Books

The first Russian translations of the novel. This Russian translation was issued in the same year as the first edition of 'The War of the Worlds' was published. The translation appeared in the magazine 'Novyi Zhurnal Inostrannoi Literatury, Iskusstva i Nauki' ('New Journal of Foreign Literature, Art, and Science', Nos. 6-9), and this particular copy is an offprint from the magazine. It was also published in 1898 as a separate book in a smaller format with different pagination. According to some sources, the translator might have been Konstantin Tolstoi (1842-1913), a doctor and publicist known for his attempt to translate Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet'. Later that same year, another Russian translation of the novel was released.

The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by English author H.G. Wells. It first appeared in serialized form in 1897, published by Pearson’s Magazine in the UK and by Cosmopolitan magazine in the US. The novel details the experiences of an unnamed protagonist in London and his brother in Surrey during an invasion of Earth by Martians. It is a pioneering work of the science fiction genre, popularizing the alien invasion trope.