Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

This is our SPOILER thread for our October 2014 Old School Read of The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells.

Do not read this thread if you want to avoid spoilers!

Happy reading! :-)

Hmmm. I just finished this book, and I could only give it two stars. I found the first half of the book to be pretty boring, frankly, and I considered not finishing it. But I was listening to it on audiobook, and it's not very long anyway, so I decided to play it at 2x normal speed and power through it!

I am glad I finished it, because the second half became more interesting than the first. In the first half, there didn't seem to be any characters I cared about at all, and none of the mystery of the stranger at the inn was very mysterious given that the title of the book basically explains everything that the other residents of the inn found so perplexing.

I thought it got better though when Griffin arrived at Kemp's house and explained the history of what had happened and how he became invisible. It was pretty horrible to realize what a cold and callous person he was, with absolutely no thought for anyone but himself, and how he justified any action on the basis that he found it necessary for himself and the idea of considering the consequences to others was ridiculous in his mind. This conversation was also where I could see a little of Wells' humor injected into this story. As the story progressed it became clear that Griffin was murderously insane, but as a villain he never felt particularly scary to me. The fact that he was invisible presented some obstacles in arresting him, but ultimately the townspeople didn't seem to have too much difficulty in killing him.

All in all, I'm glad I read it, but it's not one I'd recommend, and I definitely enjoyed The War of the Worlds a lot more!

I felt pretty much the same as Christine. I was first drawn into the story at his meeting with Kemp, but was soon disengaged again because of too much action and too little substance. It's an okay sci-fi/action book and not much more. The protagonist is a self-centered, short-tempered man whose supposed genius I couldn't find in either his words or actions. I didn't get the feeling that power (if we can call it that) of being invisible corrupted him as he was the same sort of person even before conducting the experiment on himself. His motivation for what he was doing also lacked much in ways of elaboration and remained questionable throughout the book.
His death didn't touch me nor did I cheer for it. It was a 'meh' moment for me.
The ending (the ex-hobo owning an Invisible-man-themed pub and secretly studying his three volumes) has a lot of cliché about it, although for the year 1897 I'm not sure if it was a cliché or merely a predecessor of it.

I'm not thrilled and I give this book a generous three stars. I prefer books with more substance to them; action I can get from most Hollywood's movies.

Kristina wrote: "...action I can get from most Hollywood's movies"

The closing sequence where Griffin is chasing Kemp and is finally killed really did feel like a dull action sequence in a film.

I think this book would've been much more interesting if Griffin had been written as a more normal human being (meaning subject to the bounds of morality and conscience as most of us are) and if it had been told from his point of view. I would be very interested to read about his moral struggles and motivations in becoming invisible in the first place, and then in dealing with the inevitable difficulties afterward. Of course, then it wouldn't really be a horror story anymore which seems to be what the author was aiming for. He doesn't really work as a straight villain - he just comes off as a jerk.

Hahah, I agree! Griffin was just a total jerk and, with no inner conflict or anything, he was a boring flat pointless jerk at that! I don't know how many times I was like "lol WTF is your problem, Grif??"

I got a little of the "power corrupts" feeling when reading how Griffin deteriorated toward insanity. Violence became easier as his righteous attitude grew. Surely this must have been aided and accelerated by the invisibility. We know he was self-centered when we learned how he stole the money to finance his experiments from his father. We also experience his remorselessness and his lack guilt over his father suicide, committed because the money stolen was not his fathers but was his responsibility to keep safe.

So I'm wondering was Griffin insane before he became invisible? Or was his bubble already a little off plumb before the invisibility and becoming invisible send him over the edge?

For the record I also gave this 3 stars, mostly because it was redeemed in the second half and after all it was written by Wells.

I agree that Griffin was a jerk and that power in the protagonist's case, added to his corruption.

I think that since he did not intend (from the beginning) to share his findings with the scientific community, he had intentions to use the "advantage" in ways that would be frowned upon by his (ethical) peers and society.

Sadly, I couldn't scrounge up more than 1 star for this one. I didn't like it and I couldn't pretend to myself that I liked it more on the basis of it being by H.G. Wells especially since I've read other works by his which I actually really enjoyed (Island of Dr Moreau being a favourite).
Sorry, Wellsy :')

Nicole I see your point. If this had been my first H.G. Wells read there may have never been another. The War of the Worlds and especially The Time Machine are so much better its hard the believe they were written by the same man.

Personally I think this story is more a look into abnormal psychology that a science fiction about invisibility. Wells starts with a man who seems to have abnormal tendencies and we watch him slowly recede from reality in his own world of right and wrong.

I don't think he did as good a job of showing Griffin losing touch with reality as Charlotte Gilman did in the The Yellow Wallpaper, but it is a worthy effort.

Bob wrote: "Personally I think this story is more a look into abnormal psychology that a science fiction about invisibility. Wells starts with a man who seems to have abnormal tendencies and we watch him slowly recede from reality in his own world of right and wrong. "

I agree. I think Griffin could definitely have been diagnosed with some type of personality disorder far before he became invisible.

Oh YES!! I've read The Yellow Wallpaper recently and I thought it was a brilliant portrayal of someone losing touch with reality. It happens to gradually but also rather quickly.

Well, I found the bit where Griffin talks to his friend about how he made himself invisible and the experiments with the cat all very interesting... But now that I think about it, I suppose none of Wells' characters are never necessarily that complex? But the situations he puts them in are always very interesting and bring out interesting things for them to react to! But this was...different and I guess it's because his main character was completely indifferent to his weird situation and there's only so much "oh! he's an invisible man!" "an invisible man!?" "An INVISIBLE! MAN!" you can take from other characters to fill in for satisfying responses to the phenomenon.

Actually, no. He wasn't indifferent. He was angry. "Irascible" I think is the word someone uses to describe him at one point and I thought to myself "Yeah! 'Invisible Man'? More like 'Irascible' Man!" haha

Nicole wrote: "Actually, no. He wasn't indifferent. He was angry. "Irascible" I think is the word someone uses to describe him at one point and I thought to myself "Yeah! 'Invisible Man'? More like 'Irascible' Ma..."

Nicole wrote: "Oh YES!! I've read The Yellow Wallpaper recently and I thought it was a brilliant portrayal of someone losing touch with reality. It happens to gradually but also rather quickly.

Well, I found the..."

Haha, your comments made me laugh, Nicole! I agree that the "an invisible man!" scenarios got a bit repetitive. You'd think there might be a bit more complexity in the situation than that.

Also, I really have to read The Yellow Wallpaper soon. I think I have a copy on my Kindle, and it seems to have great recommendations!

Here's a spoiler for ya...The Invisible Man (H.G. Wells) is not the same as Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison). I accidentally read the former, when I was supposed to be reading the latter (per my personal quest). When I was done, I was a little confused by The Invisible Man was rated so high on my all time greatest novels list...and then I discovered it wasn't *sigh* Anyway, I didn't like The Invisible Man much. I can highly recommend Invisible Man though.

Joseph, I've been curious about Ralph Ellison's version for a while now. All the way through the nominations/voting process I kept getting excited when I saw the Invisible Man was winning, and I kept having to remind myself that it was the The Invisible Man I'd already read and not the Invisible Man I want to read. Sigh.

Renato, is there any chance you could fill out the "this book is about" slot for these threads so it will automatically link to people's ratings/reviews? (Not that I wrote a review for this book since it was pre-Goodreads, but I'm nosy!)

Melanti wrote: "Joseph, I've been curious about Ralph Ellison's version for a while now. All the way through the nominations/voting process I kept getting excited when I saw the Invisible Man was winning, and I k..."

First, I apologize for highjacking this thread a bit, and I promise I'm done after this.

So Melanti, you are welcome to peruse my review of Ellison's Invisible Man
http://100greatestnovelsofalltimeques...

I was also disappointed that the Invisible Man was a one-dimensional jerk. However, I enjoyed the book.

I did think it was funny when he was killed and started to reappear, a man said "Cover his face!" "For Gawd's sake, cover that face!" I figured he would have yelled "For Gawd's sake, cover the private parts!"

@David

That was funny that they were more concerned about covering his face.

I seem to agree with most of the comments above. This was my first book by HG Wells and though I liked the idea and found the second half picked up, it wasn't so great overall. I will be trying some of his other books in the future.

David, that thought did cross my mind as well :)

I agree with you Tracy, that this book did not live up to its potential.

I thought that the part of the book where Kemp was introduced and everything that followed was the most interesting part of the book. The rest of the book (for me) was uneventful.

It's interesting how we all think alike. It seems that this book is pretty hyped.

I hope it's not too late, read this last month as my first groupread ever, but then got the flu and just completely forgot that I had a question to ask about the book lol!

Does anyone know what the beginning of Chapter 3 means? I couldn't find the meaning of it anywhere, not on google, my idioms dictionary or any ordinary dictionary, so maybe someone with English as their first language knows what it means? :)

"Thus 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 Vilage."

It's the part of the quote that's in bold, I really don't get. Anyone able to help? :)

Just from that sentence, I'd assume infinity is referring to the infinite sky.

From the passage as written, I think that the author was trying to say that some one turned up in that village seeming by chance or at random.

I think you're probably right Andrea. And Melanti, that's the only thing I could think of as well, but since there's no falling down from the sky in the story I figured a different meaning probably applied. The explanation of it meaning 'seeming by chance or at random' do seem like the most likely explanation given the story. Thank you both for taking the time to answer :)

Aleta wrote: "I hope it's not too late, read this last month as my first groupread ever, but then got the flu and just completely forgot that I had a question to ask about the book lol!

Does anyone know what the beginning of Chapter 3 means? I couldn't find the meaning of it anywhere, not on google, my idioms dictionary or any ordinary dictionary, so maybe someone with English as their first language knows what it means? :)

"Thus 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 Vilage.""

I thought that was a very interesting quote, too ... because I interpreted it in the context of the quantum electron field, where electrons are paired, and pop in and out of existence ... but wherever they show up or delete themselves from existence, whether electrons change "spin" or not, their paired partner does, as well.

Only that couldn't have been what H.G. Wells meant - because he wrote this a good half century before theoretical physics took on this problem! Still, Wells has been called a Prophet before ... maybe he was just anticipating yet another scientific anomaly, where particles (or people, in this case), show up or disappear in identifiable reality.

I had a different experience with the book ... I was prepared to hate it, because science fiction never flips my bangs. The book surprised me, and I got a lot of pleasure out of it - more than I thought I would. Very thoughtful writer, Wells ... I especially loved his small-town characterizations.

Bang on target.

David wrote: " "Cover his face!" "For Gawd's sake, cover that face!"..."

I have been thinking about why it was important to the crowd that Griffin's face be covered. I think that at the time the crowd chased down and beat Griffin to death they were acting out of a fear of the unknown. They were chasing a threat, a monster. Only after Griffin's death and his body began to reappear did the crowd see that it was indeed a man they had just brutally killed. I think once the crowd saw the bruised, bloody, and broken body, guilt set in, thus the request to cover the face.

That's quite an interesting interpretation, Jasper! One of the best things about literature is that there are rarely black and white right/wrong answers. People read differently based on their experiences, education, upbringing, hobbies, what tv shows they watch etc. Everything influence how you read and thus no reading experience will ever be the same.

I'm a huge fan of sci-fi (both books and movie/tv), among other things because I constantly find myself amazed at the insights into human nature and the predictions of technology and societal changes. For instance, Jules Verne predicted submarines, Ray Bradbury foresaw iPods and a show like Star Trek showed women working on a "state" ship's crew about 10 years prior to the court ruling that made that possible in the navy.
I was pretty 50-50 on this particular book though. It's actually my second Wells and not quite sure I wouldn't like the novels to be more polished. But I agree, it's definitely worth the read.