The Invisible Bastard. (The Invisible Man - H.G. Wells)

Member Name: thegoldencat

Product:	The Invisible Man - H.G. Wells
Date:	28/11/08 (173 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: After reading it you can read other, more exciting books! Not by H.G Wells!

Disadvantages: Its just really slow and monotonous, and dry like Jacobs crackers.

Overview
The original tale of the invisible man: A mysterious long-coated spectre strides into a rural English village, an experiment that works all too well, low mutterings about the new stranger in town. Yes its dark, portentuous territory we're in as H.G. wells spins yet another cautionary yarn about the potential dangers of progressive science, as well as his customary delve, deep into the misty depths of the human psyche. Or, a little book about a man that makes himself invisible. And then goes mad.

Review
We've all seen films about The invisible man or some invisible man or another. At some point or another everyone has wondered what it would be like, such is the degree to which the idea of invisibility has burned itself indellibly into our culture, and it all came from this book. But did you know that the actual invisible man was a nasty, hate-ridden, miserable old git. No, this is a story that everyone is aware of, but few actually know. This is probably for the best.

An intruiging character to begin with, swaddled head-to-toe, a man walks into a rural English village, populated exclusively by Northern stereotypes...

He books a room at the inn. From the moment he arrives hes rude and abrasive towards everyone he meets. This was clearly a very mild-mannered time for much of his supposed ill decorum seems pretty insignificant today. He swears, but its just something like "go to the devil". Hardly shocking stuff is it. In the village of Iping it is though, and soon the whole village is talking about this man Griffin for his odd appearance and his anti-social attitude.

And who is this man? Why its the invisible man of course! And hes an arse!

Although clearly unpleasent, he makes for a compelling protaganist, a complicated beast, quite vivid compared to some of the two dimensional characters in Wells' other novels. His early improprieties are just amusing because the people around him are so very annoying. Later though, its not so much amusing, as horrifying.

Surely the world can't ever have been as rigid, as up-bloody-tight as it is in an HG wells novel. In War of the worlds, which I have also reviewed, a man is frightened of another because he's not wearing a hat and his collar is undone. (Frightened!) This effectively makes you a monster in Wells' world so you can only imagine then what the villagers make of Griffin.

H.G Wells is a realist. He looks at things very objectively. I will tell you now there is no magic in this world, only science. Here he explores the concept of invisibility as a terrible curse, as opposed to a means of making amusing mischief as it is more often portrayed. Invisibility is imagined with relentlessly grim realism. In Wells' world you can't just drink a magical potion or throw a cloak over your head. Its an intensve, rigorous process that finally ends, only when he succeeds in dyeing his corneas. These had been plainly visible, floating about in the air when seen in the mirror. Lovely.

Even when he becomes invisible its not all 'running around knocking peoples hats off' as he expects it will be. Its odd that this is his first thought. Perhaps this is actually a euphemism. Meaning 'perv-ing'.

Anyway he quickly realises that although his long years of exhausting experimentation are over, the fruits of this success are bitter ones. Very bitter indeed. Only his body is invisible so unless he wants to be a walking suit of clothes, he initially has to make his way bare-arsed and bare-footed accross all terrain. Even naturist ramblers wear shoes. He can't eat in plain view because people will see food floating in his stoumach. Lovely. In short every positive is far outweighed by many, many negatives.

I can't help but be slightly impressed by the way Wells has imparted such a fanciful idea as invisibilty onto a believable real world setting. He really makes the process sound concievable. That said, at the same time he also sucks out every last bit of fun from the idea of invisibility.

Imagine two children playing a game were they're being invisible or something. They're laughing, having a great time. Now imagine a stern old man coming up to them shaking his finger and and saying no, no, no, its not like that you see. Its rubbish.


That is this book. In a nutshell.


Now, the character Griffin is an angry man. A very angry man. Mainly because hes so unbelievably selish and expects everything to go his way all the time. But these traits gradually escalate until he goes from being an amusingly heartless bastard to being a very dangerous man indeed. The rest of the story focusses on Griffin's quest to rid himself of his curse and his willingness to do anything to achieve this goal, letting no one get in his way.

Griffin's descent into madness is for me the most interesting theme in an otherwise difficult read. Does he become mad? Driven to it by the solitude and the insufferable insularity forced on him by his condition. Or was he naturally predisposed towards evil, invisibility merely acting as a catalyst to drive him towards unspeakable acts he was already capable of. Are monsters born, or are they made? (Or are they just men not wearing hats?)

Well, to the verdict then. While this wasn't an especially fun read, its a recommended one. Simply because, well, its The invisible man. Its one of those landmark books you can say you've read. Thats not much of an endorsement but read it anyway or better still read someone elses like I did. Then throw it back at them and read something else. It'll seem amazing after this.

Summary: Worth a look, though more for its status than its actual quality.