CHAPTER SUMMARIES Book One: The Coming of the Martians
Chapter One - The Eve of the War Summary
The book begins with “No 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 and yet as mortal as his own.” People are going about their lives on Earth, with little concern for extraterrestrial life beyond pondering its possibility. But this will soon change.
Mars, being older than Earth, is therefore further along in the evolutionary process. The planet is now in its final stage, that of cooling off. For the inhabitants that have lived there since before human development on Earth began, the problems posed by cooler temperatures and smaller oceans has led them to develop great intellectual powers, in order to meet the needs of the moment. When they turn their newly created instruments towards Earth, 35,000,000 miles away, they see a way to survive.
By 1894, the Martians have developed space travel, which from Earth’s perspective, appears as if “a colossal puff of flame suddenly and violently squirted out of the planet, ‘as flaming gases rushed out of a gun.’” The event causes little stir on Earth at first, but the narrator meets Ogilvy, an astronomer who is quite interested in it, and agrees to join him at the observatory that night.
Again, around midnight, there is a shot, and this continues for a total of 10 consecutive nights. Then it stops; speculation is that it could possibly be that the gases caused by the shots were disrupting the Martian atmosphere, thereby forcing them to stop the launchings.
People then took note, but continued about as they had always done; the narrator, for example, was learning to ride a bicycle. He went for a starlit walk with his wife one night, and took comfort in “the brightness of the red, green, and yellow signal lights hanging in a framework against the sky.” And every day the “Things” from Mars were quickly approaching Earth.
Chapter Two - The Falling Stars
Summary
In Chapter Two, the Martian landing takes place and the news of it begins to spread. The narrator himself misses the craft streaking across the sky, but many other people see it, though they mistake it for a falling star. Early the next morning, Ogilvy starts out and finds the “meteorite” (as he at first supposes it is) near the sand pits in Horsell Common. Its impact on Earth has made a big hole and left the Thing itself mostly covered in sand. From what could be seen though, Ogilvy notes that it looked like a huge cylinder with a 30 yard diameter. He could hear a “stirring noise” coming from within it but it is too hot from its descent through the atmosphere for him to draw nearer.
“Then suddenly he noticed with a start that some of the grey clinker, the ashy incrustation that covered the meteorite, was falling off the circular edge of the end.” As he noticed this was due to it rotating very slowly, (think of the opening of a submarine hatch after it surfaces), he grasps that the Thing was not a meteorite at all, but artificial, hollow, and with something alive inside. The flashes from Mars come to his mind and he makes the connection.
Excited, Ogilvy takes off for the nearest town, Woking. Although taken for crazy by the first two men he tells, he manages to get his story out to Henderson, a journalist, who quickly follows him back to the pit.
The cylinder is silent now, and, after hitting it with a stick provokes no response, they hurry back to town, believing whatever was inside to be dead. As the news spread, many, including the narrator, head off “to see the ‘dead men from Mars.’”
Chapter Three - On Horsell Common Summary
The narrator arrives at the scene of the crash landing to find Henderson and Ogilvy gone, having left to go to breakfast. A small group has gathered in their place, whose members also come and go. Some of the boys are throwing stones at the object but the narrator makes them stop.
Standing about the growing crowd, the narrator ponders that it is likely the cylinder did indeed come from Mars, but thinks it might contain a manuscript, rather than a living creature. Growing bored with the cylinder’s lack of movement, he goes home, only to return that afternoon.
The reports in the newspapers have caused a considerable number of people to gather about the site. Excavation is going on inside the pit by a small group of men, including Henderson and Ogilvy. So far, a lot of the cylinder has been unearthed but the one end is still in the ground and the top is on tight. Ogilvy asks the narrator to go see Lord Hilton, who owns the land, and request permission to keep the people out of the way, as they are hindering the excavators’ work. He heads off to do so, and plans to meet Lord Hilton when he comes in on the 6:00 train.
Chapter Four - The Cylinder Opens Summary
There are now a few hundred people about, all struggling to get a better view despite the constant shouts to “‘Keep back!’” The crowd’s pushy movements have already resulted in one man, a young shop assistant, falling into the pit.
While he attempts to get back out, the lid of the cylinder continues to unscrew, extending out for about two feet before it clatters to the ground. The crowd prepares for the appearance of a creature similar to men. Then tentacles begin to project from the cylinder, and the onlookers move hurriedly backwards, looks of horror on their faces.
The creature from Mars emerges with slow and pained movements, made so by the effect of gravity and an unfamiliar atmosphere. It is about the size of a bear and grayish in color, with the appearance of wet leather when the in the sunlight. It has what could be considered a face, rounded and with two big, “intense, inhuman” eyes. Saliva drops from the V-shaped mouth, which lacks lips, as well as a chin beneath it.
Then it disappears from view, as it manages to pull itself out of the cylinder and fall to the ground. Another creature appears from the darkness as the narrator runs away, his eyes still on the pit, coming to a stop behind a cluster of trees. Many others have acted similarly, staring intently at the scene from around tree trunks and bushes.
For a brief moment, the dark figure of the fallen shopkeeper can be seen against the sun, still struggling to escape from the pit. Then suddenly he drops again below the surface, but a deep fear prevents anyone from coming to his aide.
Unable to see much, the people stand about and watch the pit with growing fear.
Chapter Five - The Heat-Ray Summary
Out of the pit rises a pole with an awkwardly spinning disk at its top. Now very concerned about what could be happening, the fear-stricken onlookers begin to move cautiously about, forming up in two groups. The narrator heads toward a higher vantage point, stopping to speak briefly to one of his neighbors before going on.
Others are beginning to move forward slowly, encouraged by the lack of movement in the pit and the presence of more people coming in from Woking, the nearby town. The Deputation, a small group of men bearing a white flag, arrive and lead.
The advance halts when three bright puffs of green smoke rise in the air, illuminating the frozen figures around the pit. A hissing noise, followed by a loud humming, announces the appearance of a domed object. Silent flames flashed out from it, directed at one man after another. A brief moment of fire, followed by a stumbling fall, pronounced the death of each. Trees, bushes, and buildings burst into flames as the concentrated heat came.
The narrator finds himself standing right in its the path, but is unable to move, transfixed and uncomprehending. Before reaching him though, the object lowers back down into the pit, leaving behind some smoking remnants and an eerily undisturbed silence.
Fear struck the narrator with a sudden blow, and he turned and ran. His quiet tears were accompanied by a strong sense that the cylinder’s death would reach him right before he reached safety.
Chapter Six - The Heat-Ray in the Chobham Road Summary
There is general amazement over the Martians’ methods of killing. Although there is a theory that the machine’s heat beam works similarly to a lighthouse’s ray of light, it is not known for sure; the only thing that is, is that heat is the foundation for the silent killing instrument. Almost forty people already lie dead from it.
At this point, the narrator takes a more general view, instead of one based primarily on his own experiences, to recap events. There are no plot developments; it is simply a look back at the public sentiment and experience from hearing of the news of the cylinder to fleeing from the site.
He imagines how the people, after finishing their day’s work, headed out to see the “novelty.” The atmosphere was casual and fun (almost like that of those going to see fireworks today), not at all expecting the horror and fear that would come later that night. Stent, the Astronomer Royal who had been on the scene since earlier that day, helping to direct excavations, was the only one who took any precautions. He had given directions to the three policemen in attendance to keep people away from the cylinder, and had also put in a call for a company of soldiers at the first sight of the Martians, though he originally was thinking of their protection from humans, not vice versa.
When the Heat-Ray emerged, many had a view of the deaths of those in the Deputation like that of the narrator’s. The only thing that saved the crowd itself from a similar fate is a small mound of heather (a plant with little purplish pink flowers), that took the impact of the Heat-Ray.
But as the world around them caught fire, the people panicked. In the chaos that followed as they hastened to get away, two women and a little boy were trampled to death.
Chapter Seven - How I Reached Home Summary
The narrator takes note of little during his frantic run, finally collapsing by a bridge, exhausted after fleeing from the terrors he sees all around him. When he was again able to move, he at first cannot remember the events of the past few hours. As it comes back to him in this still untouched world, it all begins to seem unreal. The three things that had seemed so pressing to him just awhile ago-the vastness of his surroundings, his own weakness, and the coming death-were gone, leaving him as he has always been.
As he starts walking, he sees the sights of ordinary life, a workman and a little boy, as well as a train and other signs of industry. Two men and a woman standing by a gate laughingly dismiss the narrator’s concerns about the Martians. His wife however, takes the threat they pose in all seriousness.
The narrator recounts his experiences to her over a cold, untouched dinner. Seeing the anxiety clearly written in her white face, he begins to feel that he perhaps overestimated the threat the Martians posed. As he attempts to reassure her and his confidence increases, he comes to believe that it really would not take much to kill the creatures and that they are probably only so destructive out of fear.
He finds comfort in the sluggishness of the Martians, a result of the tripled strength of gravity on Earth. However, he, as well as the newspapers, have forgotten to take into account the different atmospheric composition (the Earth has more oxygen, less argon) and the benefits of mechanical abilities that more than counter the gravitational effects.
The narrator remembers the dinner vividly, as it would be the last of its kind for some time.
Chapter Eight - Friday Night Summary
It was a Friday night like any other, something the narrator finds remarkable. No one outside a five mile radius, except relations of those killed by the Heat-Ray, was affected at all by the Martians. The excited shouts of news boys seemed to decline in urgency when heard from railway stations of bustling people going about their business. In fact, most of the people within the radius were still doing everyday things.
But there were some for whom the night was a sleepless one. Those who had houses that backed the common stayed awake. The Martians themselves were up the whole time, busy working on their machines. Every so often, the light beam would sweep the area around the pit, followed shortly by the Heat-Ray, to take care of those few people who ventured too close.
By this time, a concerned military was becoming involved. Of the soldiers already deployed, one, a Major Eden, was missing. More troops are headed to the area to provide reinforcements.
Right after midnight, the constant crowd that had gathered saw the second cylinder fall to the Earth.
Chapter Nine - The Fighting Begins Summary
After a night of little sleep, the narrator awakes early to a hot and restless Saturday and goes outside. He is unable to hear anything from the direction of the Martians, but then the milkman arrives, bringing news that troops surrounded the pit during the night.
His gardener neighbor seems unconcerned by this, or by view of the still-smoking woods around the Byfleet Golf Links, where the second cylinder landed. When the narrator spoke with a group of sappers (a kind of soldier) near the common, they had not seen the Martians nor were they familiar with the Heat-Ray. Once the narrator tells them what he knew, they argue about the best way to approach the pit.
After going to the railway station and finding that the newspapers contain no new information, the narrator continues in his attempts to find out more. However, his efforts are encumbered by the military, which has taken possession of any vantage points from which to view the common and are unable to tell him anything.
The evening newspapers also have little to satisfy his curiosity. The Martians have been busy hammering and smoke has been flowing nearly constantly from the pit, but they have not appeared again. Nonetheless, the narrator is excited by the preparations going on around him and once again feels confident in the humans’ chances.