"No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their affairs they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water."( from War Of The Worlds).
One of the world's first science fiction novels about life forms on other planets, and an invasion on the human race by alien species, War Of The Worlds was written in retort to many events that happened during the time. One of the most important events was the unification and militarization of Germany. There was an even more specific event that took place before the writing of this novel in which inspired Wells. In 1894 Mars was positioned closely to the earth, which led to much observation. Giovanni Schiaparaelli, an Italian astronomer, reported seeing "canali" on the planet Mars. Canali meant channels but was mistranslated as canals, which led to much speculation of life form on the red planet. This is just some information on how the novel War of The Worlds was written, now on to what this great piece of literature was about.
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War Of The Worlds is written as to books in one. Book one is The Coming of the Martians and book two is The Earth Under the Martians. Both takes place in London but before that, it is quoted that the aliens were watching the humans "keenly and closely" with "envious eyes". This leads to the reason of why the aliens are going to try to take over Earth. The alien's planet, Mars, is dying and their source for living is gone. So in result they plane to invade Earth, not only for living but also to use the human race as food.
