The War of the Worlds
What would you do if Martians invaded Earth? This classic sci-fi horror novel follows a man's struggle to survive in a world under attack by advanced aliens. Adapted in modern English for learners at CEFR B2 · Lexile 1050L.
H.G. Wells · Level: B2 · 28 Chapters
Read the English chapter; select your language in the interactive lesson.
- The Watchers From Mars
The narrator describes how Mars, a dying world, launches projectiles toward Earth while humanity remains oblivious to the threat.
Start learning - The Cylinder's Awakening
A meteorite lands on Horsell Common, revealing itself as an artificial cylinder that begins to unscrew, containing something alive.
Start learning - The Crowd Gathers at the Pit
A crowd gathers around the mysterious cylinder on Horsell Common, while scientists and workmen attempt to excavate it and hear faint stirrings from within.
Start learning - The Cylinder Opens
The Martian cylinder unscrews, revealing a monstrous alien creature that emerges before the terrified crowd.
Start learning - The Deputation's Annihilation
Curious onlookers approach the Martian pit with a white flag, only to be incinerated by a sudden, sweeping heat-ray.
Start learning - The Heat-Ray's Scorching Path
A crowd gathers near the Martian pit and is attacked by the invisible Heat-Ray, causing panic, fire, and a deadly stampede.
Start learning - The Fugitive's Return
The narrator, exhausted and disoriented, flees the Martian attack and returns home, where he struggles to reconcile the horror with normal life.
Start learning - The Poisoned Dart's First Night
While most of society continues its normal routines, the first Martian cylinder sits on Horsell Common, with only local disturbance and military deployment hinting at the coming catastrophe.
Start learning - The Milkman's Strawberries and the Sappers' Debate
The narrator witnesses the military's preparations and the Martians' devastating first attack with their Heat-Ray weapon.
Start learning - The Tripods' First Stride
The narrator witnesses two Martian tripods emerging during a violent thunderstorm, crashes his carriage, and narrowly escapes while discovering the dead innkeeper.
Start learning - The Window's View of Desolation
The narrator observes the Martian destruction from his study window and shelters a traumatized artilleryman who recounts the massacre.
Start learning - The Martians' Crossing at Shepperton
The narrator and an artilleryman witness the Martian attack on Weybridge and the first successful military strike against one of the invaders.
Start learning - The Curate's Despair and the River's Escape
The narrator escapes by river, encounters a traumatized curate, and they hear distant guns as humanity prepares for battle.
Start learning - London's Sunday of Rumors and Refugees
The narrator's brother in London learns of the Martian invasion through fragmented news reports and witnesses the first refugees arriving from the south.
Start learning - The Black Vapor's Silent Advance
Martians deploy a deadly black vapor that silently suffocates the waiting artillery batteries, rendering human defenses useless.
Start learning - The Great Exodus Begins
London's population flees in panic as Martian black smoke advances; the narrator's brother escapes the city, rescues two women from robbers, and joins the chaotic mass exodus northward.
Start learning - The Thunder Child's Last Stand
A naval ironclad, the Thunder Child, engages three Martians on the Essex coast to protect a fleeing fleet of refugee ships.
Start learning - Trapped in the Ruins
The narrator and the curate escape the Black Smoke, witness a Martian capturing humans, and are buried alive when a Martian cylinder strikes their refuge.
Start learning - The Martian Workmen Revealed
The narrator observes the Martians and their handling-machine at work in the vast new pit, describing their alien physiology and technology.
Start learning - The Peephole and the Pit
The narrator and the curate hide, witnessing the Martians' industrial work and their horrific capture and consumption of humans.
Start learning - The Curate's Final Witness
The narrator, trapped with a deranged curate, is forced to kill him to prevent him from alerting the Martians, who then investigate the house.
Start learning - The Silence After the Feast
The narrator emerges from hiding to find the Martians gone, leaving only ruins and the red weed.
Start learning - The Red World's Dominion
The narrator emerges to find Earth transformed by Martian red weed, scavenges for food, and confronts the terrifying possibility he is the last human alive.
Start learning - The Artilleryman's Grim Prophecy
The narrator spends a restless night in Putney, then meets a desperate artilleryman who argues humanity is doomed to be hunted and farmed by the Martians.
Start learning - The Artilleryman's Underground Dream
The artilleryman reveals his grandiose plans for surviving under Martian rule by building an underground civilization, but the narrator grows disillusioned and leaves.
Start learning - The Silence After the Howling
The narrator traverses a dead, silent London, follows the Martian's eerie cry to Regent's Park, and discovers the invaders have all perished from disease.
Start learning - The Wreckage of a World
The narrator, recovering from a mental lapse, returns to his ruined home and is reunited with his wife.
Start learning - The Survivor's Haunting Epilogue
The narrator reflects on the invasion's aftermath, speculates on Martian science and future threats, and is haunted by traumatic memories.
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