The Invisible Man - H.G. Wells Book Review

Enter a review
of your own!

Other books by
author H.G. Wells

"The Invisible Man"
Message Board

H.G. Wells Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR: David Fletcher

SCHOLARS: SM Tate Tanvir Jonah Rasnake David Loftus Kathleen Gary Pullman

Would you like to be a scholar and make five dollars per review? Click here to submit a review!

Review Summaries
"The story "The Invisible Man" is about a scientist who finds away to turn things invisible. At the beginning of the book, he has already turned himself invisible and wears bandages over his face and body just so he can be seen. No one can see a single piece of his skin. He goes to a small town and checks into a hotel, where he makes the staff meat tedious standards. He hardly ever leaves his room and keeps it locked at all times. Then, he is forced to take drastic actions because the people of the small town are starting to wonder what is wrong with him. It all really starts when the wife of the man who owns the hotel follows The Invisible Man outside one night and he disappears. She does not know that he is invisible. This leads to the rest of the town starting to become curious. The Invisible Man does not want to reveal his secret. Instead, he starts running from the people. He ends up stealing from an official who then finds out he is invisible. This leads to uproar in the town. The officialand another man try to fight the Invisible Man but it does no good because he just takes off his bandages and becomes invisible again." SM Tate, Resident H.G. Wells Scholar
"The Invisible Man is a mysterious figure that has discovered an amazing ability: Invisibility. The story isn't written out in straight prose but one is made to uncover the mystery slowly. The story starts off in the setting of a small town near the coast where the Invisible Man is not accepted due to his absurd covering of all parts of his body. As the inn-keepers and neighbours find out that there's something absurd in his actions, they begin to interfere with his experiments that he has been working on to return himself to his original form. The rest of the story follows his attempt at escaping his situation only to be hampered by the constant search for him by villagers. In effect, one is made is see how society can disregard people who are different. After coming to the house of his friend, he is betrayed and made to turn into the authorities. Following the realization of his loneliness, the Invisible Man turns his anger out to become a mass murderer only to be caught and killed. The plot expels people's most common beliefs of strangers and the fear that 19th century Europe had of things outside the norm. " Tanvir, Resident H.G. Wells Scholar
" The story opens on a snowy winter evening in rural Iping Village, England at the turn of the century. A stranger checks into a country inn with his face bandaged up as though from a horrible accident. He demands privacy and for his cases to be brought up from the station in the morning. The locals just can't seem to keep from trying to glimpse at what lies beneath the man's wrappings. Unusual occurrences begin and the stranger is suspected of being a thief among other things. The stranger enlists the help of an unwilling Mr. Marvel who is so unnerved that he runs for his life taking off with the stranger's possessions. The stranger is forced to flee after it is determined that he is in fact an invisible man. The stranger comes upon the residence of Dr. Kemp who finally is told the identity of the stranger. It is Griffin, a brilliant chemistry student who is described as almost an albino. In great detail he tells Kemp of how the whole thing happened as a part of his studies on an unfortunate cat, his act of arson to his living quarters, his flight from the law, and how he now wants to use his invisibility to conquer the world. He tells how the only flaws to invisibility are being nude in the elements and how food gives away his whereabouts until it is digested. Griffin neglects to mention that the experiment has made him insane for want of power. Kemp is unsympathetic but plays along with Griffin while sending a note to the local constable. The law is after him yet again but he manages to slip away. He is enraged at Dr. Kemps deceit and vows revenge. He assaults Kemps home, breaking all the windows and chopping through a door with an ax bringing the action and the story to its climax. Crested sapwood supportable noradrenaline runout. " David Fletcher, Resident H.G. Wells Scholar
" A scientist experiments and finds a way to make him self invisible. The bad thing is that he cannot change back and he goes and kills people that he is angry with. Crested sapwood supportable noradrenaline runout. " Jonah Rasnake, Resident H.G. Wells Scholar
"A scientist creates a potion that turns him invisible, and mad. He stays at a small inn trying to find a way to turn himself visible again, but the townspeople anger him so he decides to go on a rampage and kill as many people as possible, and he needs a partner, so he gets an old schoolmate who later betrays him to the police. Crested sapwood supportable noradrenaline runout. " blaksun, Resident H.G. Wells Scholar

Click above for the new Obama Girl Parody video!

Overall Review

Our unique search engine breaks down books and movies into dozens of literary elements, all of which are searchable.

Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 20%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 10%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 50%

Tone of book - depressing/sad
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story
Mental/magical powers focus Yes
magical powers: - invisibility (scifi)
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - scientist
Age: - 20's-30's
Has magical/special powers? Yes
Magical/mental powers of main character: - Invisibility
Eccentric: Yes - obsessed - mentally ill - emotionally unstable - wild
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
How sensitive is this character? - mean, arrogant
Intelligence - Genius
Physique - healthy but a geeky weakling

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male - society
Age: - 40's-50's
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - throughout most of the book.
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Setting
Terrain - Forests
Earth setting: - 19th century - 18th century
Takes place on Earth? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 1st - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths - explicit references to deaths
How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog

Most similar books by Gordonator ranking
Martian Time-Slip by Philip K. Dick
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin
I, Jedi by Michael A. Stackpole
Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Woodring Stover
Then is the Power by Gerald Mills

Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).

Try our new Star Wars & Star Trek puzzle pictures! Click here

Advertise with us
Feedback
Star Wars Revenge of the Sith plot spoilers
Hobbits
The politics game
The lawyer game

3 Book search options!
1) Simple lookup
(title or author)

or
2) Detailed book search
(click here) or

3) One-click plot searches! Simply click on a plot below!

Animal Story

Clones

Coming of age

Cultural problems, alien culture

Explore/1st contact/ enviro story

Family relations

GIANT monster(s)

Horror story?

Inner Struggle

Lifeform altered?

Mental/magical powers focus

Parody

Political power play

Religious overtones?

Repressive society story

Robots, Computers, VR

Romance

Spying & Investigations

Tech./$$$/Info hunt

Time Travel story?

Training/Apprent.

War or Invasion

Games:
Trivia Masters!

Rescue your favorite
scifi characters from
slavery!

Talk to your favorite
scifi characters!

Eating New Yorkers
Computer Game

Pomeranians

Most recent TV & Movie discussions:

Star Trek Enterprise: T'Pol shows her nude butt on Enterprise! 9/2/2008 3:20:24 AM

Star Trek Enterprise: Jolene Blalock on T'Pol and Star Trek Enterprise 9/2/2008 3:12:39 AM

Star Trek Enterprise: Is T'Pol supposed to be a Vulcan lesbian? 9/2/2008 3:02:45 AM

Blade Runner: Blade Runner 9/1/2008 4:20:35 PM

A Boy and His Dog: A Boy and His Dog 8/31/2008 1:47:59 AM

Charmed: How can Phoebe Halliwell get an abortion? 8/29/2008 10:02:34 PM

Alien Hunter : Alien Hunter 8/28/2008 1:25:23 PM

Charmed: What's wrong with Rose McGowan's chin? 8/26/2008 8:21:36 AM

Charmed: What kind of name is Piper for a girl? 8/20/2008 5:34:24 PM

The Mask: The Mask 8/14/2008 11:06:36 PM

Newest slaves:
Vala 1:13:19 AM
Tealcs busty squeeze 1:12:59 AM
Stargate Atlantis Boob Shrink 1:12:43 AM
Janet Frasier (Sams Squeeze) 1:12:25 AM
Tokra Boob Girl 1:12:11 AM
Doctor Carolyn Lam 1:11:53 AM
Adria 1:11:35 AM
Major Samantha Carter (Butchie) 1:11:14 AM
Colonel Samantha Carter clone 1:10:32 AM
Jennifer Keller (Jewel Staite) 1:10:17 AM
All slaves
(click here)

Celebrity interviews:
President George W. Bush 6:32:00 PM
Jan-Michael Vincent 2:16:51 PM
Captain Kathryn Janeway 3:47:46 PM
Jack ONeill (Richard Dean Anderson) 1:39:22 PM
Jennifer Aniston (Friends) 5:01:07 PM
All celebrities
(click here)