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Why The Railway Children by E. Nesbit Matters Today

Though The Railway Children is a children’s book, it’s a perfect demonstration of why a safety net is so important. In the story, you have a father who is taken away, and we learn he is arrested for being a spy, which is a false accusation. The loss of income of the primary breadwinner forces the family into poverty. Today, with the economy still in a downturn, many people are only a pay cheque away from financial devastation. This tells us, that in the good times, no matter how little we earn, we should put away some of the money for ourselves, for the rainy days that will inevitably come.

The Railway Children (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In The Railway Children by E. Nesbit, Roberta, Phyllis and Peter are living idyllic lives with their parents in what is described as an “ordinary red-brick fronted villa, coloured glass in the front door, a tiled passage that was called a hall, a bathroom with and cold water, electric bells, French windows, and a good deal of white paint, and ‘every modern convenience,’ as the house agents say.”

The children are well-loved, and their parents make time to play with them. While they are at school, their mother writes stories and reads them to the children during tea time. And as a special treat, for their birthdays, she writes special poems for them. One day, two men come to visit their father and he leaves with them. The mother is quite upset, and tells the children not to ask questions. Shortly after the father leaves, the mother and children have to move out from suburbia into the country because their social and financial status has radically changed. And they take only the things that will be useful to them in their new life.

The mother is forced to work to take care of her family, and she does what she knows to do, which is to write children’s stories, and she has some success. Like any writer, there are times when her work is rejected and there are other times when a magazine publisher accepts the stories. In those times, the children get a special treat of buns.

The children are very aware that their situation has changed, but it doesn’t bother them that much – children are very resilient, and they are more intelligent and understanding that most adults give them credit for. The mother often emphasizes to the children that they are now poor. In The Railway Children, even among the poor, a class structure exists because there are different levels of poverty. For instance, their housekeeper, Mrs Viney, is much poorer than they are.

The three children no longer go to school, and to while the time away, they spend a lot of time exploring their new surroundings. Roberta, Peter and Phyllis love to visit the railway. While exploring they see a coal mine. At their new home, they no longer have ‘every modern convenience.’ Their home is no longer as warm as they are accustomed to, and mother doesn’t earn enough to buy the amount of coal needed. While the children explore the railway yard, Peter notices a lot of coal, and he makes up these rules as to what constitutes stealing. He comes up with idea of taking some of the coal, but he doesn’t want to get his sisters involved in taking it. They help him to transport the coal with the aid of a wheelbarrow up the hill to their home.

One day, Peter sneaks out, not knowing that Roberta and Phyllis are following him. When he gets to the coal mine, the station manager grabs him with the intention of reporting him. The children plead for mercy, and when the station manager learns why they are stealing, he lets him go free and tells him not to steal anymore coal. Even though Peter had tried to convince himself that taking the coal wasn’t stealing, deep down he knows the difference between right and wrong.

Because of the encounter with the station master, they want to stay away, but they cannot help themselves – they cannot keep away. In no time they learn the schedule for the arrival of the trains to the station which is close by, and they give the trains names like Green Dragon, Worm of Wantley and Fearsome Fly-by-Night. They make sure that they are close by when, Green Dragon, the 9:15 am train is passing by and they wave to the passengers, and out of first class, the hand of an older man waves back. This becomes a routine for the children.

As the story unfolds, you learn a lot about the characters. The three children are wise beyond their years, especially Roberta. And they are more resilient and stronger than their mother. The children go out into their new community and make friends, and learn about others, while the mother is wrapped up into their new circumstance. She is focused on earning money and doesn’t play with them as much as she used to. Because the children reach out to others with friendship, people in the community are kind to them.

One day the mother contracts influenza and the doctor prescribes a variety of things to help her recover. The mother decides which ones to buy because of her restricted budget. She is also very concerned about how she is going to pay for the doctor’s services. Roberta had heard Mrs Viney talking about a club that the doctor has, which enables the poorest people to afford his services. Roberta pays him a visit and asks that they be a part of the club, and he complies, even if he has to make a brand new club for them. The doctor is also poor, and he was excited that he had found a new patient. However, he is a man of compassion, and opens up the club to them. Roberta does this without her mother’s knowledge.

The children decide to take matters into their own hands to get the medicine needed for their mother to recover so they write a note to the old gentleman who always waves back to them. They write the letter and make their request, but they make it very clear that it’s an IOU and they ask him to give the package to the station manager and tell him it’s for Peter since they do not know which return train he will be on. When the 9:15 am train pulls into the station, Phyllis hands the note to the old gentleman.

At six pm in the evening there is a knock on their door, and it’s the friendly porter from the station with a package from the older gentleman. The children know that at some point they have to tell their mother what they have done, but decide to do so after she has recovered. Mother is angry because she does not want handouts, and she doesn’t want anyone feeling sorry for her and her family.

One day when the children go to the railway station there is a commotion, so they have to investigate. There is a distressed man there who doesn’t speak English and no one can figure out what language he is speaking. The station master suggests that the man is speaking French, but Peter knows it isn’t French because they used to study it at their school. In very bad French, “Parlay voo Frongsay” (Parlez-vous Francais), Peter asks the stranger if he speaks French, and he responds in French. Peter lets the station manager know that his mother speaks French. It so happens that on that day the mother had taken a trip, more than likely to visit her husband. In her limited French, Roberta tells the stranger that her mother speaks French.

When mother arrives, they take her to the stranger and in conversation they find out that he is Russian, has lost his train ticket and is ill. The stranger is a writer, and has written beautiful books, many of which mother has read. They take him home with them, and Roberta goes to fetch the doctor. Mother gives the stranger one of her husband’s outfit, and Roberta asks her mother if her father is dead and is told no.

As the stranger grows stronger, they learn more about his life. He was imprisoned because of his beliefs and what he writes about. He was enlisted into the army and deserted when it was safe and came to England. He knows his family is somewhere in England but doesn’t where. Mother writes many letters to Members of Parliament, editors of newspapers but cannot get any word on the stranger’s family.

One day while out exploring there is a bit of what appears to be a minor earthquake. Stones and trees and you name it, fall across the tracks shortly before the 3:15 train is to arrive. The children know the dangers and acted quickly. Using the girl’s red petticoats they make a flag to signal the train to stop, and they end up preventing a train crash. The children are honored for what they did, but that’s not why they did it. They have learned to be of service, to think of others, despite their changed circumstances. This plays out many times in The Railway Children.

The old gentleman is at the ceremony for their valour, and after the presentation, he and Roberta have a conversation. She tells him about the Russian stranger, Mr. Szezcpansk. The old gentleman knows people within the Russian community in London and promises Roberta that he will make some inquiries. A short while later, the old gentleman, finds out where Mr Szezcpansk’s family is, and the stranger reunites with them.

There are many tales in the book about the goodness of the children, the way that they make the lives of others much brighter. They teach the people in the community how to be a true community through their selfless actions. The old gentleman has also experienced their goodness when they rescue his grandson.

Roberta discovers from an old newspaper article that her father was arrested and he is in prison. She goes to her mother and they have an honest conversation. It’s difficult to believe that she is only 12 years old. Once again she goes to her friend, the older gentleman, to talk to him. He knows of the case and had the intention of helping, now he has a reason to, because he knows the three children, and the impact the arrest has had on their lives. He also believes in the father’s innocence.

The family is reunited. The Railway Children is a story of hope, and some of the big lessons it teaches us are:

1. The good you do for others come back to you.
2. The world is bigger than you. Life is more than about us.
3. When going through a rough patch, do something good for another.
4. Community is important. By lifting up others we lift up everyone.
5. Build a safety net.

I recommend The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

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The Railway Children
Theatre Review: The Railway Children

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This is what we talked about on The Invisible Mentor Blog this week: George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, Alexander Mackenzie, Scottish Explorer & Businessman, and Drew Dudley, Founder and Chief Catalyst.

Adventures in Learning

In computer programming, they have a concept called Garbage In, Garbage Out. The concept is appropriate for reading as well. What you read (your input), will impact the quality of your ideas and solutions (output). And when you read, never do it in a vacuum. Connect the new information with what you already know. Innovation occurs when an old idea intersects with a new one.

George Bernard Shaw, Nobel laureate in Literature 1925 Deutsch: George Bernard Shaw, Nobelpreisträger für Literatur 1925 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Why You Must Read Broadly – Tip 2 

Booked for Mentoring

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950) is a play which was published in 1912. In Greek Mythology, Pygmalion is the name of a gifted sculptor who falls in love with one of his masterpieces, which he names Galatea. The interesting thing about this myth, is that for some reason, Pygmalion despised women, and vowed that he would never marry. He placed all his time and effort into his craft.

Mentor Yourself – Book Review – Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaws 

Wisdom of Life Profile

Alexander Mackenzie was born near Stornoway on Lewis Island to a prominent military family. Upon the death of his mother, his father took him to New York in 1774 when he was 12 years old. During the American Revolution, his father, a loyalist, joined forces loyal to the King of England and died during the revolution. As the Americans gained strength and the war turned against England, the Mackenzie family moved to Montreal, Canada in 1776.

Mentor Yourself: Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Scottish Explorer, Fur Trader, and Businessman 

Interviews for Mentoring

This week we featured Drew Dudley, Founder & Chief Catalyst, Nuance Leadership Development Services, Inc. Dudley is a thought leader and has much wisdom to share. He candidly speaks about his bipolar disorder. Here are Part I and Part II of Joann Lim’s interview.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950) is a play which was published in 1912. In Greek Mythology, Pygmalion is the name of a gifted sculptor who falls in love with one of his masterpieces, which he names Galatea. The interesting thing about this myth, is that for some reason, Pygmalion despised women, and vowed that he would never marry. He placed all his time and effort into his craft.

Now back to his sculpture Galatea that he falls in love with, he has outdone himself this time. Galatea is the most beautiful sculpture he has ever created. I guess in his mind, Galatea possesses the qualities that he never saw in real women. Pygmalion is so enamoured with his creation that he wants her to become his wife. The sculptor prays to the Goddess Aphrodite, imploring her to transform his masterpiece into a real woman, and guess what? she grants him his wish. Galatea and Pygmalion marry with Aphrodite’s blessing. Nothing like a good love story!

Later, the word Pygmalion evolved to mean, “A man who “shapes” an uncultivated woman into an educated creature.” In Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, Professor of Phonetics, Henry Higgins is Pygmalion and Cockney Eliza Doolittle is Galatea.

Many authors of literary classics wrote as a response to the social injustices they observed in society. According to Wikipedia, “Nearly all his [Shaw] writings address prevailing social problems, but have a vein of comedy which makes their stark themes more palatable. Shaw examined education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege…. He is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize in Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938), for his contributions to literature and for his work on the film Pygmalion (adaptation of his play of the same name), respectively.”

George Bernard Shaw date between 1900-1910 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The play starts out with the key characters seeking shelter from the rain under the portico of St. Paul’s Church in Covent Garden. The mother and daughter are waiting for her son Freddy to return with a taxi. Freddy is not portrayed in a very good light, he is seen as very spineless. A flower girl appears and is trying to sell flowers to the people under the shelter. She is very uncultured and speaks cockney. A gentleman comes out of the rain under the shelter and the flower girl tries to sell him flowers. All during this time, you have who is called a note taker, who is writing down what he is hearing.

The flower girl becomes very upset because she thinks he is a copper. There is much debate about whether or not he is a copper because of the appearance of his shoes. The note taker accurately guesses where people are from based on their speech patterns. The rain stops falling and people vacate the shelter except for the flower girl, the note taker and the gentleman.

We learn that the note taker is none other than Professor of Phonetics, Henry Higgins, and the gentleman is Colonel Pickering. It so happens that both men are interested in each other’s work and had plans to meet other which was unknown to each. Higgins claims that with the work he has done in his study of phonetics and the science of speech, he can make anyone more refined. The men exchange addresses, but Pickering suggests that they get together for supper.

While they are leaving, the flower girl is still trying to sell her ware. Higgins is very condescending and rebukes her. However the church clock strikes at that moment, and he is feeling like a Pharisees, so he throws a handful of coins into her flower basket.

The next morning, the flower girl takes a cab to visit Higgins because she wants to become more refined, and she is using the money he dumped into her flower basket the previous day to pay for her lessons. Pickering is present when the flower girl appears. We soon learn that her name is Eliza Doolittle. Higgins is very unconventional and has no tolerance for high society and doesn’t follow their rules. He can also be viewed as being very curt, and some might say a bully.

After much back and forthing between Higgins and the sassy Eliza, he decides to take her on as a project. The outcome is that in a few months time, the flower girl will become so refined in her speech, manner and dress that she is able to fool the other guests at a garden tea party into thinking that she is a woman of class.

Higgins asks his housekeeper Mrs Pearce to bathe Eliza and get her some new clothes. While that is going on, Eliza’s father Albert Doolittle shows up and demands money for his daughter, but he does so under the guise of asking for the return of his daughter. Higgins pays Doolittle five pounds.

As the play unfolds, you see Eliza blossoming and becoming more refined. One day Higgins and Pickering decide to take Eliza to visit Mrs Higgins to get her impressions of Eliza, but they want to pave the way first. Higgins’ mother is a very refined, stately, and well-to-do woman in her sixties. Mrs Higgins views their experiment as idiocy. During the visit, the mother and daughter who were under the portico while it was raining, also visit Mrs Higgins. We later learn that they are Mrs Eynsford Hill, Clara Hill. Higgins signals Eliza to come into the parlour, and with a gesture, which the others do not see, lets her know which of the two older ladies is his mother.

Mother and daughter do not recognize Eliza as the flower girl they previously met because she has changed so much.

With much effort and hard work and the determination on the part of Eliza, the experiment is a huge success, and Eliza pulls it off at the garden tea party. She passes for a woman of refinement and means. The problem is that Pickering and Higgins didn’t think beyond that outcome. They didn’t think about what would become of Eliza after the experiment. They took her for granted and probably thought that she would continue to live with them, after all she is their creation. They never quite defined what Eliza’s role is in their lives.

The last third of the story is simply amazing with dialogue between Eliza and Higgins. She is exceedingly upset with him and hurls his slippers at him, but he doesn’t get it. He calls her a presumptuous insect, and she calls him a selfish brute. At one point in their conversation Eliza says, “What am I fit for? What have you left me fit for? Where am I to go? What am I to do? What’s to become of me?”

Higgins’ response, “Oh, that’s what worrying you, is it? I shouldn’t bother about it if I were you. I should imagine you won’t have much difficulty in settling yourself, somewhere or other, though I hadn’t realized that you were going away. You might marry you know. You see, Eliza, all men are not confirmed bachelors like me and the Colonel….” And the description of the nonverbal communication that’s going on is priceless.

The next morning, Pickering and Higgins go to his mother’s home because they cannot find Eliza. Mrs Higgins tells them that they are like children. Eliza is there and she eventually speaks to them. There is a lot more conversation between them and much is centered around what Eliza will do next. It’s worthy to note that as it is with the Pygmalion myth, Higgins also does not like women, and the reader doesn’t know why. He too is proud of his creation.

Higgins says, “I’ll adopt you as my daughter and settle money on you if you like. Or would you rather marry Pickering?”

Eliza responds, “I wouldn’t marry you if you asked me; and you’re closer my age than what he is.”

What does the foolish Higgins do at that point, he corrects her grammar and she tells him she will talk as she likes. Eliza lets Higgins know that Freddy has been writing to her and that the he is in love with her. Higgins views Freddy as a fool. In this story, Galatea does not wed her Pygmalion. “Eliza, in telling Higgins she would not marry him if he asked her, was not coquetting: she was announcing a well-thought out decision.”

Eliza marries Freddy and they struggle to make ends meet. Pickering solves the problem by helping Eliza to establish her own flower shop. Freddy isn’t very good at business and Pickering has to explain to him what a cheque book and bank account mean. The two still struggle financially. But, Eliza always makes the most of the opportunities given her. Eliza and Freddy attend night school, learning bookkeeping, shorthand, typing and taking polytechnic classes. They also take classes at the London School of Economics, but they are not learning about the flower business. After a while, business starts to improve and they are able to take care of themselves.

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw highlights the complexity of human relationships, and the interaction between classes. One of the biggest lessons is from Eliza and it is if you keep on elevating and making yourself better in life, it’s virtually impossible to return to the way you were. My Fair Lady [Blu-ray] is an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion.

I recommend Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw because it’s an excellent play and the reader cannot help but enjoy it while learning many lessons. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

CAUTION: Do not watch the film in lieu of reading the book because film adaptations are usually not exactly like the book.

PYGMALION (1938) – Full Movie – Captioned

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My Fair Lady -Horse race scene

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This is what we talked about on The Invisible Mentor Blog this week: HG Wells’ The War of the World, John Maynard Keynes, Economist, and Joann Lim, Making It Happen Specialist and Professional Coach.

H.G. Wells (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)

Adventures in Learning

This is a guest post by Carlo Pandian who gives a unique look at the new world of the businessman.

Is the Traditional Businessman Dead? 

Booked for Mentoring

HG Wells’ The War of the World is an invasion story. However, it’s an invasion by beings from another planet. It is about interplanetary warfare and is written in a journalistic style. The names of newspapers are mentioned in the context of journalists reporting the invasion of the Martians.

Mentor Yourself: Book Review – The War of the Worlds by HG Wells 

Wisdom of Life Profile

John Maynard Keynes was a brilliant and outspoken economist. “[He] was educated at the finest British schools, Eton and then King’s College, Cambridge, becoming in his youth a part of the Bloomsbury Group, which consisted of a dozen privileged aesthetes, including Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey, and Clive Bell.” When he was in his mid-thirties, Keynes married a ballerina, Lydia Lopokova, and they remained together until his death from a heart attack on Easter Sunday, April 21, 1946.

Mentor Yourself: John Maynard Keynes, British Economist Who Revolutionized Economic Theory and Policy 

Interviews for Mentoring

This week we featured Making It Happen Specialist and Professional Coach Joann Lim. Joann Lim has lived a lot in her young life and is a ray of hope for others. Here are Part I and Part II of Joann Lim’s interview.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Why The War of the Worlds Matters

As a child, while confined to bed because of an illness, Robert Hutchings Goddard (1882–1945) read H G Wells’ The War of the Worlds and became captivated with rockets and outer space. Goddard was a pioneer in liquid-fuelled rocketry and made significant contributions to the field. In addition, spaceflight pioneers Hermann Oberth (1894–1989 and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857–1935 read science-fiction novels and stories by writers such as Wells and French novelist Jules Verne (1828–1905). Will The War of the Worldsby HG Wells inspire the innovative streak in you?

Cover of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds

Why Herbert George Wells is Qualified to Write The War of the World

How does an author acquire the scientific knowledge and imagination to write such a book? “Herbert George Wells won a scholarship to the Normal School of Science at South Kensington in 1884, where he studied under biologist T. H. Huxley. Subsequently, he worked as a teacher and then as a journalist, producing a series of scientific speculations for a number of leading periodicals including the Fortnightly Review and Nature.” (Encyclopedia of World Biography, Vol. 16. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale, 2004. p195-196)

Wells was an excellent debater and debated with Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945), both well-known US presidents. In 1888, Wells presented a paper titled, “Are the Planets Habitable?” to the Debating Society at the Royal College of Science. He was also very interested in Charles Darwin’s work on natural selection – his theory on evolution. “[Wells’] legacy in terms of science, technology, and ethics lies in his imaginative application of science to invention, his hopefulness about what science may produce for humanity, but also his warnings about what the abuse of science may mean for the human race.” (Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics, Ed. Carl Mitcham. Vol. 4. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. p2061-2062. John S. Partington)

HG Wells’ The War of the World is an invasion story. However, it’s an invasion by beings from another planet. It is about interplanetary warfare and is written in a journalistic style. The names of newspapers are mentioned in the context of journalists reporting the invasion of the Martians. The narrator of The War of the Worlds is a philosophical writer who is never named. He relates his encounter with the Martians who invade earth and includes his brother’s encounter with them. You know that the narrator and his brother survive the invasion because the story is told after the fact. In the story, the brothers do not meet so you assume that they got together after and talked about their experiences. You believe what the narrator is telling you, because there is a certain kind of honesty about him. And the journalistic style makes the story believable.

The Martians invade earth in a cylindrical mechanism. Humans believe that they are superior to other beings. For days in 1894, missiles are launched from Mars to Earth. The narrator and Ogilvy a well known astronomer at Ottershaw are observing using a telescope. The missiles are launched for 10 days and then they finally stop. Ogilvy surmises that it is unlikely that there is organic evolution on Mars.

The narrator lives in Maybury, and the first alien craft lands at Horsell Common in England. Ogilvy is the one who discovers it. Ogilvy, Henderson, Stent, Royal and several workmen pry the craft open. There are several onlookers when the craft is opened. The narrator describes what he sees, “I presently saw something stirring within the shadow: greyish billowy movements, one above another, and then two luminous disks—like eyes. Then something resembling a grey snake, about the thickness of a walking stick, coiled up out of the writhing middle, and wriggled in the air towards me–-and then another….The mass that framed them [the eyes], the head of the thing, was rounded, and had, one might say, a face. There was a mouth under the eyes, the lipless brim of what quivered and panted, and dropped saliva. The whole creature heaved and pulsated convulsively. A lank tentacular appendage gripped the edge of the cylinder, another swayed in the air.”

People are terrified and yet fascinated by what they are seeing. After they pry the craft open and see what’s inside Ogilvy, Henderson, Stent, Royal and the workmen leave hurriedly. A Deputation including Ogilvy, Henderson and Stent returns and the Martians incinerate them. The narrator relates the terror he is feeling.

When the warfare begins, people start to evacuate. The narrator loads a few things that are meaningful, and takes his wife to Leatherhead where he has a cousin, thinking that she will be safe there, and returns to Maybury. The warfare is very one-sided – the Martians are in 100-feet tripods, which protect them. They incinerate anything and anyone in sight and they emit a poisonous gas into the air. And more Martians invade earth, and they unmercifully attack humans, although humans outnumber them. They are more organized than humans in their attack, and they also work together as a team.

The War of the Worlds describes the Martians’ journey from town to town, county to county, and the destruction they unleash along the way. When the narrator returns home, he is watching what’s going on, from inside his house. While looking through the window, he sees a soldier, and whispers to him to come inside. The soldier updates the narrator on the fate of the other soldiers in his regiment. It quickly becomes very clear to the soldier and the narrator that it’s unsafe to remain where they are. When they are leaving, the soldier tells the narrator to take food with him, and they both stuff food inside their pockets. That’s a great lesson for the narrator, and it comes in handy later on.

A big part of the story takes place when the narrator encounters the curate, while trying to evade the Martians. The curate is a religious man, a pastor, whose church is destroyed by the Martians. He asks the narrator, “Why are these things permitted? What sins have we done? The morning service was over, I was walking through the roads to clear my brain for the afternoon, and then—fire, earthquake, death! As if it were Sodom and Gomorrah! All our work undone, all the work—What are these Martians?”

The narrator views what’s unfolding before his eyes through a scientific lens, which contrasts with the curate’s religious view. The curate talks about the beginning of the end, and the great and terrible day of the Lord, and the narrator screams at him, telling him to man-up. “‘Be a man!’ said I. ‘You are scared out of your wits! What good is religion if it collapses under calamity? Think of what earthquakes, and floods, wars and volcanoes, have done before to men! Did you think God had exempted Weybridge? He is not an insurance agent.’”

They travel together, and it’s much of the same. The constant whining by the clergy and the narrator wishing his companion wasn’t with him. They end up in a house, and in the pantry they find bread, steak, ham and beer. The house suffers from the terror the Martians are unleashing, and collapses on them. The narrator is hurt and unconscious for a short time. They are trapped under the house for nearly two weeks. However, they get to closely observe the Martians.

The curate personifies everything you would not expect in a religious person. He is extremely greedy and is only thinking about himself. Had the narrator not intervened and rationed the food, the curate would have consumed it all. Yes they were facing a very stressful time, but would you not expect a pastor to be at peace with the strong likelihood that he is going to die? He would be transitioning to another world that’s very different and some might say better than ours.

They take turns to look through a hole at what the Martians are doing outside the house. The narrator gets a close up view of them. He sees the Martians consuming the blood of humans to satiate themselves and get the nutrients they need to survive. The curate becomes mad being in a confined space and from the stress of the situation. He starts to scream, which alerts the Martians to the presence of humans. The narrator hits him over the head to quiet him down, but it’s too late. He hides when he sees the Martian invade their hiding place. The curate is killed.

When the Martians leave, the narrator slips out of the house, and shortly after, he encounters the soldier he had met previously. The soldier relates his plan to survive the invasion, and the narrator gets caught up in the vision. But after observing the soldier for a few days he realizes that the soldier is all talk and no action. The plan is essentially one for “ethnic” cleansing – forced cleansing of the weaker and marginalized. The narrator is ashamed of himself, and realizes that he has to find his wife, who he temporarily forgot about.

I was very emotional while reading The War of the Worlds by HG Wells, and felt that the way the Martians died was very anticlimactic. But a few days later, I changed my mind, and felt it was very profound and powerful. Technology does not destroy the Martians, bacteria does. Humans are immune to many bacteria, but there isn’t any bacteria on Mars. They drink the blood of humans and introduce bacteria into their systems, which they couldn’t withstand. Indeed it was survival of the fittest.

I was also distressed while reading the book because I felt that the soldiers were uncoordinated with their attack, and I was feeling so helpless because I was right there with the narrator. With all his education, the narrator could not conceive of a plan to stop the invasion. When the soldiers accidentally kill one of the Martians, I expected them to evaluate what they did so that they could replicate the action, but I guess that wasn’t the point. The narrator returns home believing his wife is dead after hearing accounts from others about the destruction of Leatherhead. She returns home as well, with the narrator’s cousin, so they have all survived the invasion.

A big lesson that I learned from The War of the Worlds is that community is very important. During the invasion, most people were acting as individuals and taking care of their own needs instead of working in a coordinated manner. I recommend The War of the Worlds by HG Wells.

Works by H G Wells

The Time Machine (The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds (Everyman’s Library (Cloth))) (1895)

The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896)

The Invisible Man (1897)

The First Men in the Moon (1901),

The Wonderful Visit (1895)

The Sea Lady (The Work Collection of H G Wells Set.13 (The Salvaging Of Civilisation, The Sea Lady, The Sleeper Awakes)) (1902)

“The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents” (1893)

“The Red Room” (1896),

The War of the Worlds (1898)

“The Door in the Wall”

Anticipations (1902)

Kipps(1905)

Ann Veronica (1909)

The History of Mr Polly (Penguin Classics) (1910)

The New Machiavelli (1911)

The World Set Free (1913)

Boon (Boon, The Mind of the Race, The Wild Asses of the Devil, and The Last Trump; Being a First Selection from the Literary Remains of George Boon, Appropriate to the Times) (1915)

The Outline of History H. G. Wells Volume I & II (1920)

A Short History of the World (1922)

Men Like Gods (1923)

The Science of Life (1930)

The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind, in Two Volumes (1931)

The Shape of Things To Come (1933)

Things to Come (1936)

Mind at the End of its Tether; and The Happy Turning: A Dream of Life (1945)

The Essential H. G. Wells Collection (38 books and story collections) [Illustrated]

For those who have a Kindle, you can download any of the books by clicking here.

War Of The Worlds Radio Broadcast Part 1

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War Of The Worlds Radio Broadcast Part 2

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War Of The Worlds Radio Broadcast Part 3

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War Of The Worlds Radio Broadcast Part 4

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War Of The Worlds Radio Broadcast Part 5

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War Of The Worlds Radio Broadcast Part 6

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War Of The Worlds Radio Broadcast Part 7

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Other Science Fiction and Fantasy SummaReviews

Book Review: Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov

A Look at Foundation’s Edge, Foundation and Earth and Forward the Foundation by Isaac Asimov

The Hunger Games is This Year’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Book Review: Catching Fire and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Book Review: The Invisible Man by HG Wells

Review – Success Lessons from Gin Blanco in Jennifer Estep’s Spider’s Revenge

Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth 

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