War of the Worlds

by H. G. Wells · 1898

The War of the Worlds is a science‑fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells. Written between 1895 and 1897, it was first serialised in Pearson's Magazine (UK) and Cosmopolitan (US) in 1897 and published in hardcover by William Heinemann in 1898. The story is told in first‑person by an unnamed narrator in Surrey and follows his younger brother in London as Martian cylinders land on Horsell Common and an alien invasion sweeps across southern England. It is one of the earliest works to depict a war between humanity and an extraterrestrial race, blending apocalyptic horror with social commentary on hierarchy, imperialism, and humanity’s place in the natural world.