Całkiem ok ale bez rewelacji.

Englishman Griffin, a 19th-century giant in science, maybe, in the novel 'The Invisible Man', has changed himself into a Superior UberMan, or so he believes. He thinks himself a human of enormous power, hidden though it may be to everyone around him.

After years of research and even stealing money to support himself while experimenting, which caused ruin to his victims, the antagonist Griffin has accomplished the impossible - he has discovered a scientific procedure to make his body invisible to the eye. He isn't entirely certain, but he believes the fact he is an Albino, with the whitest white of human skin, and red eyes, made his transformation to a invisible superman possible. Griffin may be nothing to the eye of even the lowliest English villager who is living a simple life of honest labor, but he feels he can now at last teach them he is the superior creature! If he can only figure out how to reverse the procedure...

Griffin has already learned being invisible has not made people behave quite as cravenly as he hoped. He has had to run away from his original laboratory because of stupid interfering busy bodies and the lowest classes of English society (Jews, in Griffin's mind). He has set up another small laboratory in a little village using money he stole like a common thief, but again, there is nothing but interference from these ridiculously respectable lowbrow simpletons surrounding him! He is about to lose his mind...

The 'mundane' and 'unintelligent' conversation the author H. G. Wells puts in the mouth of his simple villagers is actually extremely entertaining and touchingly humane, demonstrating quite ably that the 'lowly' villagers and innkeepers are actually the strength of society, not its weakest point, in being the upholders and believers of the standards of common decency.

I was delighted, absolutely delighted, by the socially progressive Wells' clever clever construction of this novella! I believe he was writing an amusing and entertaining sly answer to one of Friedrich Nietzesche's more famous philosophical thought explorations, i.e., quoted from Wikipedia:

"Nietzsche calls for exceptional people to no longer be ashamed of their uniqueness in the face of a supposed morality-for-all, which he deems to be harmful to the flourishing of exceptional people. He cautions, however, that morality, per se, is not bad; it is good for the masses, and should be left to them. Exceptional people, on the other hand, should follow their own "inner law." A favorite motto of Nietzsche, taken from Pindar, reads: "Become what you are.""

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fried...

Intellectuals of the 19th century were very much excited by this general idea that some men were superior to other men because of their intelligence and strength of character so that as a result such 'Supermen' should be above social mores which were taught to the masses to enforce a 'herd' morality.

Crime and Punishment, an intensely depressing and serious literary commentary on society, was one famous Russian author's horrified response to the concept of UberSuperman. The German Nazis, on the other hand, embraced UberSuperman theories. So did many eugenics supporters around the world, including in America https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugen....

The Englishman Well's response, which is what I think 'The Invisible Man' story was, to the UberSuperman philosophy is an answer with much more plucky derisive satire than the mournful Russian writers; and I think WAY more obviously supportive of the authority of the power of the little people of the earth, slow and witless and ignorant and poor as villagers may be. If I am right about the implied reaction of the English, the Germans, and the Russians from the various 19th-century novels I've read written as answer to these so-called Supermen theories, it reflects the stereotypes we (or maybe just me, I apologize) have of these national cultures!

If you have only seen the movies based on this book, gentle reader, you are missing a lot of the craft and hidden philosophical implications I think Wells wanted people to take away from his little story! By the way, Wells created the character Griffin as a total evil creep, so sensitive readers may be very shocked by his depravity. Nothing is too awful for Griffin - animal abuse (he tortures a cat!), spitefully beating and breaking the bones of elderly women and toddlers, stealing money for which Griffin's father is blamed for, which causes Griffin's father to kill himself, murdering anyone who gets in his way, burning down an apartment building, etc. Of course, Wells also has Griffin be the absolutely most stupid and clumsy of criminals, whose every idea falls apart. He is the Master Man of foiled plans and dumb science. He is only good at committing violence against those who are the weakest in society.  Wells is not graphic, but he throws in everything, EVERYTHING which would horrify his readers of the time.

Ooooh. I simply loved this tiny gem of a tale!

Slow start but a decent ending. Lots more humor than I expected. Also, it was interesting hearing the Invisible Man tell has story as he descends into madness.

I think when I was young, the superhero power I desired most probably would have been invisibility.

After reading this classic tale, I would definitely change it to something else.....Maybe, everlasting life; so I could finish my TBR list!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️[9/10]
This is what a supposedly serious review of the popular, bestselling, turn-of-the-century sci-fi novel looks like when written by a dunkin' dunce like me- full of gaping holes and disconnected thoughts and jumbled array of funny ideas.

⏩n  FOR THOSE THAT KNOWS NOT WHAT GRIFFIN IS:n
As the title suggests,
✅ He is invisible. An n  n    invisible albinon  n, to be precise.(Makes things easier. If you ever plan on putting this theory to test, you should probably hunt down albinos first. As long as you don't try it on yourselves like he did, you should be fine.)
✅ He is a brilliant scientist. Like, bloody brilliant. He conjured up that invisibility prank all by himself, except that it is not a prank(never mind what the world believes), but pseudoscience.
✅ He is mad. Like, let-the-terror-reign kind of mad and a bit homicidal(I highly doubt that 'bit' does justice to the magnitude of the nefariousness involved.)
✅ He is a sorry fellow. Poor poor fellow who could have been salvaged, if only H.G. Wells had known the concept of a shrink back then.



⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️

⏩n  GRIFFIN, THE BOGEYMAN: n

The Invisible Man commanded quite a reputation wherever he went and this was how he was usually bandied and gossiped about!

n  

“In the middle of the night she woke up dreaming of huge white heads like turnips, that came trailing after her, at the end of interminable necks, and with vast black eyes.”

n

n  

“That marn's a piebald, Teddy. Black here and white there—in patches. And he's ashamed of it. He's a kind of half-breed, and the colour's come off patchy instead of mixing."

n

n  

“Also belated little children would call "Bogey Man!" after him, and make off tremulously elated.”

n

⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️

⏩n  THE POPULAR NOTION: n

❎ n  Griffin was a class A nincompoop:n

My arguments against the notion-
▶️The invisible man didn't appear all of a sudden out of thin air or blast off a distant Krypton as a baby with superpowers to head our way. It was the fruit of years of toil, brain-wracking, failure, frustration, success, mirth and failure again- the vicious cycle that a scientist's life is susceptible to. That pain- a scientist alone can comprehend.

▶️So, what if he didn't plan his life-after-invisibility ahead? He didn't think of running around the streets stark naked in the nippy cold weather. He didn't contemplate on starving to death because the food will trace a visible course through his invisible gut. He didn't start devising vile plans to run amok and terrorise the village until people got overwhelmed by his subdued presence. He didn't come across as an evil-that-need-to-be-banished until the very person he trusted his secrets with, set the police on him.
(Dr. Kemp, whose personality is revealed here, the moment Griffin showed up at his door- n  

“All men, however highly educated, retain some superstitious inklings. The feeling that is called "eerie" came upon him.”

n)

n  Only if, hen
⚫️ wasn't being a D-bag about his father and didn't treat everyone with general apathy,
⚫️ knew a method to rein in his unfettered outburst of antagonism,
⚫️ didn't really come after Dr. Kemp, even after knowing that this would end up a ridiculously executed threat,
⚫️ didn't bludgeon an unsuspecting man to death( I didn't really believe that Griffin was a bad person until that moment- which happens in the almost-penultimate part of the story),

n  n    this would have been the classic case of 'girl-fell-in-love-with-a-mad-scientist'!!n  n

He is a Genius!


A JERK(Just that, yes!)


But,


❎ n  Invisibility is pseudoscience:n

My arguments against the notion:
▶️If fiction is tangible, so is Invisibility. No one would dare say against this, but decolorising blood? You have to contend with the idea, definitely, but don't go about picking at some absurd idea clearly tagged as fiction.

n  

“But this was not a method, it was an idea, that might lead to a method by which it would be possible, without changing any other property of matter—except, in some instances colours—to lower the refractive index of a substance, solid or liquid, to that of air—so far as all practical purposes are concerned.”

n

▶️ If you can get your head around the concept of hiding human tissues, then why not decolorise them in the process? If Griffin knew something you can't quite put your finger on, then you have absolutely no right to treat him as a despicable creature. More when the mad scientist is not purblind to the fact-

n  

“Ambition—what is the good of pride of place when you cannot appear there? What is the good of the love of woman when her name must needs be Delilah?”

n



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⏩n  VERDICT:n

✔️ Many writers embraced the idea that the power that the quality of being invisible bestows on man is MARVELlously unrivalled to that of flight or webs or lightning-quick sprints or steel body or hulking figure or....(you know enough to fill the gaps with), but H.G Wells is the pioneer in the field of super-heroes(or super-villains) whether he knew it or not.

So, if 'outrei' and 'outlandish' and 'implausible' science is what tickles your fancy, then why not try this original and ingenious piece of classic once at least in your lifetime?



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And, if you are willing to give it a try, read Jeff's review first, it definitely tickled my funny bones!

Well I'm sorry to say that I found this book to be a tad boring and I disliked the main character. I really enjoyed The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine so not a bad average with this writer so far.

“A method by which it would be possible, without changing any other property of matter—except, in some instances colours—to lower the refractive index of a substance, solid or liquid, to that of air—so far as all practical purposes are concerned.”

“You make the glass invisible by putting it into a liquid of nearly the same refractive index; a transparent thing becomes invisible if it is put in any medium of almost the same refractive index. And if you will consider only a second, you will see also that the powder of glass might be made to vanish in air, if its refractive index could be made the same as that of air; for then there would be no refraction or reflection as the light passed from glass to air.”

H.G. Wells is not merely the forefather of science fiction, he is also the forefather of hard science fiction. I think he explains his science and pseudoscience better than most of today’s sci-fi authors.

One thing that bothers me about the concept of an invisible man in general is that they seem to be considered as more of an unstoppable threat than they need to be. If I can go a little off tangent for a sec, the idea occurred to me while I was watching The Hollow Man. While the psychopathic invisible man goes on a rampage, everybody is whirling around trying to protect themselves. When the invisible man is coming at them why does it not occur to any of them to render him visible by throwing – say – a bucket of paint, a bag of flour, ink or even a goddam cup of coffee over him or his general direction? Even Wells does not consider this line of defense even though he does deal with the issue a little in this passage:

“I could not go abroad in snow—it would settle on me and expose me. Rain, too, would make me a watery outline, a glistening surface of a man—a bubble. And fog—I should be like a fainter bubble in a fog, a surface, a greasy glimmer of humanity.”

Unfortunately Wells does not do anything with this observation; no wonder Mr. Invis (his name is actually “Griffin”) runs rings around the hapless cops and everybody else. The smartest “good guy” in the book suggests everybody in the country locking their food away to starve him out, sniffer dogs, powdered glass and whatnot when all they is to do some literal mud slinging. If he is coming to the house scatter lots of flour or sand all over the floor etc. The fact that nobody makes an effort to render him visible in some way seriously weakens the book for me; after all science fiction is all about exploration of ideas and possibilities, taking things to their logical conclusion*. The way the invisible man is finally dealt with is not very impressive.

The Invisible Man is one of Wells’ less epic works I think, but many of the negative GR reviews I have read seem to ignore the fact that Wells imagined the concept in 1897! It is easy to dismiss such a commonplace sci-fi /fantasy trope today but Wells pioneered it along with other sci-fi staples like alien invasion, time traveling and genetic engineering. He may not have invented all these concepts himself but he was (probably) the first to use them in fiction. Seriously, do not badmouth H.G. Wells.

How about themes, motifs and subtexts then eh? I have pondered long and hard and I conclude that summer is the best season for invisibility. So if you are going to go for an extreme transparency makeover do it in summer or you will catch your death! I am also concerned about Griffin’s invisible cat which remains at large. Actually one interesting theme is how adaptable the British public seems to be about “weird shit going down” such as the advent of an invisible man. They are all happy to lock up their food and find ways of depriving him of his sleep etc. Making him visible is probably not cricket.

In any case – despite its logical flaw – The Invisible Man is a lot of fun, definitely worth a read, and it won’t take up much of your time.

_________________________
Notes:
The original title of the book is “The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance”. Obviously the word “romance” here is not referring to holding hands and red roses, the older meaning of “a quality or feeling of mystery, excitement, and remoteness from everyday life.” seems to apply. As for “grotesque”, Griffin (Mr. Invis) would not seem grotesque by today’s standard, “badass” would probably be a more contemporary adjective.

* I am also a little uncomfortable with the idea of Griffin running about au naturale, penduluming outrageously. I think he should wear a little thong at least, surely most people won't notice a little thong floating about.

I listened to the free Librivox audiobook of The Invisible Man very nicely read by Ms. Cate Barratt. Thank you!

H.G. Wells’ classic science fiction story with elements of horror.

In my 2019 re-reading I also noted some humor that I did not pick up on when I read this thirty plus years ago. I recall the 1935 James Whale film Bride of Frankenstein had features of comedy and how the horror story was made better by some levity and so too does Wells story, a bit dated, improve with some laughs.

SPOILER ALERT! This is of course about an invisible man. The main character, Griffin, has figured out a way to become invisible, but cannot get back, much to his own consternation and that of the working-class English folks he torments.

Wells touches on the psychological fecundity of this story, about how, without the moral compass of oversight a person can descend into a self-centered and misanthropic sociopathy.

This is not just a classic, it is a masterpiece of science fiction, suspenseful, terrifying and spellbinding right to the end.

I thought this story could of been better. So when the guy invents invisibility it’s like bam! he’s invisible and immediately gets in a beef with the landlord who’s all are you a mad scientist what’s going on and so he gets mad and bags the guy and burns his apartment building down which is not cool and he end up in the street totally naked this is the guy not the landlord because he has no invisible clothes so if he wears clothes then he’s visible and there would be no point but all his clothes are burned up and it’s January. Oops, maybe he should have thought of that one. Also he’s in London England which is not anything like Redondo Beach where people do walk round practically naked because it’s so nice and sunny and nobody minds. So I thought it was not realistic that this guy did not die of hypercoldia which is when your body gets so cold it just dies. But he skips around London in the freezing weather and I guess it’s because it’s so cold that it never occurs to him that now he’s invisible he could go into girls bedrooms. This never happens in the book, although if I was invisible it would be like the second thing I would think of after I thought whoah dude I am so invisible, check it out. Also this is the main theme in High School Invisible 1 and High School Invisible 2 where the two invisible kids have a whole better plan.

This invisible guy gets the idea that he’s all powerful like a superhero now he’s invisible but it’s kind of funny because the only time he is invisible is when he’s totally naked which is probably when you are least feeling all powerful if you are walking down a street in a capital city and you can’t even carry a piece because they people would see it jaunting along in midair which would wreck the whole concept.

The way they do it with Sue Storm in the Fantastic Four is probably better although they probly could not have had Kate Mara naked all the time as it was a PG 13 rating.

So he gets this bad attitude and starts beating up on guys I guess because of frustration and being so cold so he gets chased a real lot, like they do in a lot of these type stories like The Gingerdead Man and Bikini Bloodbath 2 and It’s My party and I’ll Die if I Want To. They chase a lot in those movies, I have seen them.

The moral of this book is that it’s bad to be invisible. It will send you doo lally and will freeze your nuts off.

-Por mucho que sea invisible, no deja de ser un hombre forjado por sus circunstancias y alimentado por su personalidad.-

Género. Ciencia ficción.

Lo que nos cuenta. El libro El hombre invisible (publicación original: The Invisible Man, 1897), a un pueblo de la campiña inglesa llega un hombre de aspecto llamativo (guantes, sobrero, abrigo y ni un milímetro de piel descubierta) en busca de hospedaje. Los dueños de la posada piensan que es un científico (porque hace experimentos químicos en su habitación) que sufrió algún accidente (porque tiene la cara vendada). Después de una serie de robos en la localidad y de un incidente en la propia posada, se descubre la verdad: su huésped, el señor Griffin, es invisible.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

https://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com...

I remember I read this as a child. I guess it's time to read something else by this author.