The Falling Star

The War of the Worlds (Version 3)

by H. G. WELLS (1866 - 1946)

No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that the Earth was being scrutinised and studied from across the gulf of space. With infinite complacency, humanity went about its little affairs, serene in its assurance of its empire over matter. It is possible that the micro-organisms we watch under a microscope, do the same. Few people gave thought to the idea of life on other planets, and none imagined that it could be so vastly superior in intellect to ourselves. No one considered the possibility of extra-terrestrial danger. Yet the eyes that regarded our planet were envious and unsympathetic, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. (Cori Samuel, adapted from Chapter One.)

Listen next episodes of The War of the Worlds (Version 3):
At the Window , Dead London , Friday Night , How I Fell In with the Curate , How I Reached Home , In London , In the Storm , On Horsell Common , The Cylinder Opens , The Days of Imprisonment , The Death of the Curate , The Epilogue , The Exodus from London , The Fighting Begins , The Heat-ray , The Heat-ray in the Chobham Road , The Man on Putney Hill , The Stillness , The 'Thunder Child' , The Work of Fifteen Days , Under Foot , What Had Happened in Surrey , What I Saw of the Destruction of Weybridge and Shepperton , What We Saw from the Ruined House , Wreckage