionary fight-or-flight is part of humans’ innate will to survive.

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The large size of the creature underscores the smaller physical stature of humans and illustrates
how large the creature’s potential for danger looms in the humans’ imagination. The creature is
described as the size of a bear—an animal often feared by humans—and is the first of many
animal references to follow in the novel. Wells juxtaposes the description of the creature’s large
and intense eyes with the crowd’s blindness to what is happening, which symbolizes that those
who have yet to encounter the creature are also oblivious. To understand this unknown threat,
they must rely on their imaginations, which inevitably leads to more fear and misunderstanding.

Summary: Chapter 5, The Heat-Ray

A thin rod with a round disk, like a mirror, rises out of the pit. As the sun sets, in the twilight the
Narrator can only make out shapes of people approaching. A small group, containing Stent,
Ogilvy and Henderson, approaches the pit, waving a white flag. There are three puffs of green
smoke, a bright flash, and a hissing noise. The Narrator sees one of the large creatures in the pit
rise up, and the hissing turns to a hum. The Narrator watches as the surrounding area starts to
catch fire, as if an invisible ray is being projected from the pit. The group with the white flag is
consumed instantly. The Narrator can see that the invisible ray is starting to move across the
surrounding area, setting everything on fire, including houses and trees in the distance. Paralzyed
with fear, the Narrator stands still and watches. The beam does not make a full circle, otherwise
the Narrator would have been killed. The Narrator runs in terror.

Summary: Chapter 6, The Heat-Ray in the Chobham Road

The Martian Heat-Ray can burn anything combustible. It melts lead, shatters glass, and turns
water to steam. Forty people have been killed around the pit. Many others are burned from the
fire started in the nearby grass and trees. The Narrator suggests that with a parabolic mirror,
invisible light must have been concentrated in a beam. More people were burned by the fires
before they ran, trampling one another to escape.

Summary: Chapter 7, How I Reached Home

The Narrator runs through the trees and collapses near a bridge. After regaining his strength, he
approaches a group of people. He is confused and mentally detached from events. He asks the
group about what happened on the common, but they dismiss him. They think he is demented
when he tries to tell them what happened. The Narrator returns home and tells his wife. He
reassures her, and himself, that the Martian creatures are very slow, due to Earth’s stronger
gravity. The Narrator admits that he did not foresee that the increased oxygen content in the
atmosphere would give the Martians more energy, or that the Martian’s advanced technology
would not be limited by their weight and muscles. He believes that an artillery shell into the pit
will solve the issue, should it get any worse.

Summary: Chapter 8, Friday Night

Life continues as normal in the region around Horsell Common. Most of the people who were
present have been killed, and those who escaped are treated as if they are deranged. Since
Henderson stopped sending updates, the newspaper does not take the story seriously. Anyone
else who has tried to approach the pit has been incinerated. A military regiment has been
activated, however, and several dozen artillerymen deploy on the edges of the common to
investigate. Just after midnight, a second cylinder streaks across the sky.

Summary: Chapter 9, The Fighting Begins

The following day, the artilleryment surround the Martians at the first crash site. The Narrator
travels down to the bridge and talks to a group of artillerymen who have not seen the Martians
yet. They question the Narrator about the Martians and then argue amongst themselves about
how to deal with them. The Martians have not left their pit and seem to be readying for a battle.
The Narrator returns home, where he hears artillery shells thudding at the second Martian crash
site. Explosions and gunfire erupt at the first Martian crash site, and several buildings around the
Narrator’s home are destroyed. He realizes that the Heat-Ray is within range of his home. He
grabs his wife and servant, secures a horse and cart from his neighbor, and rides toward
Leatherhead. The hills and buildings are burning behind him as he rides away.

Summary: Chapter 10, In the Storm

The Narrator travels twelve miles to Leatherhead. He leaves his wife and servant with his
cousins and turns back toward his home, so that he can return the horse and cart. He sees a third
falling star and knows that it contains more Martians. Late at night, he nears his home. A
hailstorm with lightning has started. The Narrator sees two large metal machines rise over the
hill. He describes them as a tripod with a large dish at the top. He watches them break through
lines of trees like a man walks through reeds. The Narrator tries to turn the horse cart, but instead
it tumbles over, killing the horse. He hides as the two large machines pass near him. He finds
cover and works his way home in the dark.

Analysis: Book One: Chapters 5–10

The Narrator’s observations of the calculated manner in which the Martians behave illustrate the
Martians’ intellectual superiority resulting from their advanced evolution. In contrast to the
hysterical and unfocused nature of the crowd, the Martians have a well-thought-out plan and
show no fear of humans. Humans’ impulse to flee, fight, or freeze in the face of acute stress is
also an evolutionary response, but the Martians’ technologically advanced weaponry allows them
to proceed with deliberate and cunning actions. This demonstrates their evolution to a higher
level of consciousness where they need not rely solely upon impulse.

The tendency of the townspeople to carry on as usual despite the death and destruction that
surrounds them is evidence of humans’ stubborn refusal to yield to reason. Their self-exaltation
and lack of preparation make them vulnerable to an attack they cannot fathom simply because
they have never considered such a possibility, and even concrete evidence of the fatal outcome of
an attack does not weaken their resolve to stay on a foolhardy course. The images of the
incinerated bodies of the curious people who surround the site further highlight the deeply
ingrained obstinacy in human nature. Despite the Narrator’s eyewitness accounts of invaders
with superhuman war tactics, the entrenched beliefs of society prevent those he warns from
altering their path towards annihilation.

The Narrator’s state of agitated excitement while hiding from the Martian machines shows the
perilous side of human inquisitiveness. The machinery establishes the Martians’ superior
technology, and even though the Narrator knows it is dangerous to return to his home, his
curiosity overpowers the fear which might provide him with the tools for survival. The hail and
lightning create a foreboding backdrop for the horse’s death, which foreshadows the loss of
human life.

The Narrator’s attempt to return the horse and cart, even in the face of the unknown, exhibits his
interest in upholding his end of the social contract. The fact that he rescues not only his wife but
his servant confirms his belief in his responsibility to society in addition to self. The Narrator’s
perception of human society’s dominion over the universe drives him to defend human social
constructs even as organized society crashes down.

The Narrator’s shifts in mood show the deep connection between emotions and the perception of
safety. Being at home momentarily lulls the Narrator into a false sense of safety which allows
him to form opinions based on his emotions rather than on reason. He tells himself that Martians
cannot be intelligent, despite the clear evidence that they can use their fighting machines to
subdue humanity. Just as humans have felt safe on Earth for thousands of years, the comforts of
home give the Narrator an over-confident feeling of security that leads him to jump to false
conclusions.

Summary: Chapter 11, At the Window

The Narrator goes to the window in his study and looks out toward Horsell Common. He sees
large shapes moving back and forth in the dark near the pit. The Narrator wonders whether the
large machines are intelligent or are piloted by the Martians. All of the surrounding landscape is
burnt and destroyed, including a train. He sees an artilleryman creeping across his lawn and
invites him inside. The artilleryman tells the Narrator how his crew and their artillery guns were
destroyed instantly from the Martian’s Heat-Ray. The Narrator finds food for the artilleryman
and watches from his window again. He watches three of the large vehicles near the pit survey
the area.

Summary: Chapter 12, What I Saw of the Destruction of Weybridge and

Shepperton
At dawn, the Narrator and the artilleryman pack some food and leave the house. The Narrator
wants to return to his wife and leave the country, but the Third Cylinder is between him and
Leatherhead. He agrees to travel with the artilleryman and make a detour to reach Leatherhead.
The two meet several mounted Hussars and see several more artillery emplacements. Some
distance from Horsell Commons, the Narrator finds that the citizens who are being evacuated do
not understand the seriousness of the problem. He tells them that “Death is coming!” At
Shepperton Lock, where the Wey and Thames rivers join, another battle begins. Five of the large
tripod vehicles descend upon the fleeing people. A line of artillery guns are able to bring down
one of the large vehicles, destroying the cowl at the top (which the Narrator presumes is the
cockpit). The Narrator runs into the river to avoid the ensuing Heat-Rays that vaporize the
surrounding area. He watches as four of the vehicles carry away the one that was partially
destroyed. He says that it is a miracle that he escaped.

Summary: Chapter 13, How I Fell in with the Curate

The Narrator travels farther from Horsell Common. Cylinders streak the sky and arrive every
twenty-four hours. Artillery guns are placed around the destroyed area and scouts are deployed
with heliographs (signaling devices). Only one large vehicle remains active, guarding the pit of
the first cylinder. The remaining aliens appear to be working on something under a pillar of
dense green smoke. The Narrator, exhausted and burned from his encounter, comes across a
curate. The curate is raving about the end of days. The Narrator reassures him that the Martians
are not invulnerable but warns that the two of them must retreat farther north to London.

Summary: Chapter 14, In London

The Narrator describes his brother’s experience in London. His brother initially hears about the
first cylinder, but the initial reports do not make it out to be dangerous. When he tries to travel,
he finds that the railway system has been temporarily shut down. Most people do not suspect the
Martians as the reason. Refugees from Walton and Weybridge keep arriving, but no one has any
information on the actual Martians. Several days later, the Narrator’s brother reads a newspaper
story describing the Martians as “vast spider-like machines, nearly a hundred feet high, capable
of the speed of an express train, and able to shoot out a beam of intense heat.” The tone is
optimistic, stating that the Martians have been forced to retreat after one of them was defeated.
He learns that the area around the Narrator’s home has been entirely destroyed. The next day, the
Narrator’s brother sees that London is in a panic. Police are going door to door and telling
everyone to evacuate. “The Martians are able to discharge enormous clouds of black and
poisonous vapor by means of rockets.” The Narrator’s brother puts all of his available money in
his pockets and leaves his home.

Analysis: Book One: Chapters 11–14

The choices that the Narrator makes after he meets the soldier show that he finally his
comprehends the situation in full and will use reason to assess the best path for survival. Unlike
his foolhardy errand to return the horse and cart, he processes the soldier’s factual observations
in order to make an informed decision about his next steps instead of making emotion-based
assumptions about the Martians’ capabilities. His comprehension of the situation also leads him
to warn the other citizens being evacuated, and even though his warnings fall on deaf ears, he
continues his call and also seeks to reassure the curate.

While the curate’s perception of the current threat is more extreme than the Narrator’s, the
Narrator’s attempts to counter his concerns with reason demonstrate that both of them are men of
faith in their own way. The curate’s belief that the calamity should bypass him because he is a
man of God runs counter to the thinking of the scientific and philosophical Narrator. The
Narrator attempts to help the curate through this crisis, however, by standardizing the disaster for
him. Humans have endured all kinds of catastrophes throughout history, and the Narrator looks
at the Martian invasion as another situation to overcome. The Narrator demonstrates his faith in
humanity in a more measured way than the curate demonstrates his faith in God, but the
Narrator’s attempts to help show he has faith that the curate will ultimately listen to reason.

The heliographs symbolize the humans’ misplaced faith in the military. The fact they believe the
military can use such a simple device to fight the advanced technology of the Martians shows
that humans are connected to the idea that the military is omnipotent. Because the soldiers are
fellow humans, the civilians believe they are superior to the Martians, and that their technology
can subdue violent assaults, even the heliographs are almost comical in comparison to the
Martians’ fighting machines.

The Narrator’s description of his brother’s experience in London highlights that even though
human communication systems are deeply flawed, newspapers are still an important aspect of
society’s ability to function. Reporters must rely heavily on second-hand information via word of
mouth, which takes a long time to gather and is often unreliable. Readers must wait until
newspapers are printed and distributed, a cumbersome process that ensures that citizens receive
news no more than once or twice per day. The greed that leads publishers to print sensational
stories to sell more newspapers trickles down to reporters who scramble to find information
worthy of the front page, and to editors who tweak the story so that it resonates with the largest
number of people. Even though the newspapers spread misinformation, the Narrator’s brother
consults a wide variety of them, which makes it clear that he would know nothing about the
invasion if not for the papers. This highlights the importance of information dissemination to
human society.

Summary: Chapter 15, What Had Happened in Surrey

The Narrator and the curate leave the church to head toward London, but they stop and hide
when they see several of the Martian vehicles approaching. Before reaching the next lines of
artillery, the Martian vehicles use launch tubes to send rockets of heavy, black poisonous gas
across the countryside. The Narrator watches as black clouds spread out over the ground. After
losing one of the vehicles, the Martians advance cautiously, spreading the poison ahead of them,
never giving the artillery another chance to fire. Soon, no soldiers are willing to fight them, other
than to create traps or lay mines. By the next day, Richmond is full of the black vapor and
London is being evacuated.

Summary: Chapter 16, The Exodus from London

The Narrator describes his brother’s escape from London. It is chaotic and dangerous. People are
crushed trying to board trains, as some areas around London are covered in the black vapor. The
Narrator’s brother steals a bicycle from a shop that is being looted and rides past a majority of
the crowd. Outside of town, he fights several robbers who are attacking a pair of women. The
Narrator’s brother joins the women and leads their pony and cart toward Edgware, outside of
London. Traveling northeast, the three encounter a frantic stream of people and carts, trying to
escape London. Many are shouting that the Martians are coming. The Narrator’s brother tries to
help a few people but realizes that it is too dangerous. He joins the two women in the cart and
crosses the stream of people, trying to get farther eastward. Eventually they stop at a stream to
rest.

Summary: Chapter 17, The Thunder Child

The Martian vehicles occupy London, seemingly in an effort to demoralize and destroy any
opposition, as they do not pursue the fleeing citizens. London’s population of six million people
try to escape the city in a stampede, lacking food or supplies. Two more falling stars are seen
nearby. The Narrator’s brother and his two traveling companions eventually reach the eastern
coast. The water is full of different sizes and types of boats.

The Narrator’s brother and the two women arrange for passage aboard a steamship. The captain
of the ship waits until the boat is overcrowded before departing. Three Martian vehicles
approach from the west. The steamship is underway and passes the Thunder Child, an ironclad
naval vessel. The Martian vehicles wade into the coastal waters to attack the ships. The Thunder
Child rams the first vehicle, toppling it. The second vehicle uses its Heat-Ray on the Thunder
Child. Due to the momentum of the ironclad, both the Thunder Child and vehicle are destroyed.
On the ship carrying the Narrator’s brother, everyone cheers that two vehicles have been
defeated, as they steam away from the Essex coast. Looking up into the twilight, the Narrator’s
brother sees something “flat and broad and very large” sweep across the sky. “And as it flew it
rained down darkness upon the land.”

Analysis: Book One: Chapters 15–17

Both the Narrator and his brother are entrenched in situations they did not choose, but they
survive by using their instincts. Although they are both curious, a human trait that leads to poor
outcomes for other characters in the story, they both instinctually continue to make choices that
save their lives. They choose to flee at the appropriate times and do not freeze as some characters
do, and when it is feasible, they both choose to fight. The successful outcome of their intuitive
choices is an example of how evolutionary behaviors can save human lives.
The scenes of the mass exodus echo Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest. Those people
who panic and freeze in the Martians’ presence lie dead in their wake. Only those humans who
have forethought, an evolutionary skill that the Martians possess, will survive these clashes with
these more highly evolved beings. The two women whom the Narrator’s brother meets are an
example of how superior thought can sometimes outpace superior strength. Even though stronger
foes attempt to victimize them, they survive with the help of the Narrator’s brother, who in turn
benefits from their forethought in bringing the pony cart. Unlike the panicking citizens who fight
one another and ultimately fall prey to the Martians, these three band together to survive the
journey to the steamship.

As the new reality of surviving catastrophe sets in, the ensuing panic and bedlam illustrate that
the social order has finally crumbled. The Martians have disrupted Earth’s social order to the
point where people are fighting each other in desperate attempts to hold onto things that no
longer have value instead of working together to help each other escape. When the Narrator’s
brother steals a bike to speed up his departure, it is a stark contrast to when the Narrator added
steps to his journey so he could return the horse and cart to his neighbor. This contrast shows
how vulnerable the social order is, and how quickly people will discard previously cherished
social mores once the social order collapses.

The skirmish with the Thunder Child foreshadows the darkness still to come. For the first time
since the Martians invaded, the citizens see a literal symbol of the superiority of their military,
and when it successfully destroys two Martian vehicles, they feel a sense of hope despite the
irony that the Thunder Child is destroyed in the process. When the Narrator’s brother sees
something in the sky, the unnamed object casts spectral darkness over the scene of destruction
and creates suspense regarding this previously unseen threat.