Summary Invisible Man Herbert Wells
Herbert Wells
Invisible Man
In the tavern “The coachman and horses”, owned by Mrs. Hall and her henpecked husband, in early February, there appears a mysterious stranger wrapped from head to foot. To get a guest on a winter day is not easy, but a visitor generously pays.
His behavior seems more strange, more and more alarming to others. He is very irritable, avoids human society. When he eats, he covers his mouth with a napkin. His head is all wrapped in bandages. In addition, the Aipings provincials (a place in South England) can not understand what he does. The house smells of some chemical preparations, the sound of broken dishes, loud curses, which the tenant pours out (obviously, something does not work for him).
Griffin, whose name we learn much later, seeks to regain his former state, become visible, but fails and is increasingly irritated. In addition, he got money, he was no longer fed, and he goes, using his invisibility, to robbery. Of
The hero is gradually losing his mind. He is by nature an irritable person, and now this is manifested in the most graphic way. Hungry, tormented by constant failures with experiments, he makes a mad step – gradually in front of everyone breaks his disguise, appears before the observers a man without a head, and then even dissolves in the air. The first pursuit of the Invisible ends for him safely. In addition, escaping from the pursuers, the Invisible man encounters a tramp Marvel, called “Mr. Marvel” – perhaps because he always wears a shabby cylinder. And he is very picky about shoes. And no wonder – nothing so does not need a tramp like good shoes, even if donated. At one point, trying on and evaluating new shoes, he hears a Voice that comes from the emptiness. Among the weaknesses of Mr. Marvel is the passion for alcohol, so he does not immediately manage to believe himself, but it is necessary – an invisible voice explains to him that he saw in front of himself the same outcast as himself, regretted him and at the same time thought that
And one day, Dr. Kemp, sitting quietly in his rich, servant-filled home and busy with scientific work, for which he dreamed of being awarded the title of a member of the Royal Society, saw a rapidly running man in a shabby silk top hat. In his hands there were books tied with string, pockets, as it later turned out, full of money. The route of this fat man was paved extremely accurately. At first he hid in the tavern “Merry Cricketers”, and then asked him to send him to the police as soon as possible. Another minute, and he disappeared in the nearest police station, where he asked to immediately lock him in the most reliable cell. And there was a ring at Dr. Kemp’s door. There was no one behind the door. It must have been the boys who indulged in. But an invisible visitor appeared in the office. Kemp found a dark spot on the linoleum. It was blood. In the bedroom the sheet was torn, the bed was crumpled. And then he heard a voice: “My God, this is Kemp!” Griffin was a university friend of Kemp.
After being frightened to death, Mr. Marvel hid himself in a tavern “Merry Cricketers,” obsessed with revenge, Nevidimka tried to break through there, but it ended in disaster. The Nevidim had already been trumpeted in all the newspapers, people took security measures, and one of the visitors of the “Merry Cricketers” – a bearded man in a gray American, according to the accent, turned out to be a six-shot revolver, and he began to shoot a fan at the door. One of the bullets hit Griffin in the arm, although there was no dangerous wound. The search for the body was not given a result, and Griffin then appeared at Kemp.
From the story that Griffin told his classmate, we will learn his background.
Griffin is a talented scientist on the verge of genius, but his career was not the best way. He was engaged in medicine, chemistry and physics, but knowing what customs reign in the scientific world, he feared that his discoveries would be appropriated by less gifted people. In the end, he had to leave the provincial college and settle in some kind of slum London home, where at first no one interfered with him. There was not only money. Here begins the chain of crimes Griffin. He loots his father, taking money from him, and he commits suicide. Griffin does not have a single remorse. He is so focused on his business that he does not take into account any other considerations. Finally comes the hour of the long-awaited discovery. But how to live on? The money is running out, the neighbors and the householder are suspecting him of something. Too much of him is not like the others. And he is engaged in something incomprehensible. We must flee from the uncomfortable house. But for this, first become invisible. And this is a painful process. The body burns like in a fire, it loses consciousness. He is horrified at the sight of his own, seemingly transparent body.
When the householder with his stepchildren bursts into the room, then, to the surprise, no one in it discovers. And Griffin feels for the first time all the inconveniences of his position. Going out into the street, he notices that anyone who is not lazy pushes him, cabs almost knock him off his feet, dogs pursue a terrible barking. We must first get dressed. The first attempt to rob a store ends in failure. But then he comes across a poor shop, littered with second-hand make-up accessories. It is controlled by some unfortunate hunchback, whom he ties into a sheet, thus depriving him of the opportunity to escape and, most likely, condemning him to starvation. But the same person comes out of the shop, who will then appear in Aiping. It remains only to cover up the traces of his stay in London. Griffin sets fire to the house, destroying all its preparations, and hiding in South England, where, if desired, it is easy to move to France. But first you need to learn how to go from the invisible to the visible state. However, the matter does not go well. The money is over. The robbery is revealed. Organized chase. Newspapers are full of sensational messages. And in this condition Griffin appears at Dr. Kemp – hungry, hunted, wounded. He used to be a man unbalanced, And now he has a mania of misanthropy. Henceforth, he – the Invisible Man – wants to rule people by setting the kingdom of terror for decades. He persuades Kemp to become his accomplice. Kemp realizes that before him is a dangerous fanatic. And he decides – he writes a note to Colonel Edlai, the head of the local police. When he appears, Griffin does not intend to touch him at first. “I did not quarrel with you,” he says. He needs traitor Kemp. But the colonel borrowed from Kemp gun, and he falls another victim of Griffin. Then follows the utterly senseless killing of Lord Byrdk, who armed himself with a cane at the sight of an iron rod hanging in the air.
But the Invisible are already looking for – according to the plan drawn up by Kemp. The roads are covered with pounded glass, horse policemen gallop across the district, the doors and windows of the houses are locked, it’s impossible to penetrate the passing trains, dogs all over the place. Griffin is like a hunted beast, and a hunted beast is always dangerous. But he still has to take revenge on Kemp, who, after killing Adlai, turns from a hunter into a persecutor. Behind him chases a terrible invisible enemy. Fortunately, at the last gasp Kemp is in a crowd of fellow countrymen, and then Griffin is waiting for an end. Kemp wants to save him, but the surrounding are inexorable. And gradually, before everyone’s eyes, a beautiful, but all-scarred man again appears – Griffin is invisible, as long as he is alive,
However, the last actor in this novel is not Kemp, not Griffin, but Mr. Marvel. He dressed up, bought the grocery “Funny Cricketers” stolen from Griffin and enjoyed great respect in the district. And every night he locks himself away from people and tries to solve the mystery of Griffin. Almost his last words: “There was a head!”
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