Wells: The Invisible Man (Everyman Library) (Paperback)

The explanation of invisibility and how it is achieved seems rather unconvincing to me. Certainly, such an imagined explanation is hard to put forth, but I felt Wells could have delved more deeply into the subject. I was glad to see that only the man's body, and not his clothes, achieved invisibility, and I also liked the notion of his ingested food and drink being visible until such time as they are adequately digested. As for the action, the characters all seemed to run around like Keystone cops throughout the story, an impression only intensified by Wells' use of dialect in the words of the less educated men and women. There was an air of unbelievability inherent in the actions of both believers and nonbelievers in the invisible man. The whole thing seems like a comedy of errors performed by wooden, puppetlike characters who did nothing to capture my attention. Even the plot is rather unimaginative, culminating in a less than surprising ending. I am a great admirer of H.G. Wells, but I just can't offer many praises for this particular novel. If you want to read Wells, though, you almost have to read The Invisible Man at some point. I would not start out with this book, but I would certainly put it on a short list of Wells novels to read simply because it is recognized as one of his more famous half dozen or so novels.

The Setting takes place in Iping an English village near a train station called Bramblehurst Station, during the month of February. It also mentions a place called Sidderpoint junction that might be important later in the story. It takes place in an inn called Coach and Horses.

The story starts as a wintry day in February when a stranger walks in wrap up from head to toe in except his nose into an inn called Coach and Horses and meets a lady called Mrs. Hall, who let him in. The stranger seems to be polite in the beginning of the story. After lunch the stranger starts acting a little weird by looking around on the floor and picking up something while trying to stay out of sight from everyone. Then while the stranger was sitting in front of the fire Mrs. Hall describes him as looking like he has a huge mouth that takes up half his face. Then you find the stranger tries to stay out of sight from the other people. They all then engage in a long conversation, and then the stranger goes to bed. The next day you meet Fearnside and his dog, then his dog attacks the stranger. After being bitten by the dog, a little while later he got his luggage and there were a ton of bottles one was labeled poison. Then outside Mrs. Hall and her friend's talk, except the stranger of course, where saying that the person is black as a top hat but Mrs. Hall points out his nose was pink. I think the theme is that you shouldn't judge people when you first meet them you should get to know them better. I got this because, he is polite in the beginning but then gets a little mean and has a potion labeled poison. So when you meet someone take the time to get to know them.

I recommend this book to people who like mystery stories because you don't know a lot of things about the story and I think the pros of the book are that it is suspenseful, mysterious, creepy, and interesting. The cons are that the book could have been more descriptive, and should have took the suspenseful part and worked on it a little more then they did. All together I think the book is a good book and is a good book to read.