14 minSummaryRead it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook editionPaperback · 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
Readers who love strange science, ghostly rooms, deep-sea monsters and dark jokes will enjoy this collection. It suits fans of Victorian London and short tales of many moods.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- An ordinary day slips sideways
- A quiet passion invites danger
- Evidence leaves room for doubt
- Generosity can conceal a threat
- Fear changes with its setting
- Machines put courage to the test
- The mind travels beyond the body
- Old passions keep pursuing people
- One strange fact changes a life
Who’s who
- Winter-WedderburnA shy, lonely orchid grower who longs for something to happen to him, and buys a shriveled root at auction.
- ButcherA scarred collector who tells how he was stranded on an atoll with an egg of a giant extinct bird.
- Gottfried PlattnerA modest language teacher at a small school whose chemistry experiment with a green powder sends him somewhere no one can follow.
- Edward George EdenA young medical student, poor and healthy, who is courted by a mysterious old philosopher offering him an inheritance.
- ElsteadA cheerful naturalist who has himself lowered five miles into the ocean in a padded steel sphere.
- HapleyA quarrelsome entomologist who cannot stop thinking about his dead rival, Professor Pawkins, and sees a moth no one else can see.
- Mr. CoombesA small, harassed shopkeeper who walks into the woods after a family quarrel, sick of life.
- Azuma-ziA stoker in a London dynamo shed who comes to worship the great machine as a god.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 14 minutes, to read today.
- 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.
Every printed copy is made when you order it and shipped worldwide; shipping is shown at checkout. The eBook opens when the book texts go online.
How it works
- Start free. Nothing to pay today; the eBook of this book is yours to keep.
- Read and print. 200,000+ classics as eBook, large-print eBook and 15-minute summary, and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print, 5 accounts for the price of one.
- We remind you first. Free for 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment. Then USD 0.14 a day in your first year on the yearly plan and USD 0.27 a day after, or USD 0.66 a day on the monthly plan. Cancel online in two clicks.
Bought on its own? Every eBook and printed book you buy without the plan carries our 30-day money-back guarantee.
25 languages, side by side
Thirty Strange Stories in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Thirty Strange Stories
by H. G. Wells · 1897
After a visitor steals a sealed laboratory container, a scientist in carpet slippers pursues a cab through London.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
Learn a language with medium classicsSpanishFrenchGermanItalianJapanesePortugueseEnglishHow we measure levels
Excellent
Free for 3 months · starts right away, on any device
Read free3 months free · cancel anytimeRenews every year · Cancel anytimeHow it works
- Read, large type too
- 25 languages, side by side
- Print and large print at cost
- 5 accounts for the price of one
“remains the outstanding expositor of both the hope, and the despair, which are embodied in the technology and which are the major facts of life in our world”
In short
What would you do if a stranger raised a glass of liqueur and asked you to drink to a quick succession? Or if a quiet bachelor came home from an auction with a dried root that nobody could name?
Thirty Strange Stories at a glance
- Reading time
- About 7 h 40 min6 h 5 min fast, 9 h 10 min slow
- Length
- 109,700 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1897by H. G. Wells
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A shy collector buys an orchid nobody can name
The book opens with The Strange Orchid and a man named Winter-Wedderburn. He is shy and lonely, with just enough money to live. His one passion is a small steamy greenhouse of orchids. At breakfast on the day of an auction he says he has a feeling that something is going to happen to him.
His housekeeper hears those words with alarm. Wedderburn goes up to London and buys a shriveled root from plants collected in the Andaman Islands. The young collector who gathered it was found dead in a swamp, drained of blood by leeches. The housekeeper says the root looks like a spider pretending to be dead. When it wakes in its pot, pale rootlets reach out like fingers, and Wedderburn only smiles.
Renews every year · Cancel anytime
You looked at
Which edition is right for me
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet or computer. Your place follows you, and you can make the type as big as you like.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1897
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 8 h 35 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Wells, H. G. Thirty Strange Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/thirty-strange-stories.
Wells, H. G. (2026). Thirty strange stories. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/thirty-strange-stories (Original work published 1897)
Wells, H. G. Thirty Strange Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/thirty-strange-stories.
@book{wells2026thirty,
author = {Wells, H. G.},
title = {Thirty Strange Stories},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/thirty-strange-stories},
note = {First published 1897}
}
Free gifts
USD 580 in free gifts when you start
Every book in every format and in 25 languages, 5 accounts for the price of one. Nothing to pay today.
- 200,000+ classic eBooksIn 25 languages, side by side
USD 170FREE - Every eBookIn 25 languages, any device
USD 120FREE - 15-minute summariesRead in 25 languages
USD 60FREE - Print at cost, no markupPaperback, hardcover, large print
USD 60FREE - 5 accounts for the price of oneA shelf for everyone at home
USD 170FREE - A part in rebuilding the libraryNew languages and books for all
FREE
Questions about Thirty Strange Stories
Can I read it free?
Yes. The first key idea of the 15-minute summary is free with no sign-up. Start free and the whole book is yours for 3 months, with the eBook to keep, plus 200,000+ more classics and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print. Nothing to pay today: we email you 7 days before your first payment, and you can cancel online in two clicks.
Can I buy the printed book?
Soon. The paperback, hardcover and large print editions are being prepared. Choose Paperback or Hardcover above, leave your email, and we tell you the day you can order it, printed at cost.
How many accounts do I get?
Five, for the price of one: you and 4 more people, each with their own login, shelf and their own place in every book.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Cancel online in two clicks at any time and nothing more is charged. Nothing is charged in your first 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment.
What is Thirty Strange Stories about?
It is a collection of short tales by H. G. Wells that mixes science fiction, horror, comedy and the uncanny. Each story puts an ordinary person in front of one strange fact, such as a giant egg, a living orchid or a vanished teacher.
When were the stories in Thirty Strange Stories written?
Wells wrote these tales in the 1890s, and many first appeared in magazines before their collection in book form. You can see the period in the cabs, gaslight, laboratories and early talk of flying machines and a fourth dimension.
Are the stories in Thirty Strange Stories true?
No, they are fiction. Several narrators insist that every detail is accurate, as in The Plattner Story and The Sea Raiders, but that claim is part of the game. Wells builds each tale on real science and invented events.
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.
“Nothing ever happens to me.”
More by H. G. Wells
See all their booksMore like this
Our mission
The library burned once. We are building it back.
Every great book, in every language and every format, for every family. Every plan helps pay for new languages and books for readers who have never had them. Join the movement.
Read our story- Every language25 languages today, side by side, and more every year
- No wastePrinted on demand: no warehouses, no unsold stock, no pulped copies
- For everyonePaperback, hardcover and large print at the cost of printing
