I read this for 2 reasons. It was short and therefore conducive to my 30 day reading challenge where I read 30 books (this was book 7) AND I was filming the process for a book vs. movie review (which I've now scrapped because the book was average and the movie was terrible and I don't care about either of them anymore.)

The Invisible Man, H.G. Wells

The Invisible Man is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells. Originally serialized in Pearson's Weekly in 1897, it was published as a novel the same year.

The Invisible Man of the title is Griffin, a scientist who has devoted himself to research into optics and invents a way to change a body's refractive index to that of air so that it neither absorbs nor reflects light and thus becomes invisible.

He successfully carries out this procedure on himself, but fails in his attempt to reverse it. An enthusiast of random and irresponsible violence, Griffin has become an iconic character in horror fiction.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: شانزدهم سپتامبر سال 1998میلادی

عنوان: م‍رد ن‍ام‍رئ‍ی‌، اثر: ه‍رب‍رت‌‌ ج‍ورج‌ ول‍ز؛ مترجم: ق‍اس‍م‌ ص‍ن‍ع‍وی‌؛ تهران، شبآویز؛ 1367؛ در شش و 204ص؛ چاپ دوم 1368؛ چاپ سوم 1374، در 204ص؛ شابک 9645511380؛ چاپ چهارم سال1376؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان بریتانیا - سده 19م

مترجم: ام‍ی‍رم‍ه‍دی‌ م‍رادح‍اص‍ل‌، ت‍ه‍ران‌‏، خ‍ان‍ه‌ آف‍ت‍اب‌، 1379؛ در 116ص، شابک 9645963656؛

مترجم: مهشید میرحیدری؛ تهران، نهال نویدان، 1374، در 190ص؛ چاپ دوم 1391، در 160ص؛ شابک 9789645680501؛ چاپ سوم 1392؛ چاپ چهارم 1393؛

مترجم: گیورگیس آقاسی؛ تهران، عارف، 1371، در 128ص؛ چاپ دوم 1372؛

مترجم: خسرو شایسته؛ تهران، سپیده، 1371، در 158ص؛ چاپ سوم 1369؛ چاپ چهارم 1371؛ چاپ پنجم 1372؛ شابک 9645569656؛ چاپ هفتم 1377؛

مترجم: گروه ترجمه انتشارات؛ تهران، آریا نگار، 1389، در 64ص؛ شابک 9786009214396؛

عنوان: مرد نامرئی؛ نویسنده اچ.جی ولز؛ مترجم بهارک قهرمان؛ ویراستار راضیه ایزد؛ تهران، دادجو، 1398؛ در 96ص؛ شابک9786227039030؛

عنوان: ‏‫مرد نامرئی‮‬‏‫؛ نویسنده: اچ جی ولز‮‬‏‫؛ مترجم رویا صهبایی؛ قزوین، سایه گستر، 1399؛ در 72ص؛ شابک 9786003747517؛

دکتر گریفین، در حرکتی جنون‌ آمیز با آزمایش محلولی شیمیایی روی خود، نامرئی می‌شود و پس از آن با ناامیدی، نامزدش را ترک می‌کند تا دارویی خنثی کننده بیابد…؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 14/07/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 14/06/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

At some point in Plato’s Republic (see II, 359b-360d), Glaucon argues with Socrates that men practice justice only out of fear of punishment. Without that fear, they would commit theft, rape and murder. Case in point: Gyges, whose legendary ancestor, a poor shepherd, once found a magic ring inside a cave. The man pocketed the golden ring and found out that wearing it made him invisible. Soon enough, he put this superpower to good use: he went to the royal palace, raped the queen, killed the king and took his place (a role model for Oedipus, it seems)… This myth has been a significant inspiration to H.G. Wells — and to J.R.R. Tolkien, in The Hobbit, before the infamous ring became a sort of extension of the diabolical Sauron.

In The Invisible Man, the power of invisibility is not bestowed by a magic ring but by far-fetched experimentations on optics and light refraction. Griffin is an avatar both of Frankenstein and his monster: he makes the scientific discovery and applies it to himself, convicted that this will make him virtually invincible and put him above the common law. As it turns out, this self-experiment ends up in utter disaster.

The first half of the novel is told as a mystery, as the villagers of Iping (Sussex) try to make sense of the appearance and behaviour of the strange man who arrives at the local inn. The invisible man then kidnaps a tramp, and a big chase with the mob and constables ensues — through which I have been spacing out quite a bit. The biochemical explanation of Griffin’s invisibility comes right at the middle of the novel. At this point, Griffin reveals his plan to terrorise the good people of London. However, the authorities catch up with him eventually, and another big chase with the mob and constables around Covent Garden ensues again — through which I have been spacing out some more.

All in all, The Invisible Man is a novel structured in much the same way as The Island of Dr Moreau, with a ternary movement (initial mystery / central revelation / final action), and the same obsession with vivisection and experimentation on living things. However, the result is more effective and gripping in Wells’s previous novel than in this one. Nonetheless, while Plato’s anecdote has become somewhat obscure and forgotten, this book is now prevalent in children literature. However, if you are looking for a sexy, “adult” take on it, Milo Manara’s Butterscotch is a nice option.

"Oh! - disillusionment again. I thought my troubles were over. Practically I thought I had impunity to do whatever I chose, everything - save to give away my secret. So I thought. Whatever I did, whatever the consequences might be, was nothing to me. I had merely to fling aside my garments and vanish. No person could hold me. I could take my money where I found it. I decided to treat myself to a sumptuous feast, and then put up at a good hotel, and accumulate a new outfit of property. I felt amazingly confident, - it's not particularly pleasant to recall that I was an ass."

One day stranger shows up in Iping looking to rent a room. Bizarrely wrapped up in bandages, grumpy and demanding, the stranger is believed by the villagers to be the survivor of some horrific accident.

But instead he is a mad scientist who has discovered the secret to invisibility.

...

This book is pretty entertaining. Wells is often funny; and his anecdotes are exciting. You will enjoy reading about how Griffin dealt with his first test subject (a white cat he stole from the lady upstairs), how he tried and failed to recruit henchmen, and hearing Griffin spout his mwa-ha-ha evil schemes with glee.

You are against me. For a whole day you have chased me, you have tried to rob me of a night's rest. But I have had food in spite of you, I have slept in spite of you, and the game is only beginning. There is nothing for it, but to start the Terror. This announces the first day of the Terror.

Wow, how scary and exciting!

Wells is a good author and I enjoyed reading not only about his evil mad scientist MC, but also about science and the method Griffin used to turn himself invisible.

For one thing, it is very vivid and striking. Listen to Griffin discuss "processing" a cat:

"And you processed her?"

"I processed her. But giving drugs to a cat is no joke, Kemp! And the process failed."

"Failed!"

In two particulars. These were the claws and the pigment stuff - what is it? - at the back of the eye in a cat. You know?"

"Tapetum."

"Yes, the tapetum. It didn't go. After I'd given the stuff to bleach the blood and done certain other things to her, I gave the beast opium, and put her and the pillow she was sleeping on, on the apparatus. And after all the rest had faded and vanished, there remained two little ghosts of her eyes."

There's also great "mad scientist" imagery in this novel, complete with test tubes and strange goings-on at night.

He was so odd, standing there, so aggressive and explosive, bottle in one hand and test-tube in the other, that Mrs. Hall was quite alarmed. But she was a resolute woman.

The science in here is not real science, so don't break your brain trying to understand how Griffin's "bleaching system" works. Apparently it's difficult to reverse - so you don't want to be mucking around with his science anyway! ;)

Okay, my education in disability studies was ringing here. The reason I think this is a spoiler, so I will hide it.

Griffin is an albino. This makes him an ideal test subject because he is already lacking pigment with his white skin and "garnet eyes." But Wells uses Griffin's outward appearance as a manifestation of his insanity, homicidal tendencies and terrible temper. Books and films often use a physical "flaw" as a proof that a person is damaged and defective inside, evil inside. I feel like that is the case here.

One could also say that Griffin is objectified no matter if he is visible or not. Invisible, obviously he is a curiosity and a weirdo - bundled up in bandages and gloves and a fake nose, rumored to be horribly scarred or disfigured. But Griffin must have been an oddity when he was visible as well, with the book often commenting on his red eyes and white hair. Perhaps he tried to become invisible in order to escape this constant scrutiny, and was disappointed to find he was under more scrutiny than ever?

He must be stopped - his abnormal body and abnormal mind must be policed and he ends up dead and battered on the street.

Well, looks like my studies on disability in the media didn't go to waste.
...

The only bad thing I'll say about the novel is that Wells has a horrible habit of writing out dialect in a way that was almost incomprehensible to this reader.

"This stror, sir, if I might make so bold as to remark - "

"WTF is a stror?" I asked myself. It took me a good solid three minutes to figure out that the woman was talking about STRAW. This continues throughout the novel, whenever Wells wants to illustrate an "uneducated" character. Man becomes marn. Arrest becomes rest. It's flipping annoying.

Thank heavens I had my Spanish version of this novel handy. The great thing about having a Spanish (or French, or whatever) translation of an (English) novel is that you can be pretty sure they are not going to mess around with the dialect, and instead just say things straightforwardly. I flipped to that section, saw my Spanish edition said "la paja," therefore I knew I was dealing with straw. Everything suddenly became clear to me.

I love reading books in two languages for many, many reasons - and this is one of them.
...

Tl;dr - If you want to read a classic, you could do a lot worse than this. Wells is actually funny, he is a strong writer, and he knows how to turn a phrase.

So it was that on the twenty-ninth day of February, at the beginning of the thaw, this singular person fell out of infinity into Iping village.

Yes, he fell out of infinity. I'm going to use that, that's quite nice.

The story holds your interest and is rather short and not hard to understand. I prefer other classics to this (Anna Karenina, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Jane Eyre etc.) but I understand that those are longer and more complicated.

Available in Spanish as El hombre invisible.

P.S. The English version of this novel was FREE on Kindle, it should be free on any e-reader.

This is the story of how one angry, naked, sneezing albino managed to terrorize the English countryside.
To be quite honest, I expected a bit more from the people who fended off the Nazis for years. But Wells seemed to think his fellow countrymen would be a bit too inept to toss a sheet over this shivering bastard and punch him in the throat.
Instead?
This:



Attention:
1) There may be spoilers for this 100+ year old book in the review.
2) Only comment if you have a WORKING sense of humor.
3) Seriously. Read # 2 again before you correct my review.

When I first started reading, I assumed that The Invisible Man would be about a guy who was slowly driven mad by this unusual condition.
Nope.
He was a world class douchebag long before embarking on his experiment to become see-through. Although, if I had to point out one major difference between his beginning vs. his end? Well, I'm guessing his dick & balls hadn't permanently retreated into his body before he became the World's Meanest Nudist.

Really, dude? Really? Winter is not kind to naked folks. As every Mad Scientist will tell you, you've got to plan ahead. Mother Nature will not bend to your nefarious whims! Turn on the Weather Channel next time, moron.



So, Griffin (that's the Invisible Man's name) discovers a magic not magic formula that allows his molecules to have fewer surfaces for light to refract off, and if he combines that with electrocuting not electrocuting himself with some sort of a radio wave contraption, he will become invisible.
Pseudo-science, FTW!
He tested it out on a cat, and it sorta worked. Except for the cat's eyes. Don't worry, though. The cat is fine!
Kidding it's totally dead.



One thing I found interesting was that until his body absorbed food, it remained visible. Which led me to spend quite a bit of my afternoon thinking about whether or not you could see his poop moving through his intestines. And if it did remain visible, that meant his Kryptonite could quite literally be cheese!
Think about it, people.
You could track him if he's constipated!
Ha! I'll bet those assholes at MENSA are totally rethinking that rejection letter now.
Yeah, so all they had to do was get a big cauldron (or Fry-Daddy) bubbling with oil, and then cook up a shit ton of mozzarella sticks. If placed strategically around the village, they could have had Griffin backed up and praying for prunes in no time. Between the groaning and visibly distended intestines, it would have been Problem Solved within two days.
BOOM!



Ok, so Wells does his dead-level best to make invisibility seem like a curse, but the reality was this was an AWESOME power. He's fucking invisible!
The only reason Griffin wasn't immediately the richest man in the kingdom was due to his a-hole personality. All he had to do was tell people about his amazing discovery! Instead, he shoots himself in the dick trying to keep it a secret. Sure, the people in that first hillbilly town might not have been receptive. At least, not at first, anyway...
Witchcraft! Kill it with fire, Cletus!



But show up at a Science Fair (or wherever smart people hang out), and he would have been carried off on his peers' weak & nerdy shoulders!
I mean, his buddy Kemp was thoroughly impressed...until he started voluntarily boasting about his somewhat ill-thought-out crimes, and revealing his idiotic plans for world domination.
Which, by the way, was the least well-planned villain plot...ever...in the history of badly planned villain plots!



Terror? A reign of n  terrorn? That's it?!
What's the endgame, Griffin?
Give me all your money! Or Terror!
Make me king of the world! Or Terror!
WTF, man? I think you're overestimating yourself a bit there...
Sure, it's a bit spooky that you can't be seen, but eventually, even the stupidest of villagers will band together & figure out that you can be taken down by a dog with a good nose...or cheese!



Which is pretty much what happens.
Except for the part about cheese. If only they had consulted someone with my level of genius intellect, poor Adye would still be alive. Tsk.
He stupidly tries to implement his Reign of Terror, and manages to get a few good shots in, but eventually becomes the recipient of the ass beating of a lifetime.
Moral of the story: Even if you're a genius, don't be a dick.
You will inevitably freeze your balls off, catch a nasty cold, and end up bludgeoned to death by people with half your intellect. Because all us stupid people know how to wield sticks, goddammit!



Buddy Read  with Jeff, Delee, Evgeny, Tadiana, Stepheny, Will (be gentle it's his first time), Dan (he found a free copy!), Dan 2.0  (if he can remember his password), Alissa, Christopher, Steve, Jess, Licha, MIRIAM (because she can't quit us!), Jenna, (latecomer) Auntie J, Ginger & Carmen (cutting it a little close there, Carmen!). Honorary Buddy-Reader: Karly *The Vampire Ninja & Lumi...Lumin...Sparkly Monster*

We gotta do this again, guys!

"El extraño personaje se apareció por la colina a principios de febrero, en un día muy tormentoso de fuertes vientos y grandes nevadas, las últimas del año. Según parece, llegó caminando desde la estación de tren de Bramblehurst, y sostenía en la mano enguantada una pequeña valija negra. Iba abrigado de pies a cabeza, y el ala del sombrero de fieltro negro le tapaba toda la cara, excepto la punta brillosa de la nariz."

Ya no caben dudas de quién fue y qué es lo que generó tanto en la ciencia ficción como en la literatura el señor H.G. Wells. Con sólo decir que entre 1895 y 1898 escribió "La guerra de los mundos", “La isla del Dr. Moreau, "La máquina del tiempo" y esta novela, "El hombre invisible", nos da una idea de su potencial creador especialmente orientado a anticipar ciertos avances científicos pero con una característica que lo diferenciaría de Julio Verne: Wells profundizaba en sus novelas los potenciales peligros que sabemos generar el hombre a partir del uso indebido de los avances científicos tanto en nosotros mismos como en nuestro planeta, -prueba de ellos son los experimentos aberrantes del Dr. Moreau en su isla-, o lo que plantea en “La guerra de los mundos” acerca de lo que implica invadir o colonizar (aunque lo disfrace de invasores marcianos) y también sobre las diferencias sociales y la discriminación, tema aún de total actualidad que esconde subrepticiamente dentro de la historia de “La máquina del tiempo” en ese contrapunto entre los Morlocks y los Eloi.
Wells no se queda solamente con el tema científico sino que va más allá y desnuda otras realidades que muchos lectores no alcanzan a descubrir.
En el caso de “El hombre invisible”, yo siempre hago hincapié en el aspecto humano del personaje y no me intereso tanto en lo científico a la hora de realizar una reseña del libro y creo que Wells orientó también por ese lado la idea de esta novela.
Griffin es un científico, descubre algo que le cambia para siempre su naturaleza humana, pero lo hace para mal, pero no porque su intención era ser malo, sino porque las circunstancias lo van acorralando hasta ponerlo en una posición extremadamente incómoda.
Es que Wells demuestra que no es tan divertido ser invisible. Las vicisitudes que vive el personaje lo dejan al borde del paroxismo. Luego de tener que huir forzosamente del laboratorio establecido en una pensión, descubre que se encuentra desnudo, a la intemperie, lleno de golpes porque la gente no lo ve y choca contra él, pasa frío, está paranoico porque se siente continuamente perseguido, no puede dormir porque sus párpados son invisibles, no puede comer porque lo que ingiere sí se ve, anda descalzo, se lastima los pies y tanto la nieve como la lluvia o la niebla pueden llegar a delatarlo.
¿Tiene todo esto algo de divertido o interesante para alguien que quiera ser invisible? Todos hemos fantaseado alguna vez con la idea de ser invisibles, pero en el caso de no poder volver a nuestra condición habitual, ¿nos pusimos a pensar lo que expone claramente Wells en la novela? Obviamente que no. Sólo nos quedamos con lo que podríamos hacer gracias a este poder de invisibilidad y que seguramente, serían cosas malas. Seamos sinceros: ¿qué obra de bien se le ocurriría a alguien hacer siendo invisible? Habría que sentarse a hacer una lista, pero nos llevaría tiempo encontrar algo rescatable.
Aunque quisiéramos transformarnos en un soldado invisible para eliminar al líder de ISIS o cualquier dictador deberíamos caer indefectiblemente en una mala acción: el asesinato. Habrá distintas formas de pensar respecto de este tema, pero creo que incurriríamos en la dicotomía de la moral y la ética en contra de una acción en beneficio de cortar un mal cayendo en otro.
En mi reseña del famoso libro de Robert Louis Stevenson, "El extraño caso del Dr. Jekyll y Mr. Hyde", al terminar de leerlo establezco ciertas similitudes, puntos en común entre Griffin y Henry Jekyll: "Creo que Griffin tiene más puntos tienen en común con Henry Jekyll, ya que en esos casos la lucha no da tregua. El paralelismo entre Griffin y Jekyll es sorprendente, puesto que lo que en un principio y a partir de lo científico parece ser un avance, una mejora o un descubrimiento, rápidamente se convertirá en una maldición muy difícil de controlar y los resultados serán nefastos."
Pero, más allá de las similitudes, en el caso de Griffin no tenemos una lucha entre bien y mal o temática del doble como con Jekyll, ya que cuando éste se transforma en Hyde luego de beber a pócima ya no tiene control de su ser. Griffin va transformándose, a partir de su propia invisibilidad y de lo que les acontece, en alguien que ya no tiene retorno y que termina siendo un ser malo debido a la desesperación que lo persigue.
Ya no tiene vuelta atrás y ese poder de ser invisible no le sirve. Hasta podría aventurar que en su afán, persigue lo mismo que Fausto. Sus objetivos lo enceguecen en pos de triunfar en su experimento, pero... ¿con qué fin?
Podré decir a favor de Griffin que es un ser humano y que su nueva condición es algo que aunque tenía proyectado antes de iniciar el experimento, en cierto modo se le va de las manos al no poder controlar lo que le pasa a partir de su invisibilidad.
Todo es nuevo para él y obra según su instinto y circunstancias. Lo que inicialmente y muy poco tiempo es un descubrimiento único, se vuelve una tortura y un problema de difícil solución.
Wells vuelca todos los acontecimientos de los capítulos iniciales cuando Griffin llega al pequeño pueblito de Iping en el desequilibrio psicológico que sufre Griffin (especialmente en los capítulos 19 y 23 cuando le cuenta sus vicisitudes al doctor Kemp).
El mismo Griffin lo acepta cuando dice: "Cuanto más reflexionaba, más cuenta me daba de lo absurdo que era un hombre invisible en un clima tan horrible y frío, y en una ciudad civilizada llena de gente. Antes de llevar a cabo este loco experimento había imaginado miles de ventajas. Pero esta tarde sentía una enorme decepción. Empecé a repasar las cosas que el hombre considera deseables. Sin duda, la invisibilidad permitía conseguirlas, pero a la vez se volvía disfrutarlas no bien se obtenían. La ambición... ¿de qué sirve el éxito cuando no se puede aparecer de cuerpo y alma?"
Siento que esta novela, que para algunos es considerada de índole juvenil, de aventuras, de ciencia ficción (que en realidad sí lo es) o incluso relacionada a los famosos monstruos y villanos del cine clásico (Griffin claramente termina siendo más villano que monstruo), es una novela sobre el costado humano de las personas. De un hombre que intentó ser invisible para descubrir increíblemente que todos pueden "verlo".
Todo el mundo sabe ya hacia el final de la novela quién es Griffin, entonces, lo persiguen, lo acorralan y lo cazan sin piedad. Tristemente falla en su intento y allí sí queda en un pie de igualdad con Henry Jekyll.
A veces me pregunto cómo hubiera reaccionado yo ante un descubrimiento como éste y es difícil saberlo, ya que soy tan humano como el pobre Griffin.

An interesting short book with elements of sci-fi, mystery and horror, that was fun to read. The writing style is not my favorite, it’s very straight-forward, concentrating mostly on the plot. I would like more in-depth psychological analysis of Griffin (the Invisible Man) and philosophical exploration of the topic because I find the premise very interesting. One could argue that invisibility was the factor that precipitated Griffin’s moral and psychological deterioration, even though I think he didn't have a healthy personality or a solid moral compass to begin with. The strong point of this book is an exploration of destructive sides that extraordinary power as invisibility has. In our fantasy likewise superhero ability can be romanticized, but in practical reality, there is nothing idealistic about it, it gives certain benefits, but like everything else has a dark side. I liked the description of things I didn't think about - how Invisible Man couldn’t eat (food processing would make him visible), wear clothes or have shelter, living in constant fear of imprisonment.

"But you begin now to realise," said the Invisible Man, "the full disadvantage of my condition. I had no shelter—no covering—to get clothing was to forego all my advantage, to make myself a strange and terrible thing. I was fasting; for to eat, to fill myself with unassimilated matter, would be to become grotesquely visible again."

Similar things could be said about any extraordinary gift, in the shadow of great power there is always a considerable burden. Exquisite things alienate person from other people that are living an ordinary life, that has no great grandiosity but has security and continuity that is lost in abnormal circumstances.

I had no refuge, no appliances, no human being in the world in whom I could confide. To have told my secret would have given me away—made a mere show and rarity of me.

The sense of isolation reminded me of Frankenstein's monster, but I consider Griffin even more tyrannical and vile. There is also another dimension to think about. Body image has a key role in the formation of self, according to the theory of psychosexual development, and invisibility would influence greatly the body image. Without a visible body, there is no body image in mind whatsoever, and without body image, there is no stability or continuity of self which could explain Griffin’s gradual disintegration. In the end, Griffin had a really tragic destiny that he led himself into by misusing the great scientific mind he was born with, a warning for every person with superb talent.

And there it was, on a shabby bed in a tawdry, ill-lighted bedroom, surrounded by a crowd of ignorant and excited people, broken and wounded, betrayed and unpitied, that Griffin, the first of all men to make himself invisible, Griffin, the most gifted physicist the world has ever seen, ended in infinite disaster his strange and terrible career.

I think Wells' approach to the story could be better, especially because he revealed much more potential in the development of certain thoughts. I personally like a more dense writing style, and genres mixing didn’t blend as well together as I would imagine, the first and second parts of the book were really different so the story didn't flow as coherent as it should. I think this is my first Wells (if I’ve already read something from him I can’t remember now), but I do want to pick up more of his books in the future.

I have a feeling if I had read this on my own- my rating would have been 3 stars. So I would like to thank the following people for making this such an enjoyable buddy-read. You guys get a whole extra star all of your very own. No fighting when you split it among yourselves please.!!!!

Jeff, Stepheny, Anne, Tadiana, Dan 2.0, Jess, Evgeny, Dan, Alissa, Steve, Will, Christopher, Licha, Miriam, Jenna, Auntie J, Ginger, and Carmen



"A room and a fire!"

On a cold blustery day in February- a mysterious man arrives in Iping, West Sussex- and checks in at The Coach and Horses.



He is bundled in a thick coat- wearing a scarf, gloves, and hat- his face entirely bandaged- eyes hidden behind large glasses. Only his nose is visible.

...and he asks to be left alone.

"As a rule, I like to be alone and undisturbed."



...but in a place where normally nothing exciting ever happens- The man's presence causes quite a stir- the gossip follows- tongues start wagging. And when a strange robbery occurs- suspicion grows.



THE INVISIBLE MAN

A fine example that book smart doesn't always = life smart. "TIM" -One of the dumbest smart people I have ever read about. :)

القوة المطلقة قد تحولك من ذكي نبيل الى مجنون حقير
بأكثر الطرق تشويقا و إثارة
قالها لنا العبقري ويلز في اخر أعوام القرن 19

من بين المواهب الخارقة. .لم ارغب يوما ان اكون خفية..فمعظم ما ساستفاده من هذا الوضع سيندرج تحت بند الحرام..الميزة الوحيدة..انه لا حاجة للعناية بالمظهر او الريجيم..رغبت كثيرا في الطيران"بسبب الزحمة"..في الرجوع بالزمن "السنا جميعا" ا

في احد تلك الفنادق الغامضة التي تملأ الريف الإنجليزي يصل نزيل مشؤوم مغطى بالضمادات..و عندما يقرر الأهالي طرده يكشف عن كونه خفيا..و يبدا في اثارة الفوضى..و تتوالى الأحداث التي قتلتها السينما اقتباسا عبر العالم

منحنا ويلز أفكارا خيالية عميقة لم يجرؤ معاصروه على استيعابها. .
و ما زالت السينما تقتات عليها
لذا استحق عندى منزلة لا تبارى

This is a most excellent piece of science fiction wherein a scientist called Griffin, creates a serum which makes him invisible. Then it goes on to explain his decline into total madness.
I am generally not a science fiction fan, but this one was masterfully written and kept my interest.
I recommend this book to all.
Enjoy and Be Blessed.
Diamond

We all want superpowers. We want to excel, to be better than everyone else, to have a unique ability. But is this ambition (or vanity) always justified? According to H. G. Wells, the answer is a resounding “no.”

In his 1897 science fiction novel The Invisible Man, the author tells the story of Griffin, a brilliant scientist obsessed with invisibility. The protagonist begins his research while still in university, but he doesn’t publish anything for fear that his professor might steal his ideas. Ironically, Griffin resorts to theft to fund his work. He even robs his own father, who ends up shooting himself because he had borrowed the money. And Griffin feels no remorse: “I did not feel a bit sorry for my father,” he later confesses to Dr. Kemp, a university acquaintance of his.

Like Captain Ahab, a major character in Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby-Dick who has made the finding of a famous albino whale his life’s purpose, H. G. Wells’s hero is also driven by a monomania. The similarities between the novels don’t end there—Griffin, too, is an albino. Maybe being so obviously different from most people is what has shaped his ambition in the first place. Captain Ahab wants to locate Moby-Dick to exact revenge for the loss of his leg, and it is possible that Griffin has similar motives. Maybe he was bullied as a child; perhaps he was called a freak of nature one time too many, and now he wants to disappear, to render his strangeness invisible. And he wants revenge. Not revenge against particular individuals but against society as a whole.

Nothing can prevent Griffin from achieving his goal. He works tirelessly to become the first invisible man in history and is oblivious to any potential dangers: “To do such a thing would be to transcend magic. And I beheld, unclouded by doubt, a magnificent vision of all that invisibility might mean to a man—the mystery, the power, the freedom. Drawbacks I saw none.”

While few of us would go as far as Griffin in our pursuits, his personality certainly doesn’t seem foreign or improbable. Success requires sacrifice, and it is not always clear when to stop or at least to slow down. It is easy to get carried away. As Oscar Wilde writes in his 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Grey, in which the protagonist also has a superpower, “[t]he only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.”

And Griffin yields. He doesn’t quit, and his perseverance pays off. At first, he is beyond happy and can’t wait to start using his newly acquired ability: “[m]y head was already teeming with plans of all the wild and wonderful things I had now impunity to do.” He is tempted by the forbidden fruit and wants to break the law.

But soon his mood changes. The short-term bliss is superseded by lasting anger as it dawns on him “what a helpless absurdity an Invisible Man was.” He has indeed become invisible but not undetectable. He has to walk around naked in the middle of winter and can’t even eat when he wants: “[T]o get clothing was to forego all my advantage, to make myself a strange and terrible thing. I was fasting; for to eat, to fill myself with unassimilated matter, would be to become grotesquely visible again.” Snow, rain, fog, and dirt of any kind would also expose him. And he can be heard, smelled, and felt. “I went over the heads of the things a man reckons desirable,” he tells Dr. Kemp. “No doubt invisibility made it possible to get them, but it made it impossible to enjoy them when they are got. Ambition—what is the good of pride of place when you cannot appear there? What is the good of the love of [a] woman when her name must needs be Delilah? I have no taste for politics, for the blackguardisms of fame, for philanthropy, for sport. What was I to do? And for this I had become a wrapped-up mystery, a swathed and bandaged caricature of a man!”

Griffin’s frustration is relatable. We have all been overly excited about something only to find it useless or even harmful later on. The logical thing to do in such cases is to give up. But people are not logical. Despite our remarkable scientific achievements, we are irrational beings doing what is bad for us. Knowingly.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Griffin doesn’t give up. He puts on clothes “leaving not a scrap of his face exposed” and travels from London to the village of Iping, where he stays in Mr. and Mrs. Hall’s bar. But his appearance, behavior, way of speaking, and pretty much everything else are so strange that his secret is soon revealed, and he has to run away. He stumbles upon Mr. Thomas Marvel, a good-for-nothing bachelor, and forcibly makes him his assistant. This doesn’t pan out as expected, and Griffin has to run away again.

Injured, hungry, and exhausted, he accidentally enters Dr. Kemp’s house. By this time, Griffin’s anger and disillusionment have grown significantly. He no longer wants merely “to jest, to startle people, to clap men on the back, [to] fling people’s hats astray, and [to] generally revel in … [his] extraordinary advantage.” He has given a lot of thought to “all that invisibility means” and has realized that “is only good in two cases: It’s useful in getting away, it’s useful in approaching. It’s particularly useful, therefore, in killing.”

“And it is killing we must do, Kemp.”

Griffin proposes a plan for world domination involving “judicious slaying” and asks Dr. Kemp to help him achieve his vision of a “Reign of Terror.” Machiavelli would be proud of him, but Dr. Kemp isn’t. He waits for Griffin to fall asleep and calls the police.

The protagonist escapes yet again, but Dr. Kemp’s betrayal pushes him beyond the point of no return. Like Caesar on the verge of crossing the Rubicon, Griffin’s die is cast. He is determined to proceed with his plan and to punish Dr. Kemp into the bargain: “Port Burdock is no longer under the Queen, tell your Colonel of Police, and the rest of them; it is under me—the Terror! This is day one of year one of the new epoch—the Epoch of the Invisible Man. I am Invisible Man the First. To begin with the rule will be easy. The first day there will be one execution for the sake of example—a man named Kemp.”

Captain Ahab doesn’t know when to stop and pays for his hubris with his life. In Griffin’s case, monomania also proves fatal. The brilliant scientist is caught and beaten to death. He dies in disgrace, alone, unloved, and not missed by anyone: “there it was, on a shabby bed in a tawdry, ill-lighted bedroom, surrounded by a crowd of ignorant and excited people, broken and wounded, betrayed and unpitied, that Griffin, the first of all men to make himself invisible, Griffin, the most gifted physicist the world has ever seen, ended in infinite disaster his strange and terrible career.”

Griffin might die, but his legacy survives. It lives on in every elite athlete, every great scientist, every CEO, every ambitious person, every dreamer.

All in all, The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells is a true masterpiece that transcends time and culture. In it, like in most of his other works, the author focuses on potential risks that tomorrow might bring. He warns against the dangers of unchecked monomania, advanced technology, and excessive power. He reminds us that scientific discoveries can be used for both good and evil and that it is up to us which option to choose. He shows that the world is too complex to predict every outcome accurately, especially if we are blinded by our desires. And he writes in a way that is sheer joy to read.

Do you think the notion of an invisible man was really foreign to the readers during the time Wells wrote? While I found this book moderately entertaining, thought the scientific "theories" were thought-provoking, and felt there were seeds of some really potent themes (however undernourished the seeds turned out to be), I feel like Wells was totally preoccupied with trying to describe to the reader what it would be like to have an invisible man in our midst. This isn't a concept that I (as a modern reader) have a particularly difficult time grasping, so I guess I found myself a little frustrated with the constant THOROUGH descriptions of similar scenes, in which the invisible man participates in some kind of kerfuffle with someone or with many people, and things float in the air, and people mysteriously trip over something when nothing seems to be there. Over and over again. I *think* if I hadn't seen so many movies where these kinds of scenarios are so handily portrayed, I would have found this story more engaging on the whole. What I WISHED the book did was spend more time exploring the mindset and utter confusion that an albino-turned-invisible man would have as he alternately attempts to be seen and unseen. To be noticed and unnoticed. The utter loneliness one must feel to be constantly around people who are totally unaware of your presence. Instead, there were parlor tricks, an unnecessarily lengthy cast of indiscriminate country bumpkins, and some seriously cold feet. The ending, however, hit the mark well enough.

As a side note, the editor in me wished he would pick a narrative perspective and stick to it. Oh Wells.