The War of the Worlds: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The War of the Worlds, credited to H. G. Wells, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

Librivox recording of The War of the Worlds, by H. G. Wells. For more information on our readers, see our catalog page: http://librivox.org/the-war-of-the-worlds-by-h-g-wells-group/ H. G. Wells wrote The War of the Worlds in 1898, when there was much speculation about life on the planet Mars. The book is considered to be one of the first science fiction novels. In the story, an English gentleman narrates the events of a violent and fast paced Martian invasion. The frightening images of people fleeing from gigantic tripod machines and the prospect of life under Martial rule have served as a bottomless well of inspiration for popular culture. The novel has served as a template for many derivative or inspired works, including comics, countless books, a tv series, several films, a bestselling musical, and the famous Orson Wells broadcast. Overall, The War of the Worlds has become an early milestone in and inspiration for the invasion genre. The novel demonstrates Wells' typical pessimistic outlook on human nature and offers a good deal of critisism on society and people's ignorance and vanity. The War of the Worlds can be read as an indictment of European colonial actions around the globe at that time - with which the injustice of the Martian invasion can be compared. Wells has since been credited with predicting quite a number of technologies, such as laser-like rays, industrial robot-like machines, and chemical-warfare. (Summary by Stephan Möbius and Annie Coleman) M4B audio book For more free audiobooks, or to become a volunteer reader, please visit librivox.org

Recording facts

• Recording title: The War of the Worlds
• Author credits: H. G. Wells
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 27
• Listed recording duration: 6:43:20

Catalogue topics

• science fiction

Opening tracks: first 24 of 27

1. The War of the Worlds - Book 1 - Chapter 01 — 13:52
2. The War of the Worlds - Book 1 - Chapter 02 — 8:21
3. The War of the Worlds - Book 1 - Chapter 03 — 6:51
4. The War of the Worlds - Book 1 - Chapter 04 — 6:20
5. The War of the Worlds - Book 1 - Chapter 05 — 10:22
6. The War of the Worlds - Book 1 - Chapter 06 — 6:37
7. The War of the Worlds - Book 1 - Chapter 07 — 10:10
8. The War of the Worlds - Book 1 - Chapter 08 — 7:01
9. The War of the Worlds - Book 1 - Chapter 09 — 13:27
10. The War of the Worlds - Book 1 - Chapter 10 — 13:46
11. The War of the Worlds - Book 1 - Chapter 11 — 17:15
12. The War of the Worlds - Book 1 - Chapter 12 — 23:41
13. The War of the Worlds - Book 1 - Chapter 13 — 10:51
14. The War of the Worlds - Book 1 - Chapter 14 — 23:56
15. The War of the Worlds - Book 1 - Chapter 15 — 19:01
16. The War of the Worlds - Book 1 - Chapter 16 — 28:20
17. The War of the Worlds - Book 1 - Chapter 17 — 22:54
18. The War of the Worlds - Book 2 - Chapter 01 — 16:50
19. The War of the Worlds - Book 2 - Chapter 02 — 19:17
20. The War of the Worlds - Book 2 - Chapter 03 — 13:12
21. The War of the Worlds - Book 2 - Chapter 04 — 9:45
22. The War of the Worlds - Book 2 - Chapter 05 — 7:34
23. The War of the Worlds - Book 2 - Chapter 06 — 9:43
24. The War of the Worlds - Book 2 - Chapter 07 — 38:47

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.