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  • Published: 4 May 2017
  • ISBN: 9781785293580
  • Imprint: BBC DL
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 2 hr 0 min
  • Narrators: Blake Ritson, Samuel James

The War Of The Worlds

Penguin English Library




A brand new BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the famous novel about a Martian invasion of Victorian England.

A brand new BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of HG Wells’s famous story of the brutal Martian invasion of Earth.

When strange explosions are observed on the surface of Mars, excitement spreads among the scientific community. Surrey astronomer Ogilvy invites his friend Robert to the observatory to witness the turbulence on the red planet.

Ten days later, Ogilvy discovers a strange projectile on Horsell Common – with something inside. Robert rushes to view the craft, and is present when Martians emerge and turn their heat rays on the locals, who are waving white flags. It is the beginning of a merciless invasion…

As Robert flees in search of safety, accompanied by a young curate, young soldier Billy experiences the chaos happening in London. As the Martians take control, transforming the landscape and decimating the population, is this the end for the human race? Wells’s terrifying science fiction tale, first published in 1898, is both a reflection of Victorian fears of a coming apocalypse and a critique of British imperialism. This enthralling dramatisation asks how humankind would fare if colonised by a vastly superior technological invader.

It stars Blake Ritson as Robert, with Samuel James as Billy and Carl Prekopp as the Curate.

Duration: 2 hours approx.

  • Published: 4 May 2017
  • ISBN: 9781785293580
  • Imprint: BBC DL
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 2 hr 0 min
  • Narrators: Blake Ritson, Samuel James

About the author

H. G. Wells

H. G. Wells, the third son of a small shopkeeper, was born in Bromley in 1866. After two years' apprenticeship in a draper's shop, he became a pupil-teacher at Midhurst Grammar School and won a scholarship to study under T. H. Huxley at the Normal School of Science, South Kensington. He taught biology before becoming a professional writer and journalist. He wrote more than a hundred books, including novels, essays, histories and programmes for world regeneration.

Wells, who rose from obscurity to world fame, had an emotionally and intellectually turbulent life. His prophetic imagination was first displayed in pioneering works of science fiction such as The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897) and The War of the Worlds (1898). Later he became an apostle of socialism, science and progress, whose anticipations of a future world state include The Shape of Things to Come (1933). His controversial views on sexual equality and women's rights were expressed in the novels Ann Veronica (1909) and The New Machiavelli (1911). He was, in Bertrand Russell's words, 'an important liberator of thought and action'.

Wells drew on his own early struggles in many of his best novels, including Love and Mr Lewisham (1900), Kipps (1905), Tono-Bungay (1909) and The History of Mr Polly (1910). His educational works, some written in collaboration, include The Outline of History (1920) and The Science of Life (1930). His Experiment in Autobiography (2 vols., 1934) reviews his world. He died in London in 1946.

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