Saturday, September 22, 2007

The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells


  • Audio Cassette
  • Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc. (1988)
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B000JWW2G4
  • I finished listening to this audio book no Sept. 21
So, I own a copy of this book, I don't know where I got it, but when I went to read it all the pages where in super bizarre wrong order. So, I got it on tape from the library.
I have seen lots of different takes on this story. Remember Bill Cosby, or (terrifyingly) Kevin Bacon and his invisible nudie shots? Yikes Stripes. (Uh, scratch that: upon further investigation Bill Cosby was a ghost in that movie, not invisible. Either way, it was bad). And once again, after hearing the real story I am surprised at the original.
It's mostly an account of what happens after our hero (whose name, we will learn, is Griffin) is already invisible. He's actually kind of bad at it. I'm not saying that I would be better, but I like to think if I found myself invisible I would be a bit more stealthy. Also, he's quite rude to people, which makes him suspicious. Apparently he doesn't know you catch more invisible cats with sugar (or something). Anyway, so he makes a series of mistakes, gets busted and shenanigans ensue. And before he was invisible? He was an (presumably ornery) albino. So, you know, things kinda went from bad to worse with him.
The reader here was an English woman and it's always funny to me when women do men's voices in books on tape. It always leaves me with an impression that every man in the story is sort of a pansy whiner. But, she did do a great cockney accent so that was cool.
Overall, the story was interested, and it led me to think about what I would do if I couldn't be seen. Cause our crank-meister Griffin thought it was gonna be cool to kill folks cause they couldn't see him. That's just rude. I think I would probably cause much tamer mayhem. Like, you know, switching the soup at Bennigans, or goosing people.

7 comments:

Debi said...

Not sure why, but this book has never made much of a blip on my radar screen. But I think I'm now sold on giving it a try. However, I fear it won't be nearly as fun to read as your review was!

bee said...

ah, shux. thanks! i recommend stuff like this on tape. much easier going

Court said...

I was hoping to read this for the RIP challenge, but am not sure if I'll get around to it. Heck, I've been meaning to read it for years and haven't. It sounds really interesting. :)

Great review. :)

Eva said...

I'd love to be able to listen to this book. Have to find a copy of it in the library!

Anonymous said...

Like your review, it made me laugh. I should get around to reading this sometime thanks.

TIMOTHY MOODY said...

I haven't read this one and probably won't, but I did like your review. It reminded me of a time a few years ago when I stumbled on a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "Sherlock Holmes" novel. I can't remember which one now, but it was such a great read. I loved Doyle's amazing descriptions. Anyway, thanks for jolting that memory.

Anonymous said...

is it just me or asking a person if he saw the invisible man(the movie) sounds a little bit strange?