5 h 0 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when a dangerous germ meets human vanity, or a quiet hobby grows beyond good sense?
In The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents, H. G. Wells turns odd scientific ideas into quick, often funny stories about ordinary folly. A proud bacteriologist shows a visitor his dangerous culture. Winter-Wedderburn tends a strange orchid. Each encounter puts curiosity, judgment and self-confidence under pressure.
The Diamond Maker follows a nervous man's claim that he can make real diamonds. In Aepyornis Island, Butcher tells of life with a giant extinct bird. The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes gives Sidney Davidson sight of a distant island. Across this collection, greed, wonder and belief make science a doorway into human behavior.
What you’ll discover
- A dangerous laboratory visit Follow a scientist whose pride meets a visitor ready to turn discovery into a weapon.
- An orchid worth watching Meet Winter-Wedderburn, whose devotion to a strange root carries his quiet hobby past good sense.
- The lure of diamonds Consider a shabby stranger's remarkable claim, where the promise of wealth invites doubt and curiosity.
- An extraordinary island companion Hear Butcher's chatty account of hatching a giant extinct bird and living alone with it.
- Eyes that look elsewhere Enter Davidson's unsettling experience as an electrical accident makes his eyes see a distant island.
Who will love it
For readers who love short fiction with a sharp idea, early science fiction, and dry Victorian humor. It also suits anyone curious about Wells before his famous novels, with tales of strange science, greed, pride and human folly.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A bacteriologist meets a dangerous visitor
- Collectors and scientists go too far
- Schemes, tricks and fortunes that go wrong
- A castaway and his gigantic bird
- Strange sight and strange worship
- What the stories add up to
Who’s who
- The anarchist visitorA pale stranger who sees in the scientist's laboratory a weapon for his cause and acts on it at once.
- Winter-WedderburnA quiet orchid grower who buys a strange root at auction and becomes devoted to making it flower.
- ButcherA talkative castaway who tells how he hatched a giant extinct bird and lived alone with it on an island.
- Sidney DavidsonA young man whose eyes begin to see a distant island after a storm and an accident with electrical equipment.
- Azuma-ziA dynamo attendant who comes to see the great machine as a god, while his foreman mocks him.
- HolroydThe loud foreman of a London power station, who thinks that running the dynamo means he understands it.
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- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Der gestohlene Bazillus und andere Vorfälle
by H. G. Wells · 1895
A proud London scientist shows a culture he calls dangerous to a stranger who sees a weapon for his cause.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents is the first collection of short fiction by H. G. Wells, published in 1895. It gathers stories he had written for magazines and newspapers in the early 1890s, when he was a young science teacher and journalist in London.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A bacteriologist meets a dangerous visitor
The title story begins in a laboratory in London. A bacteriologist is showing a pale, dark-haired visitor around his work. He is proud of it and a little vain, and he enjoys having someone to impress. He takes up a small tube and tells the visitor that it holds a culture of a terrible disease, one that could do great harm if it ever got loose.
The visitor listens with a strange, hungry look. He is an anarchist, a man who believes in tearing down the order of society by violence, and he sees a chance. Here, he thinks, is a weapon that could strike at the whole city through its water supply. The bacteriologist, though he watches his guest's eager expression, does not notice what is in the man's mind.
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What is The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents about?
It is a collection of short stories by H. G. Wells from 1895. Each takes a strange scientific or social idea, such as a germ, an orchid or a machine, and shows how people react with greed, pride or fear.
What happens in the story The Stolen Bacillus?
A bacteriologist shows a visitor a tube of disease culture. The visitor, an anarchist, steals it hoping to use it as a weapon, and the scientist chases him through London. The story is a comedy built on a mistake.
Which stories are in this collection?
The book includes The Stolen Bacillus, The Flowering of the Strange Orchid, Aepyornis Island, The Diamond Maker, The Lord of the Dynamos, and The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes, along with several lighter sketches.
The author
H. G. Wells
1866–1946 · English science fiction novelist
H. G. Wells (1866–1946) was an English writer born in Bromley, Kent. He wrote novels, short stories and nonfiction. His novels included The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897) and The War of the Worlds (1898). He died in London.
More by H. G. Wells
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