English literature the book is designed to acquaint students with the main outlines

The enormous economic breach between the upper and working classes is widened by scientific progress. If this process goes on, it will lead to the degeneration of the human race. In the novels of the second period Wells combines the criticism of soci­ ety as a whole with the life of an individual. Thus Wells keeps up the traditions of the Critical Realism in the English novel.

“The War ofthe World’s” is H.G. Wells’ fourth science fiction novel. It was published in 1897. The events in the novel supposedly take place at the beginning of the 20th century in London and its suburbs. The story of the war is told by a professor. He says that he was writing an article, when the first cylinder from Mars came down like a falling star onto the southern part of Britain. The inhabitants of the place were attracted by the unusual phenomena and watched the cylinder open. They saw a Martian came out, then another and another. Their bulky bodies, the size of a bear, moved very clumsily, because the gravity of the Earth had increased their weight three times. The public did not understand the danger until the Martians used their heat-ray, killing many people and burning down houses and woods.

The government decided to fight the Martians. When the second cylinder landed, government troops arrived. They hoped to destroy it by gun-fire before it opened. But the gun-fire was nothing for Martians. Eight more cylinders came down from Mars one after another. The Martians had monstrous fighting machines. These machines moved over the ground smashing everything on their way.

When the fifth cylinder landed, the people were already in a state of panic. The Martian fighting machines advanced on London, and in a few days Society, the State and Civilization disappeared. The people were frightened and became violent. They trampled one another in panic. Those who could not escape from the city hid like rats under the ruins of houses so as not to be killed by the Martians.