This story appeared, originally, divided into episodes, in the newspaper Pearson's Weekly, in 1897. It became a novel that same year, after its publication in episodes.
It was born from the creative genius of Herbert George Wells, the same author of The Time Machine and War of the Worlds, and one of my favourite writers.
I read the book as a teenager, when the discomfort of living already began to distinguish my life: I read those lines with greed, devouring that volume, identifying myself with the protagonist.
This is the reason why talking about The Invisible Man, as to me, means talking about a piece of my life: it is about myself.
When I got the idea of giving life to this blog, I wanted to start by talking about this book; however, then, I decided to dedicate the first post to The Shadow, which certainly has a lot in common with the invisible man.
At the beginning of the narration, we read the description of the arrival of a mysterious foreigner in the village of Iping, in West Sussex. Its appearance causes havoc in the small town, due to its strange appearance: the man, in fact, is wrapped up from head to toe and bandages cover his face; he always wears hat, gloves and black eyeglasses. The motivation that everyone deduces, of course, is that the man has been the victim of some accident.
Nevertheless, the mysteries do not end there.
After a while, at the inn where the foreigner is staying, some crates, containing chemical equipment, arrive: ampoules, test tubes, stills, bottles of various shapes and sizes and lots of books. The man, whose name is Griffin (his first name will never be known) is, therefore, a scientist.
Wells, in his novel, tends very much to ridicule the arrogant and clumsy ignorance of the citizens of Iping in comparison to Griffin's profound, though troubled, personality, since a marked hostility on the part of the villagers is evident: when the fool do not understand something, they laugh at it or hate it, but their purpose is always to destroy it.
Soon this tension will reach its peak and the war will be openly declared. Only then the inhabitants of Iping will discover whothe foreigner really is: a man of formidable talent who, thanks to his knowledge of the laws of chemistry and physics, has succeeded in realizing the ancient dream of making a living being invisible.
Under those bandages there is the first and only invisible man that has ever existed; despite this, his discovery will not win him the admiration and esteem of humanity: it will give him contempt, hatred and treacherous malevolence.
And, although apparently, from the narrative fabric, it emerges that Griffin must be seen as an elusive, not very empathic, obscure figure, yet the resulting impression is diametrically the opposite: one ends up recognizing in Griffin only a soul in pain, a human being who suffers from an immense grief, resulting from the misunderstanding of the barbarous human soul.
I hope, at this point, that my readers will be encouraged to read the book, to find out more about the plot and its ending.
For those wishing to skip reading, there is, alternatively, the vision of some acceptable film adaptations.
The first major film that used Wells' novel as a script was shot in 1933. It was directed by James Whale, while the role of Griffin was entrusted to the excellent Claude Rains. A sequel was shot in 1940 (The Invisible Man Returns) and the leading role was no longer Rains, but the legendary Vincent Price. Other episodes, less relevant, were once again made in 1940, then in 1942 and finally in 1944.
I omit to speak about some other more recent films, which, in a more or less accentuated manner, were based on Wells' original book, because I do not consider them even worthy of note.
I had imagined, while I was reading the novel, to see that story turned into a drama: a drama carried out by English professionals, with English actors, faithful to the book. This hope was fully realized only in 1984, by the UK's most famous television production company, the BBC.
That is why I enclose the links to all the episodes of this incredible fiction.
In contrast with modern tastes, and having already had, when I was very young, tastes that clashed with the trends of that time, I believe, in this case, to be really one of the few to dwell on certain details, that today are obsolete and snubbed. But I do not care.
I declare my unconditional and unlimited love for the figure of Griffin, the invisible man: I love him because of his torment, because of his affliction, because of his ordeal as a human being; a human being that, like everyone, should deserve, at least, some pity (and with this word I quote a final sentence of the book), but which is also denied of that pity with hatred.
The invisible man is more, much, much more than simple science fiction: it is a dramatic story that symbolizes the unreasonable and reckless ferocity of the human soul; it is a symbolic parable of those who propose something new to the world, hoping that the world will understand its importance: this “something new” can be an idea, a product of creativity, anything original and unusual. But the world is too busy with itself. People are prisoners of their petty spirit, their human inadequacy to see things with eyes free from prejudice. To this I would also add a good dose of conformism (the one that makes people say "We are normal and we accept only normal ones like us") and respectability (the one that has characterizes bigots, more or less declared, for centuries).
Griffin represents the subversive, the maker of magnificent and grandiose things, which crash against individual blindness.
People prefer empty, stupid and rhetorical things, devoid of truth: people love arrogance; people love those who know how to sell the air with grotesque artifices, by shouting, by improvising themselves as hucksters of nothing, through a deafening megaphone.
People, for centuries, have condemned themselves, thanks to the obtuseness, the misery, the social and spiritual squalor in which they have always lived.
And, perhaps, the obtuseness of the human race will, forever, decree its end.
THE INVISIBLE MAN, the fiction (BBC- 1984)
THE INVISIBLE MAN – Episode 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb2szMqErKk
THE INVISIBLE MAN – Episode 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glwhm75GIOw
THE INVISIBLE MAN – Episode 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAwbShafNJ4
THE INVISIBLE MAN – Episode 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ljqb-jCdmQ
THE INVISIBLE MAN – Episode 5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf6_VGxJZsk
THE INVISIBLE MAN – Episode 6 - Final
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BGHnn-sVg0
