Book Review - The Invisible Man (H.G. Wells)

The Invisible Man is one of H.G. Wells's most iconic works. Like some of his other famous stories, it warns about the danger of science when combined with ruthless egoism. The story begins in the English village of Iping, where a strange man lodges at a local inn. He obsesses over his work and is hostile to any contact from the outside world. When the people discover his secret, the man goes on the run and becomes an almost mythic figure, as the authorities and inhabitants try to track him down.

I would say that the earliest part of this story is the best, where the Invisible Man (known as Griffin) tries to keep his secret at Iping. The story here isn't told from his perspective, but from the villagers, as they try to piece together the strange goings-on that surround him – his unfriendly manner, dogs barking at him, robberies and haunted furniture. Even with foreknowledge of the twist, I felt the build-up here was well executed. The story strikes a good balance between comedy and unease. It's the tone and atmosphere that makes this part of the story, rather than characterisation – the lodger is a cypher, and the villagers are one-dimensional.

The plot ratchets up when Griffin is forced to go on the run, and preys on a traveller named Thomas Marvel, using him to steal his books and scientific instruments from under the townspeople's noses. Marvel is also not very developed, but Wells conveys enough of the fear and confusion of his situation to make him sympathetic. The tension between Marvel and Griffin also added to my interest, as I had no idea how this dynamic would play out.

Halfway through the book, Griffin comes across an old acquaintance, a former fellow student named Kemp, and makes him his confidante. From this point on, I felt the story became much weaker. Griffin's explanation as to how he discovered invisibility and how he came to Iping is necessary, but I felt dragged on for too long. While it's interesting to see Griffin try and survive the London streets in his condition, I felt this monologue killed the plot by being too drawn out.

Griffin's characterisation is the story's weakest point. Whereas at the start he was cold and violent out of desperation, Wells eventually turns him into a full-blown psychopath. Griffin dreams of starting a reign of terror in the English countryside, with Kemp as his right-hand man. Despite his invisibility, I found this plan too ludicrous to find at all menacing. To stay completely hidden, Griffin has to stay naked, leaving him open to the elements. He's also completely outnumbered and his plan doesn't seem to amount to anything beyond killing random people. Griffin's bland and unexplained descent into villainy comes across as a clumsy attempt by Wells to pad out the final third of the novel by adding a villain. While the story was never about characterisation, the earlier parts worked strongly without such broad strokes.

This also scuppers the story's attempts to show invisibility in a realistic sense. Griffin's backstory, while lengthy, goes to great lengths to show the difficulties invisibility would bring. The megalomaniac he becomes feels like a completely different character.

I would recommend the first two thirds of The Invisible Man, as they're an interesting exploration of this “What if” scenario. The final third, though, doesn't really fit, and left me feeling dissatisfied with the story as a whole.