The Invisible Man

A stranger wrapped in bandages, with dark glasses and a false nose, takes a room at an inn in the Sussex village of Iping in midwinter and is rude to everyone. He is Griffin, a brilliant young scientist who has made himself invisible and cannot find the way back, and the villagers' curiosity drives him into a rage. Invisibility, he discovers, brings not power but cold, hunger and fear, and his plan for a reign of terror ends with a whole town hunting him.

H. G. Wells published the novel in 1897, mixing comedy with horror and with the warning that science without conscience destroys its maker. Alex Foster reads it alone, in about five hours.