The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (1898) is a pioneering science fiction novel depicting a Martian invasion of Victorian England. When mysterious cylinders crash into the Surrey countryside, tentacled Martians emerge, unleashing devastating heat-rays and colossal tripod war machines. The unnamed narrator chronicles humanity's desperate struggle as civilization collapses—armies are annihilated, London evacuates, and society crumbles into chaos. Despite humanity's technological inferiority, the invaders are ultimately defeated not by weapons, but by Earth's microscopic bacteria, against which the Martians possess no immunity. The novel explores themes of imperialism, evolution, survival, and the fragility of human civilization.
