The War of the Worlds de Wells, H.G - 1898

London: Heinemann, 1898. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. 1st edition. This copy's ads parallel publication day, listing no books published after 1898. They signal 1 of 5 binding states, the others being copies with no ads, 2 different 32 page catalogs, and one of 16 pages dated 1897 which is early, but maybe too early, so not proof of the 1st binding as it may (logically) have been used after more current ads had been exhausted. Some rubbing, else near fine, with an unobtrusive owners stamp—scarce when it's so clean, the gray cloth notably prone to soiling. Custom quarter buffalo and handmade paper box. In only a dozen years the late Victorian reader got Haggard's King Solomon's Mines (1885), Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde (1886), Doyle's Sherlock Holmes (1887), Wilde's Dorian Gray (1890), Kipling's Jungle Book (1895), Stoker's Dracula (1897), and Wells' Time Machine (1895), Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), Invisible Man (1897) and then, War of the Worlds. All were instantly identified as literary invention beyond foreseeing, and unlike anything written previously, and they solidified their authors' recognition as singular artists capable of conceiving shocking novels of unimaginable originality at any time, emancipating all of them from any need to ever defend themselves to anyone, and so, as is often the case, the rest of their careers, became a losing struggle to re-reach the unreachable, and live up to their reputations. In one way Wells just gave up and tried to reinvent himself as a Socialist. Worse yet, he insisted on writing about it, demonstrating that the political preferences of authors are no more insightful that the reading preferences of politicians. War of the Worlds is the story of a battle lost against alien (Martian) invaders, a battle that was then won in the end by an unexpected miracle.