GANGNES: Presumably this timing is necessary because the capsules are all being "aimed" at roughly the same area geographically; the cylinders need a "straight shot" from their giant gun (cannon), and the Earth takes 24 hours to rotate back to roughly the same position in reference to the Sun. It may also take a significant amount of time to reload a new capsule into the gun.

From STOVER 60: There was a "signalling mania" during this time; Francis Galton (Darwin's cousin) fed the "mania" through his 1896 article "Intelligible Signals Between Neighbouring Stars."

From MCCONNELL 130: Wells was also learning to ride a bicycle during this time.

GANGNES: Cut from the 1898 volume. See text comparison page.

GANGNES: to the northeast of Woking, a little over halfway between Woking and central London

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 230: "Residential district of greater London, just east of Kew Gardens, about eight miles west-southwest of the center of the city."

GANGNES: city near the south coast of England; Woking lies to the northeast midway between Winchester and London

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 235: "A city in southern England, in Hampshire, about sixty miles southwest of London. Famous for its Cathedral (founded 1079) and its public school (Britain's oldest)."

GANGNES: tall windows that open out as glass double-doors

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 202: "William Frederick Denning (1848-1931) was the chief authority on cometary systems and meteorites."

GANGNES: the town in which the first Martian cylinder lands and the first part of the narrative action takes place; the narrator lives in the area

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 235: "A town in Surrey, about four miles north of Guildford and twenty-three miles southwest of central London."

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 230: "Northern sector of Woking, Surrey."

From DANAHAY 47: contiguous English counties

GANGNES: Most of the novel takes place in Surrey and central London.

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 227: Berkshire is "a county of southern England bordered by Oxford and Buckingham (on the north), Gloucester (on the northwest), Hampshire (on the south), Surrey (on the southeast), and Wiltshire (on the west)."

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 234: Surrey is "a county of southern England bordered by Buckingham, Middlesex, and London (on the north), Berkshire (on the northwest), Kent (on the east), Hampshire (on the west), and Sussex (on the southwest). It is drained by the rivers Thames, Wey, and Mole."

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 231: Middlesex is "a major residential district that forms a sizeable part of London's metropolitan area. It borders Essex and London (on the east), Surrey (on the south), Hertford (on the north), and Buckingham (on the west)."

From STOVER 67: The sand-pits are a real topographical feature on Horsell Common.

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 233: "On the east side of Horsell Common, about a mile and a half north of Woking."

GANGNES: a town to the northeast of Woking, between Woking and London

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 235: "a north Surrey town about four miles northeast of Woking and seventeen miles southwest of central London"

From DANAHAY 48: "ash that has formed a hard crust"

GANGNES: the heat radiating from the cylinder (not harmful/nuclear radiation)

GANGNES: British "pubs"/bars

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 230: "a canal bridge near the center of Woking"

GANGNES: There are quite a few real "Henderson"s associated with the nineteenth-century press. However, given the role of "Henderson" in this novel, it seems unlikely that the name was meant to refer to any particular journalist.

Source:

• Brake, Laurel, and Marysa Demoor, editors. Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland. Academia Press and The British Library, 2009.

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 230: "recreational area immediately north of Woking, Surrey, where the first cylinder landed"

From DANAHAY 49: "a bartender opening the public house (pub) for the day"

DANAHAY 49: "the pub room where beer is served 'on tap'"

GANGNES: This statement implies that most English people became far more familiar with astronomy after their country was invaded by aliens from another planet.

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 202: the game of "tag" in Britain

From DANAHAY 51: "a gardener who does occasional work for different people"

From MCCONNELL 135: "a hollow tube or ball used to regulate the flow of a liquid or gas"

From STOVER 69: "a harbor beacon erected on a floating hull containing bottled gas to fuel it"

From MCCONNELL 135: "Any chemical compound containing oxygen. The surface of the cylinder has been oxidized in the heat generated by its fall through the atmosphere."

GANGNES: This is one of the many instances in which newspapers release information that is incorrect, vague, or unhelpful. Throughout the novel, the narrator criticizes the inaccuracy and mercenary nature of the press.

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 228: "A village about three and a half miles northwest of Woking, Surrey. To the southeast it borders on Horsell Common, where the first cylinder landed."

From MCCONNELL 135: A fictional society; the International Astronomical Union was founded in 1919.

GANGNES: You will see below that three different annotated editions of the novel give three different definitions of this reference, and they do not agree as to whether it is Wales or Ireland that is meant to be the "third kingdom."

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 203: England, Ireland, and Scotland

From STOVER 70: Of Great Britain

From DANAHAY 52: England, Scotland, and Wales

From DANAHAY 52: "Flys" and "basket chaises" are light horse carriages with two wheels pulled by one horse.

GANGNES: road leading to Chobham from Woking

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 228: "a thoroughfare bordering the north side of Horsell Common, located about a mile and a half north of Woking, Surrey"

From STOVER 27: "The Astronomer Royal was director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory, but 'Stent' is not recorded as one of them." "Stent" may have been used for political reasons.

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 234: "Waterloo (railroad) Station, in Waterloo Road, Lambeth. In the 1890s this station was the terminus of the South-Western Railway, which served points in southern England."

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 203: "No Horsell Manor or Lord Hilton has been traced"; "the local lord was Lord Onslow of Clandon."

From STOVER 71: The name may have been changed for political reasons.

GANGNES: Visual depictions of Wells's Martians, like those of their fighting-machines, have varied widely. Part of this is due to the fact that, even though they are described at length, the narrator still has difficulty wrapping his head around how to relate their appearance to terrestrial creatures. Most depictions resemble something squidlike, but Spielberg's 2005 film) extrapolates from the tripod machines and gives the Martians three appendages.

More information:

• Illustrations of Wells's Martians on book covers of The War of the Worlds collected by Chez Zeus

GANGNES: The 1898 volume removes this address to the reader and its reference to the Natural History museum. See text comparison page. Here is the revised sentence: "Those who have never seen a living Martian can scarcely imagine the strange horror of its appearance." In general, appeals to the reader (i.e., usage of "you" or similar) are minimized in the volume. Such revisions may aid in making the novel's tone more journalistic.

GANGNES: Cut from the 1898 volume. See text comparison page. This is one of many instances in which the volume omits the narrator's references to his own feelings, especially somewhat cowardly/frightened reactions. Like appeals to the reader, personal responses could undermine the journalistic tone that characterizes most of the novel.

From MCCONNELL 143: "a spiny shrub with yellow flowers, very common throughout England and Europe"

From MCCONNELL 139: fungus-like

GANGNES: A reference to the irresistible quality of Gorgons; see note on "Gorgon" above.

GANGNES: southeast of Chobham or north from Woking

The majority of the annotations on this page draw from the following critical editions of The War of the Worlds, which will be cited and tagged according to the last name(s) of the editor(s) of that edition:

DANAHAY: Martin A. Danahay. The War of the Worlds. Broadview Press, 2003.

HUGHES AND GEDULD: David Y. Hughes and Harry M. Geduld, eds. A Critical Edition of The War of the Worlds: H. G. Wells’s Scientific Romance, with Introduction and Notes by David Y. Hughes and Harry M. Geduld. Indiana UP, 1993.

MCCONNELL: Frank McConnell, ed. The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds: A Critical Edition. Oxford UP, 1977.

STOVER: Leon Stover. The War of the Worlds: A Critical Text of the 1898 London First Edition, with an Introduction, Illustrations and Appendices. McFarland and Company, Inc, 2001.

Madeline Gangnes has added additional annotations and resources, especially those that address materials related to Pearson's Magazine and adaptations of the text. They are cited with their source(s) (where applicable) and tagged as GANGNES.

This page incorporates several elements. Its main body is a transcription of the text of the ninth installment of H. G. Wells's novel The War of the Worlds as it was published in Pearson's Magazine in December of 1897. This text was created by Madeline Gangnes by comparing the Project Gutenberg text with the digital facsimiles of Pearson's Magazine generously hosted by HathiTrust. Facsimile pages of the installment are interspersed throughout this page. Each image includes a detailed caption in order to facilitate text-to-speech accessibility. Textual markers that indicate the beginning and end of each page's text are incorporated for text-to-speech and to make clear which text corresponds to which page of the magazine.

The majority of the annotations on this page draw from the following critical editions of The War of the Worlds, which will be cited and tagged according to the last name(s) of the editor(s) of that edition:

DANAHAY: Martin A. Danahay. The War of the Worlds. Broadview Press, 2003.

HUGHES AND GEDULD: David Y. Hughes and Harry M. Geduld, eds. A Critical Edition of The War of the Worlds: H. G. Wells’s Scientific Romance, with Introduction and Notes by David Y. Hughes and Harry M. Geduld. Indiana UP, 1993.

MCCONNELL: Frank McConnell, ed. The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds: A Critical Edition. Oxford UP, 1977.

STOVER: Leon Stover. The War of the Worlds: A Critical Text of the 1898 London First Edition, with an Introduction, Illustrations and Appendices. McFarland and Company, Inc, 2001.

Madeline Gangnes has added additional annotations and resources, especially those that address materials related to Pearson's Magazine and adaptations of the text. They are cited with their source(s) (where applicable) and tagged as GANGNES.

This page incorporates several elements. Its main body is a transcription of the text of the eighth installment of H. G. Wells's novel The War of the Worlds as it was published in Pearson's Magazine in November of 1897. This text was created by Madeline Gangnes by comparing the Project Gutenberg text with the digital facsimiles of Pearson's Magazine generously hosted by HathiTrust. Facsimile pages of the installment are interspersed throughout this page. Each image includes a detailed caption in order to facilitate text-to-speech accessibility. Textual markers that indicate the beginning and end of each page's text are incorporated for text-to-speech and to make clear which text corresponds to which page of the magazine.

The majority of the annotations on this page draw from the following critical editions of The War of the Worlds, which will be cited and tagged according to the last name(s) of the editor(s) of that edition:

DANAHAY: Martin A. Danahay. The War of the Worlds. Broadview Press, 2003.

HUGHES AND GEDULD: David Y. Hughes and Harry M. Geduld, eds. A Critical Edition of The War of the Worlds: H. G. Wells’s Scientific Romance, with Introduction and Notes by David Y. Hughes and Harry M. Geduld. Indiana UP, 1993.

MCCONNELL: Frank McConnell, ed. The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds: A Critical Edition. Oxford UP, 1977.

STOVER: Leon Stover. The War of the Worlds: A Critical Text of the 1898 London First Edition, with an Introduction, Illustrations and Appendices. McFarland and Company, Inc, 2001.

Madeline Gangnes has added additional annotations and resources, especially those that address materials related to Pearson's Magazine and adaptations of the text. They are cited with their source(s) (where applicable) and tagged as GANGNES.

This page incorporates several elements. Its main body is a transcription of the text of the seventh installment of H. G. Wells's novel The War of the Worlds as it was published in Pearson's Magazine in October of 1897. This text was created by Madeline Gangnes by comparing the Project Gutenberg text with the digital facsimiles of Pearson's Magazine generously hosted by HathiTrust. Facsimile pages of the installment are interspersed throughout this page. Each image includes a detailed caption in order to facilitate text-to-speech accessibility. Textual markers that indicate the beginning and end of each page's text are incorporated for text-to-speech and to make clear which text corresponds to which page of the magazine.

The majority of the annotations on this page draw from the following critical editions of The War of the Worlds, which will be cited and tagged according to the last name(s) of the editor(s) of that edition:

DANAHAY: Martin A. Danahay. The War of the Worlds. Broadview Press, 2003.

HUGHES AND GEDULD: David Y. Hughes and Harry M. Geduld, eds. A Critical Edition of The War of the Worlds: H. G. Wells’s Scientific Romance, with Introduction and Notes by David Y. Hughes and Harry M. Geduld. Indiana UP, 1993.

MCCONNELL: Frank McConnell, ed. The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds: A Critical Edition. Oxford UP, 1977.

STOVER: Leon Stover. The War of the Worlds: A Critical Text of the 1898 London First Edition, with an Introduction, Illustrations and Appendices. McFarland and Company, Inc, 2001.

Madeline Gangnes has added additional annotations and resources, especially those that address materials related to Pearson's Magazine and adaptations of the text. They are cited with their source(s) (where applicable) and tagged as GANGNES.

This page incorporates several elements. Its main body is a transcription of the text of the sixth installment of H. G. Wells's novel The War of the Worlds as it was published in Pearson's Magazine in September of 1897. This text was created by Madeline Gangnes by comparing the Project Gutenberg text with the digital facsimiles of Pearson's Magazine generously hosted by HathiTrust. Facsimile pages of the installment are interspersed throughout this page. Each image includes a detailed caption in order to facilitate text-to-speech accessibility. Textual markers that indicate the beginning and end of each page's text are incorporated for text-to-speech and to make clear which text corresponds to which page of the magazine.

From MCCONNELL 191: "an advanced student or younger teacher who, for a fee, tutors other students in preparation for their examinations"

From DANAHAY 98: a crammer was/is "somebody who helps students 'cram' for their exams. This was usually a graduate student or somebody with an advanced degree; Wells himself worked as a 'crammer' preparing students for science exams."

The majority of the annotations on this page draw from the following critical editions of The War of the Worlds, which will be cited and tagged according to the last name(s) of the editor(s) of that edition:

DANAHAY: Martin A. Danahay. The War of the Worlds. Broadview Press, 2003.

HUGHES AND GEDULD: David Y. Hughes and Harry M. Geduld, eds. A Critical Edition of The War of the Worlds: H. G. Wells’s Scientific Romance, with Introduction and Notes by David Y. Hughes and Harry M. Geduld. Indiana UP, 1993.

MCCONNELL: Frank McConnell, ed. The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds: A Critical Edition. Oxford UP, 1977.

STOVER: Leon Stover. The War of the Worlds: A Critical Text of the 1898 London First Edition, with an Introduction, Illustrations and Appendices. McFarland and Company, Inc, 2001.

Madeline Gangnes has added additional annotations and resources, especially those that address materials related to Pearson's Magazine and adaptations of the text. They are cited with their source(s) (where applicable) and tagged as GANGNES.

This page incorporates several elements. Its main body is a transcription of the text of the fifth installment of H. G. Wells's novel The War of the Worlds as it was published in Pearson's Magazine in August of 1897. This text was created by Madeline Gangnes by comparing the Project Gutenberg text with the digital facsimiles of Pearson's Magazine generously hosted by HathiTrust. Facsimile pages of the installment are interspersed throughout this page. Each image includes a detailed caption in order to facilitate text-to-speech accessibility. Textual markers that indicate the beginning and end of each page's text are incorporated for text-to-speech and to make clear which text corresponds to which page of the magazine.

The majority of the annotations on this page draw from the following critical editions of The War of the Worlds, which will be cited and tagged according to the last name(s) of the editor(s) of that edition:

DANAHAY: Martin A. Danahay. The War of the Worlds. Broadview Press, 2003.

HUGHES AND GEDULD: David Y. Hughes and Harry M. Geduld, eds. A Critical Edition of The War of the Worlds: H. G. Wells’s Scientific Romance, with Introduction and Notes by David Y. Hughes and Harry M. Geduld. Indiana UP, 1993.

MCCONNELL: Frank McConnell, ed. The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds: A Critical Edition. Oxford UP, 1977.

STOVER: Leon Stover. The War of the Worlds: A Critical Text of the 1898 London First Edition, with an Introduction, Illustrations and Appendices. McFarland and Company, Inc, 2001.

Madeline Gangnes has added additional annotations and resources, especially those that address materials related to Pearson's Magazine and adaptations of the text. They are cited with their source(s) (where applicable) and tagged as GANGNES.

This page incorporates several elements. Its main body is a transcription of the text of the fourth installment of H. G. Wells's novel The War of the Worlds as it was published in Pearson's Magazine in July of 1897. This text was created by Madeline Gangnes by comparing the Project Gutenberg text with the digital facsimiles of Pearson's Magazine generously hosted by HathiTrust. Facsimile pages of the installment are interspersed throughout this page. Each image includes a detailed caption in order to facilitate text-to-speech accessibility. Textual markers that indicate the beginning and end of each page's text are incorporated for text-to-speech and to make clear which text corresponds to which page of the magazine.