Slip Under the Microscope

Two unsettling, enigmatic and affecting tales by H. G. Wells, a pioneer of science fiction, open this volume. One opens on a narrator who wants to escape a parched, glittering world of vanity and pointless toil, and who vows never to come back. The collection is part of Little Black Classics, a set of 80 short books released to mark Penguin's 80th anniversary. The series showcases the breadth of Penguin Classics, drawing on writers from many countries and centuries. Its titles range from a Victorian balloon voyage over London to a blossoming garden in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to sixteenth-century California and the Russian steppe. Across the series, readers find stories both fierce and lyrical, epic and intimate poems, satirical and uplifting essays, and ideas that have influenced millions of lives.

Wells (1866-1946) is represented in Penguin Classics by titles including The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man and The Island of Doctor Moreau.