Martians land in England and lay waste to the countryside with heat-rays and tripods, until an unexpected foe halts them. The template for alien-invasion stories.
Books mentioned in The War of the Worlds (1)
The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton: “'But who shall dwell in these worlds if they be inhabited? . . . Are we or they Lords of the World? . . . And how are all things made for man?' KEPLER (quoted in _The Anatomy of Melancholy_)”
Books that mention The War of the Worlds (4)
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai: ““1938 was the year that War of the Worlds—” I started, but Alder slapped the table, grinned, pointed at me. “Yes!” he said. “You get it!””
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein: “Wells' The War of the Worlds?" "A long time ago, in school." "Consider the idea that the Martians might decide to make war on us-and win."”
The Art of Fiction by Ayn Rand: “...Wells's The War of the Worlds, men cannot defeat the Martian invaders, but the germs of the common cold can.”
Cosmos by Alexander von Humboldt: “These opening lines of H. G. Wells' 1897 science fiction classic The War of the Worlds maintain their haunting power to this day.”