book review the invisible man by hg wells

The Invisible Man

By h.g. wells.

'The Invisible Man' by H.G. Wells is about one man, his intelligence, and how he uses science as a means to his own ends, without regard for who he harms along the way. 

Article written by Emma Baldwin

B.A. in English, B.F.A. in Fine Art, and B.A. in Art Histories from East Carolina University.

The Invisible Man was H.G. Wells’ fourth novel. It was followed by the equally well-known (albeit for slightly different reasons) The War of the Worlds. The novel blends science, fantasy, and reality into what is considered to be one of the early masterpieces of science fiction novel writing. Without a doubt, the short novel is an exciting accomplishment, one that has entranced and entertained readers of all ages for over 100 years. 

But, there are some areas where it’s lacking. Most clearly in its few characters and limited setting. Rather than see Griffin’s invisibility play out, readers are left with memories of the past and a very limited timeline of events.  

Characterization and Setting

Throughout the novel, Wells’ narrator does not shy away from mentioning how brilliant Griffin, the Invisible Man is. He’s the smartest physicist of his age, Wells writes at the end of the book, something that went to waste when mixed with Griffin’s narcissism and self-destructive actions. He is a multi-dimensional character in what I’ve always found to be a two-dimensional world. 

Unlike depictions of the “Invisible Man” in film and television, in H.G. Wells’ original novella, Griffin is an ill-intentioned person from the start. His invisibility and loneliness do not bring out his worst qualities. In fact, these qualities are his defining features prior to his accomplishing the impossible. Once invisible, Griffin’s personality gets worse. His loneliness exacerbates his lack of empathy.

The Invisible Man is a short novel that spends the majority of its time discussing Griffin’s eccentricities, actions, and the reactions of the townspeople (although it can also be argued that more time should be spent on Griffin, his past, his family, and how he came to be the person he is today). 

Everyone in the novel is relevant only because of their connection to Griffin. It’s his actions that drive how much one finds out about the minor characters, such as Mr. and Mrs. Hall, who own the inn Griffin stays at initially. 

Iping is a real place, and while Wells does mention a vast array of men and women in the novel, the only ones to whom he dedicates any amount of detail are Griffin and, secondarily, Thomas Marvel and Dr. Kemp. Some readers may think that a broader world of characters and places would take this novel to the next level, showing readers what it would be like to see Griffin operating as the invisible man on a larger scale and with more diverse characters. 

The Novel’s Ending 

The novel ends in what I find to be a rather predictable way. Rather than all his plans coming to fruition, or even part of them, Griffin meets a gruesome end, beaten to death by the villagers of Iping. While it’s unusual for novels to kill off the main characters, the fact that Griffin was such a clear antagonist makes his death feel like the obvious ending for the novel. 

There is a moment at the end of the novel that’s worth mentioning, which is the narrator’s description of Griffin after death. H.G. Wells wrote: 

And there it was, on a shabby bed in a tawdry, ill-lighted bedroom, surrounded by a crowd of ignorant and excited people, broken and wounded, betrayed and unpitied, that Griffin, the first of all men to make himself invisible, Griffin, the most gifted physicist the world has ever seen, ended in infinite disaster his strange and terrible career.

There is an amount of pity, or at least disappointment, in these lines that suggest the narrator feels readers should understand Griffin’s death as a waste. He was incredibly talented and could’ve put those talents to use in a better manner, but he didn’t.

Although short and less impactful than the end of the final chapter, there is an epilogue to discuss. In this section of the novella, Thomas Marvel is described as going every night to the three notebooks he stole from Griffin and seeking out the secrets that Griffin used to make himself invisible. The books are  “Full of secrets,” he says. “Wonderful secrets!”

The final line of the novel does indicate that there could be more to come in the future from Griffin’s secrets. Wells wrote, “And none other will know of them until [Marvel] dies.” Perhaps, the notebooks will come into more competent hands in the future, and another story similar to Griffin’s will unfold. Readers are left feeling uncertain about the necessity or wisdom of hanging onto a scientific discovery like that which Griffin made. It may be for the greater good to get rid of such knowledge, as men like Griffin are only going to use it to nefarious ends. 

Scientific Advancement and Its Dangers 

This gets at one of the most important themes of the novel, the dangers of scientific advancement. Wells asks readers to consider how dangerous jumping before one looks into scientific achievements can be. 

In an age when technology is becoming more and more prevalent, The Invisible Man is a clever, entertaining reminder that new advancements aren’t necessarily going to make the world a better place. This is seen to no greater degree than in contrast between science and wealth-consumed Griffin and the simple villagers who live without the benefits of technological advancement. They form a strong community full of supportive and kind people, attributes that Griffin (as a symbol of technological advancement) lacks. 

The Invisible Man Review: H.G. Wells Early Masterpiece

Book Title: The Invisible Man

Book Description: The Invisible Man is a science fiction novella that answers the question of what would happen if someone with terrible intentions achieved an incredible, belief-defying power.

Book Author: H.G. Wells

Book Edition: First Edition

Book Format: Hardcover

Publisher - Organization: George Allen & Sons

Date published: April 18, 1897

ISBN: 978-0140437094

Number Of Pages: 317

• Writing Style
• Lasting Effect on Reader

The Invisible Man Review

The Invisible Man  is one of H.G. Wells’ first novels. It’s been adapted into numerous television shows and films, with literary and film allusions scattered throughout modern literature. The book asks readers to suspend their disbelief and accept that one man achieved the impossible–he turned himself invisible. Rather than using his new-found power to make the world a better place, he sought out invisibility, and used it, in order to create chaos and benefit himself.

• Creative plot
• Griffin is an interesting character
• Still relevant today
• Characters are limited
• Setting barely changes
• The ending is expected

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About Emma Baldwin

Emma Baldwin, a graduate of East Carolina University, has a deep-rooted passion for literature. She serves as a key contributor to the Book Analysis team with years of experience.

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• Book Reviews

The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells – Book Review

Published 31/05/2017 · Updated 17/05/2022

The Invisible Man

Author – H.G. Wells Publisher – Alma Classics Pages – 192 Release Date – 23rd February 2017 ISBN-13 – 978-1847496294 Format – paperback Reviewer – Clive I received a free copy of this book Post Contains Affiliate Links

The mysterious Griffin arrives at a picturesque English inn during a snowstorm, swaddled in bandages which cover his face and with his eyes hidden behind dark glasses.

His odd get-up and irascible behaviour intrigue the locals, who believe him to be the victim of an accident. However, the true reason for Griffin’s outfit is far stranger: underneath those clothes, he is completely invisible. As the cause of Griffin’s state of transparency is revealed, his nefarious and destructive intentions become clear.

One of the foundational texts of science fiction, The Invisible Man has inspired numerous film and TV adaptations and remains chilling in its depiction of scientific experimentation gone wrong.

I have always been aware of the stories of H.G. Wells but my interest in him was really sparked when I read David Lodge’s biography, ‘A Man of Parts’, a couple of years ago. H.G. certainly lived a colourful life!

Here Alma Classics have republished one of his earliest books and I found it very enjoyable. The science has some grounding but I got lost on the explanation as to how the invisibility was actually achieved.

The story relies heavily on the lead character’s condition which leads to some excellent knock-about comedy, described extremely well. As with all good tales there is an underlying moral which in this case is the ancient message of be careful what you wish for.

For the aficionados this is not necessarily the original 1897 text. It is the 1924 Atlantic Edition updated for spelling and punctuation; not that I would have known any difference. Also, although the book is 192 pages long the actual story is just 175 pages with the remainder being Alma’s usual notes, a short biography and a bibliography.

There is no doubt that H.G. Wells has a great descriptive style. Although the words are familiar the language can be different with a turn of phrase that often excited me. My favourite example was the sentence that ended: “… and then woke up with a curious persuasion of something wrong.” Wonderful.

Given the brevity of the book and Alma’s modest prices what excuse can there be for not reading this classic, you will not be disappointed. The Invisible Man is well worth four stars.

Book Reviewed by Clive

Purchase links.

Herbert George Wells was born in Bromley, Kent, England, on September 21, 1866. His father was a professional cricketer and sometime shopkeeper, his mother a former lady’s maid. Although “Bertie” left school at fourteen to become a draper’s apprentice (a life he detested), he later won a scholarship to the Normal School of Science in London, where he studied with the famous Thomas Henry Huxley. He began to sell articles and short stories regularly in 1893.

In 1895, his immediately successful novel rescued him from a life of penury on a schoolteacher’s salary. His other “scientific romances” – The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), The First Men in the Moon (1901), and The War in the Air (1908) – won him distinction as the father of science fiction.

Henry James saw in Wells the most gifted writer of the age, but Wells, having coined the phrase “the war that will end war” to describe World War I, became increasingly disillusioned and focused his attention on educating mankind with his bestselling Outline of History (1920) and his later utopian works. Living until 1946, Wells witnessed a world more terrible than any of his imaginative visions, and he bitterly observed: “Reality has taken a leaf from my book and set itself to supercede me.”

Tags: Alma Books Amazon Author Book Book Blog Book Blogger Book Review Book Reviewer Classic Clive ebook Fiction Four Stars H.G Wells Kindle Paperback Review

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Movie Reviews

'the invisible man': when danger is present — and clear.

Scott Tobias

Celia (Elisabeth Moss) can't see ya, in The Invisible Man . Universal Pictures hide caption

Celia (Elisabeth Moss) can't see ya, in The Invisible Man .

Of the Universal classic monsters — Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, et al. — The Invisible Man is by far the most destructive, the most psychotic, and, not coincidentally, the most recognizably human of them all. (As played by Claude Rains, he's also the wittiest.) When a man doesn't have to look at himself in the mirror, he divorces himself from the moral accountability that curbs his worst instincts. Arrogance and contempt are his defining character traits, and invisibility has the effect of weaponizing them, because his scientific genius has both isolated him from other people and heightened his superiority complex.

With his ingenious updating of The Invisible Man , writer-director Leigh Whannell changes perspective from the mad scientist to the terrified victim he's stalking, which effectively turns the film into Gaslight with a horror twist. And with an actress of Elisabeth Moss' caliber in the lead role, the film has a psychological realism that's unusual for the genre, with Moss playing a woman who's withstanding a form of domestic abuse that may have a supernatural component, but feels sickeningly familiar in many respects. Invisibility has the effect of elevating a person's worst instincts, so it follows that the manipulation and torment she experiences is just a more extreme version of common behaviors.

The brilliant opening sequence underlines this theme by removing all science fiction from the equation. In the middle of the night, Cecelia (Moss) slips away from the bed she shares with her scientist husband Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) and carries out a plan to leave him for good. There are obstacles to the plan, like the lonely cliffside location of their house and the high-tech security he's installed as much to keep her in as to keep intruders out. But at this point in the film, Adrian is still a visible menace and Cecelia has to dash out into the night to escape him, as if this was an ordinary case of domestic battery.

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In 'her smell,' elisabeth moss 'turned it up to 11,' then turned it up some more.

Except it's not remotely ordinary. Cecelia has her sister Emily (Harriet Dyer) drop her off at the house of an old friend, James (Aldis Hodge), a well-built policeman who offers her protection and allows her to bunk with his daughter (Storm Reid). Cecelia can hardly bring herself to leave the house until she gets word from Emily that Adrian has committed suicide and that she's due for a multi-million dollar payoff from his brother (Michael Dorman), a lawyer who's managing his sizable estate. Yet she cannot shake the feeling that Adrian is still present, due to a series of events that are minor at first—a grease fire in the kitchen, a misplaced set of plans—but soon turn violent. And it always looks like she's responsible: Who else could have done these awful things?

Whannell came to Hollywood as a writer partner to director James Wan, a fellow Australian, and the two hit it big with the original Saw movie, Dead Silence , and the Insidious franchise, but as Wan graduated to big-budget affairs like The Conjuring , Furious 7 , and Aquaman , Whannel has stayed in the genre trenches. The third Insidious film was his directorial debut, but he made a huge leap with Upgrade , a gripping low-budget thriller that suggested David Cronenberg, The Matrix , Ozploitation, and Hong Kong action cinema all rolled into one. The Invisible Man has the same pulp qualities of his other work, but with a more sophisticated deployment of effects, with a lot of patient scene-building and an active, insinuating camera.

As Cecelia gets pushed to the brink of madness — as much by not be believed as being stalked — Whannell gives the suspense set pieces plenty of room to breathe and take on a paranoid flavor. Moss and the camera are co-conspirators in horror: She imagines Adrian watching her silently from some empty corner of a room and the camera seems to affirm her worst fears, suggesting a presence through odd angles and pans across the space. Where another actor might look foolish swatting and wrestling thin air, Moss sells it as part of the overall choreography between an immensely powerful, destructive husband and a wife struggling to leverage control over a desperate situation.

Whannell hasn't sorted through some of the stickier elements of the plot — the film substitutes horror logic for logic-logic — and The Invisible Man can occasionally feel like a dressed-up version of '90s domestic violence thrillers like Sleeping with the Enemy or Unlawful Entry . Yet with Universal trying and failure to revivify the monsters in its vault with stinkers like The Mummy and Dracula Untold , Whannell has succeeded by deemphasizing blockbuster effects and engaging with an old monster in a new way. He's created an invisible man for 2020 while still embracing the foundational terrors of 1933.

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Book Review

The invisible man.

• Science Fiction

• Barnes and Noble Classics, a trademark of Barnes and Nobel Inc.; republished in 2003 in The Time Machine and The Invisible Man

Year Published

The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine .

Plot Summary

The story opens in the town of Iping in pre-industrial England. A stranger covered in bandages and wearing blue goggles rents a room at a pub owned by George and Janny Hall. He tells Mrs. Hall that he is an experimental investigator. The stranger has a great deal of luggage, including numerous bottles of potions. He keeps mainly to himself, sometime loudly expressing anger and frustration as he works. Mrs. Hall has witnessed some odd sights, but she says nothing because they need his rent money.

One evening, the town vicar and his wife are robbed. They can’t see anyone, but they hear coughing and see items moving. Suspicions begin to mount against the stranger, and the police arrive at the Halls’ pub. As officers prepare to arrest the stranger on suspicion of burglary, he wiggles out of his clothes and escapes, completely invisible.

As he flees, he sees a man named Marvel on the road. The Invisible Man enlists Marvel to help him get clothing and necessities. His threats keep Marvel at his disposal for a time. He steals money and hands it off to Marvel. He also has Marvel keep several books in which he has recorded his experiments.

When Marvel gets a chance, he breaks away from the Invisible Man. Marvel has the police lock him up so the Invisible Man can’t reach him. The Invisible Man pursues Marvel until he comes upon the house of an old college acquaintance named Kemp.

The Invisible Man, who now reveals his name is Griffin, tells Kemp about his exploits in elaborate detail. He explains his research involving light that led to his discovery of the potential for invisibility. He was too poor to conduct his experiments, so he stole from his father. The money apparently belonged to someone else, so Griffin’s father committed suicide.

After testing his invisibility formula on a cat, Griffin took the potion himself to become invisible. It was a painful but effective process. Griffin was initially elated by the possibilities invisibility held for him. He quickly realized there were many downsides. He was forced from his home and had to wander naked or else be discovered.

Undigested food would show in his invisible stomach, thereby giving away his presence. At times, people saw him making footprints and tried to chase him. If he was carrying anything in his hands or on his body, those items could be seen. Griffin finally snuck into a shop and made himself a crude costume that allowed him to go out in public. After that, he began to rent a room from the Halls.

When the people of Iping discovered his secret, he was on the run once again. As Kemp listens, he is struck by Griffin’s madness and selfishness. The Invisible Man seems thoroughly unconcerned about the people he hurts. Griffin further explains that he plans to frighten and dominate the people of Kemp’s town, Port Burdock. He invites Kemp to join him in his efforts.

Griffin doesn’t know that Kemp has alerted the police. When they arrive, Griffin escapes and begins his reign of terror. He leaves Kemp a note, threatening him and the city. He attacks several, including the police chief, before he comes after Kemp. Kemp and some of the other townspeople catch and kill Griffin. As he dies, Griffin becomes visible once again.

The epilogue reveals that Marvel kept all of Griffin’s stolen money. He owns an inn, where he sometimes tells his stories about Griffin if he’s had enough to drink. He secretly kept Griffin’s journals and sometimes reads through the Invisible Man’s records of his experiments. He vows no one else will ever know about them until he dies.

Christian Beliefs

Mrs. Hall notes that Griffin doesn’t go to church. One townsperson, who fancies himself a theologian, compares Griffin to the biblical one-talent man.

Other Belief Systems

Authority roles.

Police officers try to capture and subdue Griffin on several occasions. He eludes or injures them.

Profanity & Violence

The Lord’s name is used in vain a number of times, as are the words d–n and a– . The n-word also appears once, but a footnote says the term probably refers to an Indian coolie or anyone working under harsh conditions. Griffin brutally injures and kills, and blood is sometimes shed.

Sexual Content

Discussion topics.

Get free discussion questions for this book and others, at FocusOnTheFamily.com/discuss-books .

Additional Comments

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Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.

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