Things Fall Apart

Summary — What This Novel Is Really About

• Plot: An unnamed narrator witnesses Martians land in cylinders near his home in Woking, England. They unleash devastating "Heat-Rays" and poisonous "Black Smoke," destroying the army and forcing mass evacuation. The narrator is separated from his wife, teams up with an artilleryman and a curate, and witnesses the fall of London. In the end, the Martians die suddenly — not defeated by humans, but killed by ordinary earthly bacteria they had no immunity to.
• Genre: Science fiction / "invasion literature" — written to reflect Victorian fears of foreign invasion and to critique British imperialism.
• Structure: Two books — Book One: The Coming of the Martians and Book Two: The Earth Under the Martians — told in first-person, six years after the events, in a factual/journalistic style.
• Three big themes: Nature and Evolution, Fear and the Unknown, War and Destruction.
• Key characters: the narrator (rational, observant, a writer), the artilleryman (strong but ultimately lazy and full of empty plans), the curate (weak, religious, breaks down under pressure).
• Wells' key move: he keeps flipping who's "superior" — Martians look down on humans exactly the way humans look down on "lesser" species and colonised peoples. This is deliberate and is central to his critique of imperialism.

1. Plot — The Story in Order

Getting the sequence of events straight is essential — exam questions often ask you to discuss "the opening," "the middle," or "the ending," so know what happens when.

Book One: The Coming of the Martians

Think of Book One as "arrival and panic." A cylinder crashes on Horsell Common. Curious crowds gather (including the narrator and the astronomer Ogilvy). The cylinder opens, Martians emerge, and a "peace party" carrying a white flag is instantly incinerated by the Heat-Ray — showing immediately that human diplomacy means nothing to the Martians. As destruction spreads through Surrey, the narrator tries to get his wife to safety, meets the artilleryman, and eventually the curate, before the two men become trapped together as London falls.

Book Two: The Earth Under the Martians

Think of Book Two as "survival and revelation." The narrator and curate are trapped in a ruined house near a Martian pit, where the narrator observes the Martians closely for the first time — learning they feed on human blood and don't need sleep. The curate's mental breakdown escalates until the narrator strikes him to keep them both hidden, and the curate is dragged off and killed. Alone, the narrator wanders a dead, red-weed-covered London, meets the artilleryman again (who has grand but hollow plans for an underground human resistance), and finally discovers — almost by accident — that the Martians are all dead, killed by bacteria. The novel ends with reunion with his wife and a sober warning about future threats.

2. Themes

Nature and Evolution

fit with environment.

Fear and the Unknown

"invasion literature"

War and Destruction

humans

3. Characters

The Narrator

4. Context

Socialism and Society

5. Writer's Methods & Techniques

Narrative Perspective

What to Memorise