H.G.Wells

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books The Time Machine is the great, gleeful anarchist novel of the 1890s. It is both a thrilling adventure story and a satire on religion, evolution and human hopes. With this book, Wells invented an entirely new genre and did it better than any of his imitators. An immediate bestseller, it has delighted and unnerved generations of readers, and will no doubt keep on doing so until some of the events predicted in the book make readers extinct.

Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality, colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. From the planet of war they came to conquer the Earth ... The night after a shooting star is seen streaking across the sky, a cylinder is discovered on Horsell Common. Fascinated and exhilarated, the local people approach the mysterious object armed with nothing more than a white flag. But when gruesome alien creatures emerge armed with all-destroying heat-rays, their rashness turns rapidly to fear. As the rays blaze towards them, it soon becomes clear they have no choice but to flee - or die. The forces of the Earth, however, may prove harder to beat than they at first appear ...

Predstavte si, že existuje planéta, kdesi ďaleko za Síriusom , ktorá je identickou kópiou Zeme s rovnakou geografiou, kde všetci obyvatelia Zeme existujú duplicitne, avšak disponujú inými tradíciami, znalosťami, oblečením, spotrebičmi a podobne. Na takejto planéte žije naša lepšia. dokonalejšia kópia. Poriadok dobrovoľného šľachtického rádu tzv. samurajov ako vláda Svetového štátu, ktorá je dynamická, nestatická, s cieľom vyriešiť otázky pokroku a politickej stability – taká je v stručnosti Moderná Utópia (1905) viktoriánskeho sci-fi vizionára H.G.Wellsa, autora dnes už legendárnych ( a neraz aj mimoriadne úspešne sfilmovaných) diel ako Stroj času (1895), Ostrov doktora Moreaua (1986), Neviditeľný muž (1897) či Vojna svetov (1898). Autor- futurista, Shakespeare sci-fi žánru, vizionársky predvídal celý rad vynálezov, napr. nástup lietadiel a tankov, cestovanie do vesmíru, jadrové zbrane, satelitné televízie, náznak webovej siete, laser, stroj času, neviditeľnosť, biologické inžinierstvo – vivisekciu, mimozemskú inváziu – teda motívy, ktoré sa neskôr stali súčasťou žánru sci-fi knihách a filmoch, ale mnohé aj súčasťou reality. Predpovedal sexuálnu revolúciu, svetovú vojnu aj nebezpečenstvo rasových teórií. Možno ho zaradiť medzi najväčších sci-fi vizionárov a utopistov. Projektoval utópie aj dystópie, ukázal tak nádeje, ako aj sklamania, ktoré priniesli a môžu priniesť technológie. Poučí sa ľudstvo z Welsových varovaní?

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. Welcome to Utopia. When Mr. Barnstaple, an Earthling, is accidentally transported to Utopia with a group of others, he begins an adventure that will change how he views the world forever. Utopia has no government. Utopia has no religion. People are governed only by their own conscience and desires, and Barnstaple is drawn into what he sees as a perfect society. But when a disease brought by the Earthlings threatens the existence of the Utopians, Barnstaple must make a choice: take over Utopia, or betray his own people to save a world he has grown to admire...

Muž, jenž přišel o své tělo, svérázný lovec pokladů hrající si na boha, duch, který se sám bojí, nebo hrůzostrašné údolí pavouků. I v povídkách z pozdějšího období Herbert George Wells ukazuje, že zdaleka není jen autorem science fiction, ale brilantně ovládá i jiné žánry. Kratší příběhy jsou doplněny dvěma rozsáhlejšími novelami, „Příběhem doby kamenné“ z dávného pravěku a „Příběhem dnů příštích“ z daleké budoucnosti.

The Invisible Man (1897) blends comedy and tragedy in its story of a scientist who discovers a way to make himself invisible. His inability to reverse the process leads to a radical disconnection from society--and eventually from his own sanity. Arriving in a town where no one knows him, disguised in bandages and dark glasses, the invisible man is driven to violent and criminal extremes before his secret is revealed. This prescient parable of the dark side of scientific progress demonstrates H. G. Wells's signature gift for dramatizing humanity's grandest possibilities and darkest fears.

The seminal masterpiece of alien invasion, The War of the Worlds (1898) conjures a terrifying, tentacled race of Martians who devastate the Earth and feed on their human victims while their voracious vegetation, the red weed, spreads over the ruined planet. After the novel's hero finds himself trapped in what is left of London, despairing at the destruction of human civilization, he discovers that life on Earth is more resilient than he had imagined. Adapted by Orson Welles for his notorious 1938 radio drama and subsequently by many filmmakers, H. G. Wells's timeless story shows no sign of losing its grip on readers' imaginations.

Anglický spisovatel Herbert George Wells proslul zejména svými sci-fi romány Válka světů nebo Stroj času, neméně bohatá je ovšem i jeho povídková tvorba. I v ní hrají fantastické motivy významnou roli – například v příbězích o létajícím stroji či tajemné observatoři –, ale Wellsovi nejsou cizí ani povídky s prvky tajemna, dobrodružství a humoru. Vynálezci zázraků jsou prvním z plánovaných tří svazků Wellsových sebraných povídek.

They say that terror is a disease...A shipwrecked man finds himself, after various twists of Fate, on a lonely tropical island. From a locked enclosure the cries of animals in pain can be heard, and there is a stink of chemicals in the air. Bestial faces stare out of the forests and grotesque, misshaped creatures move in the gloom. In this island paradise, the horrific experiments of the infamous Doctor Moreau will reach their inevitable conclusion.

In the Time Traveller's miraculous new machine, we will be carried from a Victorian dinner table to 802,701 AD, when the Earth is divided between the gentle, ineffective Eloi, and the ape-like Morlocks; forward again by a million years or so to glimpse a dying world of blood-red beaches and menacing shapes; and on again to the last days of our planet, a remote twilight where nothing moves but darkness and a cold wind. Brilliantly imaginative fiction or the shape of things to come? H.G. Wells' masterpiece still retains its power to provoke and enthral.

o one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied. Yet across the gulf of space, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. Then, late one night, in the middle of the English countryside, they landed.

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. "For a time I believed that mankind had been swept out of existence, and that I stood there alone, the last man left alive." When a strange, meteor-like object lands in the heart of England, the inhabitants of Earth find themselves victims of a terrible attack. A ruthless race of Martians, armed with heat rays and poisonous smoke, is intent on destroying everything that stands in its way. As the unnamed hero struggles to find his way across decimated wastelands, the fate of the planet hangs in the balance . . . H. G. Wells was a pioneer of modern science fiction. First serialised in the UK in 1897, The War of the Worlds is one of the earliest stories to depict conflict with an extraterrestrial race, and has influenced countless adaptations and sequels.

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics."In a moment I was clutched by several hands, and there was no mistaking that they were trying to haul me back . . . You can scarce imagine how nauseatingly inhuman they looked - those pale chinless faces and great, lidless, pinkish-grey eyes!"An English scientist regales his dinner guests with the tale of his travels to the year 802,701, where he discovers that the human race has evolved into two distinct societies. The Eloi, elegant and peaceful, yet lacking spirit, are terrorised by the sinister, light-fearing Morlocks, who live underground, surrounded by industry. And when his time machine mysteriously vanishes, the scientist must descend to the realm of the Morlocks in order to find his only hope of escape . . .H. G. Wells is considered a founding father of modern science fiction, coining the term `time machine' and popularising the idea of time travel in literature.

He was the first to popularize the concept of time travel. He disturbed--and fascinated–us with a frightening doctor’s island. He wrote of an invisible man, of men on the moon, and of a war of the worlds. He has influenced countless other writers, artists, and even scientists. H. G. Wells is one of the most acclaimed science fiction writers who ever lived, and five of his classic tales are collected in this book for readers to treasure. H. G. Wells includes The Time Machine, The Island of Dr Moreau, The Invisble Man, The War of the Worlds, The First Men in the Moon, and The Food of the Gods. Readers new to this remarkable author will delight in these amazing stories, while fans of Wells will enjoy the insightful introduction by an expert on the author’s life and work. All will appreciate the leather cover, gilded edges, printed endpapers, ribbon bookmark, and other features on this unique gift book. No library is complete without the works of H. G. Wells, the father of science fiction!