The War of the Worlds

H. G. (Herbert George) Wells (1866 1946) was a prolific author best known for his contributions to science fiction. His early work included such influential works as The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds. 

In addition to illustrating his own books, Edward Gorey (1925 2000) provided drawings to countless books for both children and adults. Of these, NYRB has published The Haunted Looking Glass; Rex Warner s Men and Gods; Saki s The Unrest-Cure and Other Stories; and, with Rhoda Levine, Three Ladies Beside the Sea and He Was There from the Day We Moved In.

Since H. G. Wells published War of the Worlds in 1898, artists have struggled to depict his alien invaders. Perhaps none succeeded so well as the illustrator Edward Gorey. . . . His wonderfully creepy 1960 edition eschews the Robby the Robot designs of pulp fiction, and the slickness of the bad 1953 film, instead delivering an insectlike infestation of pen-and-ink tendrils. New York Magazine

The most delightful of the many editions of The War of the Worlds includes illustrations by Edward Gorey (originally published in 1960 and long out of print until now), in which those creatures look like giant mushrooms on spindly legs, primitive ancestors of the Spielberg tripods. Caryn James, The New York Times

These illustrations perfectly depict not only Wells s half-sinister, half-ridiculous Martians, but also the destruction they leave in their wake: a patch of silent common, smouldering in places, and with a few dark, dimly seen objects lying in contorted attitudes here and there, for example. How Gorey-esque. Joshua Glenn, The Boston Globe

This novel was tailor-made for Gorey. His black-and-white etching-like drawing style makes the aliens (dainty but oppressive-looking hydras), landscapes and figures suitably spooky and Victorian. Which, of course, they were. Karen Krangle, The Vancouver Sun

It was creepy when he wrote it back in 1898, and it s creepy now. Re-released in a handsome new edition, The War of the Worlds, illustrated by the remarkable Edward Gorey, preys on our fears. Marc Horton, Edmonton Journal

[The War of the Worlds is] a perfect showcase for Gorey s stark, unsettling work with its ominous shadings and eerie peculiarities . . . [and] Gorey s work is true to the essence of Wells novel. The Chicago Tribune