The Invisible Man was first published in 1897. It is one of a number of “scientific romances”, early examples of science fiction that Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) wrote as a young man. 1. It has fascinated storytellers for centuries. In a typical story the hero is given a magic cloak which has the power to make him invisible. But Wells' immediate source was a comic poem, The Perils of Invisibility by W.S. Gilbert. From this Wells borrowed two basic ideas. 2. The second was that invisibility might not be such a blessing after all. Gilbert's poem tells of a fairy who invites a man named Peter to choose one of three gifts. Peter asks to be made invisible. 3. Peter vanishes but his clothes do not. 4. Well's hero is a scientist who .offers an elaborate explanation of the theory and practice of invisibility, and although there is a great deal of light comedy in the book there is also seriousness and food for thought. Wells' Invisible Man develops ambitions that go far beyond science.
The Invisible Man, then, is a semi-realistic fantasy: that is, a story that takes just one impossibility and places it in the context of ordinary everyday experience. 5. The physical setting, in particular, is very real. Iping, where the story takes place, is an actual village that was well known to Wells.