The Invisible Man

Not a terribly creative title, considering I am going to do a half-review of the book of the same name,  
but then neither is it as the title of the book creative in any way. 

I’m doing a half review not because of spoilers, but because I stopped listening to a LibriVox recording of The Invisible Man less than half of the way in. 

When I was very little, I had a book about a horse and went back through his life to every place, every barn he lived in until he found his ‘forever home’. 

I am not a horsey girl, so I think it was how darned cute the horse had been and I remember that the artwork was darling. I think the way in which it was written must have resounded with me. For whichever reason, or none, I kept the book.  

What else is new? 

Years later my sister’s then-boyfriend was in the house and noticed the book on a shelf. Apparently, it really was attractive, so he picked it up. 
He read the title out loud: “Where Timothy Lives”, then opened the first page and read, 

“Timothy lives in a big red barn.” 

He just stared. “Well”, he said after a moment, slamming the book shut, “that just ruined the whole book!” 

I can still see the look on his face!

That was all I could think of while I was listening to the book in question here today, because, ooooooh! Goodness, what could it mean that a mysterious stranger was covered head to toe?  When he removed his scarf, he had bandages covering his face and he wore dark glasses, even in the house at night. (Golly, who could imagine why?) He refused to remove wet clothing. He refused to remove his gloves. He was angry when anyone walked in unannounced, or when he did not hear them knock. 

I almost quit it right away, but I was like a deer in headlights.  
 

When someone caught him without his glasses, his eye sockets looked empty. When the doctor saw an empty sleeve he could not make heads or tails of it and asked him about it. The stranger reached out and tweaked the doctor’s nose but, the doctor saw nothing coming toward his face. (How extraordinary; what could it all mean?) 

When the clergyman’s house was broken into, he and his wife saw no one, but heard a familiar sneeze, it only slightly resounded with them;  everyone knew the stranger had caught a cold. 

Finally, the authorities decided that he was the thief, and while trying to apprehend him, he revealed that he was, (gasp!), an invisible man! 

Well, DUH. 

It, (and I), went on for a while, while H.G. Wells tried to explain ‘scientifically’ how this could happen and his experiments. 

I quit soon after he took in a starving cat, gave it milk, and experimented on it to where the cat was left invisible except for its eyes. When he turned it out, (oh, he would have given it some more milk had he had any, he said), he lost me. 
I tried to gain curiosity about the rest of the story, but it failed me. 

There was a terribly funny show in the 70s, (late 60s?), based on the writings of James Thurber. My mother and I enjoyed it immensely until the day the protagonist took a cat out and dumped it. 

That show didn’t last much longer; I doubt that we were the only people whose sympathy was no longer with the protagonist. 

(As a Christian, I should not hope anyone goes to Hell, there is no sense in having such a place if people who abandon animals don’t go there, but I digress.)   

So, no spoiler alert on this review because, HELLO?  

THE INVISIBLE MAN. 

There is nothing to spoil. 

H.G. Wells obviously had an above-average imagination, yet he couldn’t come up with a better title?  Everyone would at least have to think about the ‘mysterious’ man with any other title, for crying out loud! 

Even “The Mysterious Man” would have been better and surely, there could have been so many others which would give readers a ‘ghost’ of a chance of being surprised. 

How or if they caught him and kept him, or if he ever gained a solid look again, I don’t know, and frankly, I don’t care. Long before he wronged the cat, he was an ugly person whether you could see him or not. He was mean, he was uncaring, and he stole from good people. He abused a man whom he forced to help him. He threatened many people. 

“Oh, but poor soul, he was invisible!” That is no excuse. 

This was published 11 years after “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson, and truly pales in comparison. I dare to guess Wells was influenced by the Stevenson story. I truly wanted to care about The Invisible Man, but  Wells made it impossible for me,  

as I could not see myself wasting any more time on it 

I have enjoyed stories with less-than-perfect protagonists, but I have to care somehow. I have to be invested.  
With The Invisible Man, I am sorry that I wasted as little time as I did. 

What about you? Have you read “The Invisible Man”?  

  Did you read of him as an adult?  
I think that a young person might become more interested in the outcome, but I know the cat business would have bothered me even then.  
 

I  feel the sands are nearly through my hourglass, and there are too many potentially better and more engaging stories for me to truly enjoy with whatever time I have left, or the precious quiet time I have now.