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Audiobook edition · 13 h 15 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A stolen vial, a giant egg, a haunted room: how little does it take to unsettle your world?
In Thirty Strange Stories, H. G. Wells turns single odd ideas into sharp encounters with the unknown. In The Stolen Bacillus, a bacteriologist shows a visitor a tube he claims contains a deadly disease. In The Flowering of the Strange Orchid, quiet collector Winter-Wedderburn buys a rare root and tends it with growing devotion.
Elsewhere, machines inspire awe, unfamiliar life brings danger, and confidence meets fear. The Lord of the Dynamos follows engineer Holroyd and his assistant Azuma-zi among electric railway engines. The Red Room sends a visitor who dismisses ghosts into a haunted chamber. Across this collection, comedy, cruelty, dread and quiet sadness keep changing the mood.
What you’ll discover
- Small ideas, sharp consequences Watch Wells follow a strange premise toward trouble, testing the limits of human pride.
- An egg on an island Join stranded Butcher in Aepyornis Island, where a huge egg raises an unsettling question.
- An offer worth questioning Meet Eden in The Story of the Late Mr Elvesham as he accepts a stranger's friendly offer.
- A schoolmaster's changed life Enter The Plattner Story, where a chemical accident changes the life of Gottfried Plattner.
- Laughter beside the shiver Discover tales that move between comic trouble and fear, with room for quiet sadness.
Who will love it
For readers who love short, sharp stories, early science fiction and ghost tales, and anyone curious about how Wells worked. These tales mix wonder, dread, comedy and the uncanny.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Wells turns one odd idea into a story
- Science and greed make comic trouble
- Nature fights back in strange places
- Machines, worlds and the limits of seeing
- Ghosts, swapped lives and human fear
- What the stories say and how they work
Who’s who
- Winter-WedderburnA quiet orchid collector in The Flowering of the Strange Orchid who buys a rare root and tends it with growing devotion.
- HolroydA loud, teasing engineer in The Lord of the Dynamos who runs the machines of an electric railway.
- Azuma-ziHolroyd's assistant, who watches the great dynamo with growing awe and reverence.
- ButcherA man stranded on an island in Aepyornis Island who brings a huge egg with him and must live with what hatches.
- EdenA young man in The Story of the Late Mr Elvesham who accepts a wealthy old stranger's friendly offer.
- Gottfried PlattnerA schoolmaster in The Plattner Story whose life is changed by a chemical accident.
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- Large-print eBook
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- Audiobook
- 13 h 15 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Dreißig seltsame Geschichten
by H. G. Wells · 1897
A stolen vial of germs, a haunted room and a rare orchid turn scientific curiosity into danger.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Thirty Strange Stories is a collection of short fiction by H. G. Wells, published in 1897. By then he was already known for The Time Machine and The Island of Doctor Moreau.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Wells turns one odd idea into a story
Most tales in this collection start from a single strange premise and follow it to a sharp result. A man steals a vial he thinks holds a plague. A collector buys an orchid nobody has seen before. A man sits alone in a room said to be haunted. Wells does not waste pages on an extended setup. He gives you the idea, a few people to carry it, and then lets the consequences run.
This habit came from his training. Wells studied biology under T. H. Huxley, and he thought like a scientist who asks what would follow if something were true. The answers are often unpleasant. Nature in these stories is not kind, and knowledge does not make people wise. The clever are often foolish, and the foolish are sometimes lucky.
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What is Thirty Strange Stories about?
It is a collection of short tales by H. G. Wells that mix science fiction, horror, comedy and ghost stories. Each starts from one odd idea, such as a strange plant, a deep-sea dive or a haunted room, and follows it to a sharp ending.
When was Thirty Strange Stories published?
It was published in 1897. The stories had mostly appeared earlier in magazines and in Wells's first short story volumes, written in the years when he was also producing The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds.
Is Thirty Strange Stories hard to read?
No. The prose is plain and quick, and each story is short enough to read in one sitting. The ideas and the suspense are easy to follow.
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.
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