Originally posted by Boroda
For me - the main idea of the book was to evaulate a society and it's reaction to facing an irresistable, inhuman, but absolutely rational (in it's behaviour) force.
Welles foresaw the nazis.
In context of late Victorian Britain, i think of the book as a pointed allegory about colonialism -- a comparison that couldnt help but occur to Wells' audience.
Just consider -- change the martians into British colonial forces, change the Londoners into indigenous peoples, leave the tecnological disparity the same, and convert the generic microbes into malaria or yellow fever.
The message of humilty even when powerful must have been obvious.
Cross refernce the attitude in Kipling's poem "Recessional" -- in that sense the themes are similar.
And Boroda, that sentence you struggled with is a tough one. It uses imagery that seems artificial and stretched now. During the 1800s, writer's styles tended to be far less direct than is the modern norm. It's aproblem you'll run into if you try reading jsut about anyone before Hemingway... If you want a real taste of flowery, overdone prose (by modern tastes), check out Nathianiel Hawthorne.
Makes Abraham Lincoln stand out all the more. Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugeral speech are masterpieces of sentiment and language....
