"The Invisible Man" by Herbert George Wells (1897)

 

I am actually reading more now than during the whole year - it helps that I have a new, handy E-reader + instead of countless podcasts, I started listening to audiobooks. Since my Goodreads 2023 reading challenge is over, I might even double up the challenge for the next year - by combining one audio + one paper book per month, I don't think that would be difficult? With Jules Verne still buzzing in my head, I kind of promised myself to finally read "The Invisible Man" by my old friend Herbert George Wells - it is one of his most famous novels and thanks to countless adaptations, until now I never got around to actually read it myself. 

"The Invisible Man" starts with the arrival of a mysterious stranger in a quaint, sleepy little village of Iping (that deserves to be visited simply because of this literary connection) where his solitude and insistent reclusiveness provokes extreme curiosity of quirky locals who eventually become completely hysterical and even violent towards him. The first half of the novel we don't know much about the main character and its mostly fascinating as a study of mob against an individual - the more our unnamed antihero demands to be left alone, the more locals knock at his door. His night walks are ridiculed and everybody noticed he is not going to a church. Basically he is an outsider, therefore dangerous. Up to this point I even had certain fondness for him - but in the second part of the book we find out more about him and author makes sure that he describes him as a sociopathic monster (nowadays he would probably be a mass shooter) so reader can't sympathise with him anymore. It is quite gripping and I must admit that Wells is much, much better storyteller than Verne who might be charmingly nerdy but is often lost in technical details. 

Even though the author did all he could to make the main character an antagonist and sociopath, I could not shake off the feeling that allegedly dangerous antihero is somehow less dangerous than ordinary people around him - under the surface, they are all extremely selfish, greedy and violent. There is even a scene where one character (Dr. Kemp) is running and knocking at his neighbour's door, just to get them slammed in his face. Wells is very insistent about antihero being dangerous lunatic who lost his mind and became a menace to society, but this is not a nice, warm society - the mob itself is far more menacing than The Invisible Man. 

"Around the Moon" by Jules Verne (1869)

 

Jules Verne exist in his own universe - even though he is often pigeonholed together with Herbert George Wells as one of celebrated literary ancestors of science fiction, where Wells was story driven, Verne is like a giant geek who thrives on encyclopedic knowledge and likes nothing better than to show off the breadth of his scientific knowledge. That also means that the reader has to have a lot of patience to plow trough what might not be exactly called a page turner - there IS a story but its process is secondary to author's delight in scientific explorations (combined with geography, etc). It didn't bother me so much when I was a teenager, because I would just skip the boring parts, but now as an adult I could not help but notice that it does slow down the story quite noticeably. One has to go trough a tons of calculations and informations before the story continues. Once you get used to it, though, it becomes quite charming. As with the previous part ("From the Earth to the Moon") I listened this as an audiobook during my daily walks to work and back - listening to someone else's voice somehow made it easier and more enjoyable than I expected. My congratulations to Mark Smith from Simpsonville, South Carolina who read this so lovingly and patiently, using many different voices. I have a feeling we might meet again.

Where the previous novel dealt with creation of enormous cannon who will catapult our three main characters into a space (and the whole novel was basically just a build-up), now we have them actually traveling to cosmos. As this was many years before actual Moon landing, Verne had to simply use his imagination (and lots of scientific calculations) to describe imaginary journey - the story moved very slowly but it was lovingly described and one noticeable difference from the first part is how Michel Ardan suddenly became sort of comic relief (where in the first part he was a hero). Our guys travel all the way to the moon but unanticipated meeting with a comet changes their course and they end up not reaching the moon but circling around it. Just lovely. I might even go back to Verne again sometime soon. 

"From the Earth to the Moon" by Jules Verne (1865)

 

Because I recently read "The First Men in the Moon" by Herbert George Wells, I thought it would be just fair to check out his famous literary predecessor. Now, Jules Verne is of course an author usually connected to childhood and teenage years, when one reads adventure novels - however, it turned out that I am more familiar with his work trough the movies and cartoons ("Classics Illustrated") than actual books. It has been several decades since, but with a complete conviction I could name only a few of his novels that I have actually read:

- In Search of the Castaways (1868) correctly translated as "Children of Captain'Grant"

- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1869)

- Around the World in Eighty Days (1873)

- Michael Strogoff (1876) translated as "The Tzar's Courier" 

It turned out my theoretical knowledge of Jules Verne is by far bigger that my actual acquaintance with his work. So to correct this, I decided to turn my attention to "The First Men in the Moon" written some 30 years earlier than Wells. Since Goodreads is constantly reminding me that I am lagging behind my 2023 reading challenge, I did the same like with "The Wind in the Willows" and started listening to an audio book. 

This was a very good decision, because I completely forgot how obsessed with scientific experiments, details and measurements Verne was. I actually don't remember him being so scientific or technical - as a kid, I have probably just skipped everything and focused on adventures - if I was reading this as a physical book, I might have skipped it all over again - but since I was walking lulled with a pleasant voice of certain Mark F. Smith, this didn't really bother me. In the beginning it took me a while to get accustomed to so much encyclopedic knowledge (do we really need to know name of every singe bank who contributed to finance of the project?) but I grew to like it a lot and eventually started really enjoying myself. I do must confess this is a very old fashioned, flowery writing style with a tons of encyclopedic digressions into all sorts of informations, calculations and technical knowledge - in fact, author often appears far more delighted with these scientific explorations than with the plot itself, hence the huge amount of research and only occasional return to the story. I would say, Verne's novel is 70% science and 30% story. As a society, we have changed a lot since - I don't think that kids today have patience or enough focus for such long-winded literature, it tested even my patience as a grown up man. 

So is it "From the Earth to the Moon" any good?

Yes, its delightful but the reader must accept that Jules Verne exist in his own universe, where scientific details and constant technical digressions matter more than the story itself. There is a cute satire with idle members of Baltimore Gun Club joining together to finance construction of cannon that could be projected to the moon. There is a president Barbicane, his enemy Captain Nicholl and heroic French adventurer Michel Ardan (whose identity I still didn't understand, he seems to come out of nowhere), all sorts of complications around them and building of huge cannon in Florida (Texas was another possibility). There is so much of science and engineering, that the whole story almost collapses under the sheer weight of it, but Verne adds surprising touches of humour and satire that keeps the reader engaged. I was surprised how much a novel from 1865 deals with stereotypes that are perfectly recognisable even today - Americans are gun crazy and of course, a French is a hero. This was so charming that I immediately continued with a sequel. Because, dear reader, the whole book is about construction about the cannon - the journey is described in the sequel. 

"Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury (1953)

 

Motivated by Goodreads reading challenge, I decided to pick up the tempo a bit faster and had finally arrived to the point where I have 10 books behind me this year, still have the whole November and December to reach 12 books as I originally planned. It helped that Goodreads also posted a list "short reads—all under 200 pages"  probably for the people like me, who found themselves at the end of the year and not enough books read. I did read, but somehow spent too much time on "Kim" which was mistake, I should not digest one book for months. (On the other hand, why not, some books are simply created to be enjoyed slowly) In any case, I quickly decided for Ray Bradbury for two reasons. First is that, besides brilliant "The Martian Chronicles" I have actually not read anything else by him, second is that stupid feeling that surely I know about "Fahrenheit 451" but had actually never read it. This was quickly corrected.

Dear reader, you probably already know that the title of "Fahrenheit 451" alludes to a temperature where paper burns - you might even know that it has something to do with books burning in some dystopian future. I had all these vague ideas about it, but was not aware that main character will be a futuristic fireman who turns into underground fugitive and refuses to toe the line. Like everything from Bradbury, this was excellent but a bit bleak and dark - for that reason its often lumped in with the works by George Orwell and Aldous Huxley - future never seems bright, perhaps there is only a slight hope somewhere at the end of the dark tunnel. I also understand it might not appeal to everybody, there are people who find it too dark and disturbing.

I thought it was excellent - initially it was kind of slow moving but I got into it really quickly and the last few chapters were really gripping. The main character is fireman Guy Montag who never questions his orders, until one evening he accidentally starts conversation with a kooky neighbour girl Clarisse who suggest that in the past firemen used to extinguish fires, not start them - even though Clarisse eventually disappears and is probably killed, this makes Montag think about his place in the world and why everybody does as ordered. Slowly, he changes his mind and keeps one book hidden in his house - it leads to hidden threats from his boss (Captain Beatty) and a betrayal from his ignorant and callous wife (Mildred) who cares only about her equally superficial friends and huge TV walls called "family".

Becoming a wanted fugitive, Montag runs for his life, helped by old professor Faber who explains him that there are others like them, living quietly somewhere in the countryside outside the cities. Right now I think I should read it again, just to enjoy it more with better understanding.

"The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame (1908)

 

Not sure are you familiar with the website Goodreads but it is a very nice little web corner for the book lovers and it often gives you recommendations, reviews and opinions about books + creates virtual friendships + gives you statistics how much you read. They even have something called Reading challenge where you decide how much you want to read per year and according to my statistics, I was far behind my decision - once, long time ago, I used to read 4 books per month so 48 titles per year was pretty standard for me - with beginning of a new life, moving to another country and everything around Covid epidemics, I slowed down my reading quite a lot and now I am struggling to even finish 1 title per month. I thought that 12 books in a year should be realistic and here I am in November with only 8 books - to fix this, I had to quickly force myself to leave internet browsing and focus on reading. So I gulped "The First Men in the Moon" and cheated a bit with what is called novella but its actually a short story, "The Turn of the Screw" in order to pump it up a bit + I started listening audiobook "The Wind in the Willows" while walking to my work and back. 

Now, why did I decided to listen "The Wind in the Willows" I have no idea - it is a beloved British children book and a classic but as I mentioned previously, I was born and raised elsewhere and in my country the focus was on different children's authors. Kenneth Grahame wasn't even translated into Croatian until 1989. when I turned twenty and was not reading children's books anymore. I think I wanted to actually read "Watership Down" and somehow accidentally started this one instead. Listening audio book was actually surprisingly rewarding experience, because I love my walks and listening to a gentle, soothing voice was just brilliant, I must admit that these moments were the highlight of my day. If I was reading, I might skip some pages but since I was listening, I simply followed the reader's voice and my heart almost burst when at some points he started gently singing as it was part of the story. 

"The Wind in the Willows" is adorable fable with four friends (Mole, Ratty, Badger and Toad) as the main characters - they all live as friendly neighbours and its kind of Hobbit animal world where animals and humans somehow live together and nobody finds it unusual. In fact, some of the best moments come when situation is clearly impossible, as when Toad is driving the horse-drawn caravan or when he is camouflaged as a washerwoman and nobody notices. Because all four of them are so different, the story about their friendship is a pure delight and this might be my biggest literary discovery of the year - there was something soothing about listening to somebody else reading the book to me, not to mention the whole magic of the story itself. There are many hilarious, happy chapters mixed with superb poetic moments as when the Rat and Mole encounter "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" who is clearly God Pan protecting the animals. I think this was the prettiest thing I read in 2023 and might just continue with children's books. 

"The First Men in the Moon" by Herbert George Wells (1901)

 

It seems that I come back to Herbert George Wells on the regular basis - every now on than, I will visit or re-visit some of his classic novels and they always give me a lot of pleasure. He was often being called "father of science fiction" but I would rather group him together with Jules Verne who was sort of his French counterpart. In fact, the connection is real here - both men wrote about human visit to the Moon at the time when this was really just a speculative fiction. Verne published his "From the Earth to the Moon" some 30 years earlier and it obviously impressed young Wells who gives it his own twist here. I can't honestly compare these two novels because although I am sure that I read Verne, it must have been decades ago and I remember practically nothing of it (+ mixing it with "Journey to the Center of the Earth" that also have tunnels and craters). 

What did I read from Herbert George Wells so far:

The Time Machine (1895)

The Wonderful Visit (1895)

The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896)

The War of the Worlds (1898)

The First Men in the Moon (1901)

The Country of the Blind and Other Stories (1909)

I have somehow missed "The Invisible Man", maybe because I own classic old 1933 film so felt familiar with it, but should definitely correct this. "The First Men in the Moon" has its moments but its by far the lesser Wells - it starts good but he gets bogged down by scientific ideas that bring the story to a crawling pace, than towards the end it just meanders. I still love the man and enjoy his novels but this might be my least favourite of his.