Books

London: C. Arthur Pearson Limited, 1897. First edition, first issue of Wells' popular cautionary tale of overreaching scientific ambition. Octavo, original publisher's gilt and black-stamped pictorial red cloth. First issue with the first page numbered 2, the title page printed in orange and black and publisher’s ad leaf at rear. In very good condition. Ownership initials "S.P Bell" to the front free endpaper. Housed in a custom full morocco clamshell box. An exceptional presentation. Originally serialized in Pearson's Weekly in 1897, The Invisible Man was published as a novel the same year. The Invisible Man of the title is Griffin, a scientist who has devoted himself to research into optics and invents a way to change a body's refractive index to that of air so that it neither absorbs nor reflects light and thus becomes invisible. He successfully carries out this procedure on himself, but fails in his attempt to reverse it. Readers found The Invisible Man—unlike its…

H.G. Wells's "The Invisible Man" tells the story of a scientist named Griffin who discovers the secret to becoming invisible. With themes of unchecked scientific ambition and the consequences of isolation, this novel remains one of Wells's most enduring and thought-provoking works.