Book Anatomy · The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds: Setting and world
13 lenses on setting and world for The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. Count lenses are exact for our text. AI lenses are our reading and cite only quotes that passed a word for word check.
Jump to: I1 I2 I3 I4 I5 I6 I7 I8 I9 I10 I11 I12 I13
I1. Places named and how often each appears. Count
London is the place named most, 59 times.
| Place | Mentions | Chapters |
|---|---|---|
| London | 59 | 14 |
| Woking | 53 | 14 |
| Mars | 43 | 15 |
| Earth | 43 | 17 |
| Weybridge | 27 | 6 |
| Leatherhead | 20 | 8 |
| Richmond | 15 | 6 |
| Maybury Hill | 8 | 3 |
| Horsell Common | 7 | 5 |
| Primrose Hill | 6 | 4 |
| Essex coast | 3 | 1 |
| Chobham Road | 2 | 2 |
I2. Setting by chapter, as a map. Both
The place named most in each chapter. A rough setting map. (rough estimate from word lists)
| Chapter | Place named most |
|---|---|
| 1 | Mars |
| 2 | Mars |
| 3 | Mars |
| 4 | Woking |
| 5 | Woking |
| 6 | Woking |
| 7 | Mars |
| 8 | Woking |
| 9 | Woking |
| 10 | Maybury Hill |
| 11 | Woking |
| 12 | Weybridge |
| 13 | Weybridge |
| 14 | London |
Chapters 1 to 3 are set near Woking. Chapters 4 to 12 span Surrey and the Thames valley. Chapters 13 to 21 move through Halliford and trapped ruins. Chapters 22 to 25 cover the devastated landscape and London. Chapter 26 returns home.
Chapters: Ch 1, Ch 4, Ch 13, Ch 22, Ch 26
I3. Setting shown in blocks or woven into action? AI
Setting is woven into action throughout. The narrator describes locations as he flees or observes. Chapter 19 shows the pit through the viewing slit. Chapter 23 describes the transformed landscape as the narrator walks through it.
Chapters: Ch 9, Ch 19, Ch 23
Across the light huge black shapes, grotesque and strange, moved busily to and fro (Ch 11, para 4)
I felt as a rabbit might feel returning to his burrow and suddenly confronted by the work of a dozen busy navvies digging the foundations of a house. (Ch 23, para 3)
I4. Weather and light used for mood. Both
Weather and light words: 4.06 per 1,000 words.
Weather and light words, chapter by chapter
Weather and light create mood. Chapter 10's storm heightens danger. Chapter 11's dawn light reveals devastation. Chapter 25's dead London is shrouded in darkness and black powder. Light shifts from hope to dread.
Chapters: Ch 10, Ch 11, Ch 25
Thick streamers of black smoke shot with threads of red fire were driving up into the still air, and throwing dark shadows upon the green treetops eastward (Ch 9, para 43)
The red weed was tumultuous at that time, and nearly choked the bridge roadway; but its fronds were already whitened in patches by the spreading disease (Ch 25, para 2)
I5. The social world: class, money, rules. AI
Class appears subtly. The narrator is educated and owns property. The curate is clergy. The artilleryman is working class. Money matters in chapter 14 when the brother gathers ten pounds. Social order collapses as the invasion progresses.
Chapters: Ch 7, Ch 14, Ch 20, Ch 24
As my brother began to realise the import of all these things, he turned hastily to his own room, put all his available money—some ten pounds altogether—into his pockets, and went out again into the streets. (Ch 14, para 54)
He was a stout, ruddy, middle-aged man, well dressed; three days before, he must have been walking the world, a man of considerable consequence. (Ch 20, para 10)
I6. Rules of the world (magic, science) and when each is shown. AI
Science rules this world. The Heat-Ray, Black Smoke, and Martian biology follow physical laws. Chapter 1 establishes Mars as real. Chapter 27 explains the Martians' death by bacteria, grounding the ending in science.
Chapters: Ch 1, Ch 6, Ch 25, Ch 27
slain by the putrefactive and disease bacteria against which their systems were unprepared; slain as the red weed was being slain (Ch 25, para 22)
Carver’s suggestions as to the reason of the rapid death of the Martians is so probable as to be regarded almost as a proven conclusion. (Ch 27, para 2)
I7. Lore: dripped in or dumped? AI
Lore is dripped in. Chapter 1 introduces Mars and Martian minds. Chapters 2 to 4 reveal the cylinder and creatures gradually. Chapter 19 shows Martian anatomy through observation. Chapter 27 explains their defeat scientifically.
Chapters: Ch 1, Ch 2, Ch 19, Ch 27
Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes (Ch 1, para 2)
The cylinder was artificial—hollow—with an end that screwed out! Something within the cylinder was unscrewing the top! (Ch 2, para 9)
I8. Real history used, and how. AI
Real history is minimal. The Thunder Child is a fictional ironclad. London, Surrey, and the Thames are real places used as backdrop. The book is set in contemporary 1898 England but invents the invasion.
Chapters: Ch 17
It was the torpedo ram, Thunder Child, steaming headlong, coming to the rescue of the threatened shipping. (Ch 17, para 23)
I9. Journeys: distance and time taken. Both
The narrator travels from Woking to Leatherhead to Weybridge to London to Primrose Hill over roughly two weeks. The brother travels from London to Essex coast. Distances are measured in miles and hours of flight.
Chapters: Ch 9, Ch 12, Ch 16, Ch 25
I10. Objects that matter, where they appear. Both
cylinder is the object named most.
| Object | Mentions | Chapters |
|---|---|---|
| cylinder | 66 | 19 |
| Heat-Ray | 35 | 11 |
| red weed | 26 | 6 |
| Black Smoke | 25 | 9 |
| handling-machine | 15 | 4 |
| tripod | 7 | 5 |
| dog cart | 7 | 3 |
| Thunder Child | 6 | 1 |
The cylinder is central in chapters 2 to 5. The Heat-Ray appears throughout as invisible death. The red weed dominates chapters 19, 22, and 23. The dog cart enables escape in chapter 9. The coal cellar shelters the narrator in chapters 18 to 21.
Chapters: Ch 2, Ch 9, Ch 19, Ch 22
The Thing itself lay almost entirely buried in sand, amidst the scattered splinters of a fir tree it had shivered to fragments in its descent (Ch 2, para 5)
In the centre, sticking into the skin of our old planet Earth like a poisoned dart, was this cylinder (Ch 8, para 8)
I11. Density of period detail. AI
Period detail is moderate. The narrator mentions newspapers, dog carts, artillery, and steamers. Chapter 14 references the Daily Chronicle. Technology is 1898 standard. Martian tech contrasts sharply with human machinery.
Chapters: Ch 7, Ch 14, Ch 17
I heard of it first from my newspaper boy about a quarter to nine when I went out to get my Daily Chronicle (Ch 2, para 23)
It was the torpedo ram, Thunder Child, steaming headlong, coming to the rescue of the threatened shipping. (Ch 17, para 23)
I12. Setting as an enemy. AI
Setting becomes an enemy from chapter 9 onward. The landscape transforms into red weed and flooded terrain in chapters 22 to 23. The ruins trap the narrator in chapters 18 to 21. London becomes a dead city in chapter 25.
Chapters: Ch 9, Ch 18, Ch 22, Ch 25
I felt as a rabbit might feel returning to his burrow and suddenly confronted by the work of a dozen busy navvies digging the foundations of a house. (Ch 23, para 3)
The red weed was tumultuous at that time, and nearly choked the bridge roadway; but its fronds were already whitened in patches by the spreading disease (Ch 25, para 2)
I13. Indoors against outdoors. Both
Outdoor words outnumber indoor words 449 to 261. (rough estimate from word lists)
Indoor share %, chapter by chapter
Outdoors dominates. The narrator flees through open country in chapters 9 to 12. Indoors appears in chapter 7 at home and chapters 18 to 21 trapped in ruins. The contrast between safe home and exposed landscape drives tension.
Chapters: Ch 7, Ch 9, Ch 18, Ch 22
I did not know it, but that was the last civilised dinner I was to eat for very many strange and terrible days (Ch 7, para 35)
And oh! the sweetness of the air! (Ch 22, para 20)
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