They were all stalking seaward

Warwick Goble

Photomechanical reproduction of a watercolour

4½ x 2¾ inches

H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, serialized in Pearson’s Magazine, 4 (July–Dec 1897), 449.

This illustration highlights the contrast between the tripods' mechanical legs and thrashing tentacles. The combination of industrial pincers, spurts of steam, smoke and ‘articulate ropes of steel’ makes them both incongruous and other-worldly. The featureless seascape typifies the bleak treatment of topography, accentuating the idea of a world being stripped of its natural assets.

Click on image to enlarge it

Scanned image and text by Simon Cooke.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]