註釋
Plot summaryA mysterious stranger, Griffin, arrives at the local inn of the English village of Iping, West Sussex, during a snowstorm. The stranger wears a long-sleeved, thick coat and gloves, his face hidden entirely by bandages except for a fake pink nose, large goggles and a wide-brimmed hat. He is excessively reclusive, irascible, and unfriendly. He demands to be left alone and spends most of his time in his rooms working with a set of chemicals and laboratory apparatus, only venturing out at night. While staying at the inn, hundreds of strange glass bottles arrive that Griffin calls his luggage. Many local townspeople believe this to be very strange. He becomes the talk of the village (one of the novel's most charming aspects is its portrayal of small-town life in southern England, which the author knew from first-hand experience).
Meanwhile, a mysterious burglary occurs in the village. Griffin has run out of money and is trying to find a way to pay for his board and lodging. When his landlady demands he pay his bill and quit the premises, he reveals part of his invisibility to her in a fit of pique. An attempt to apprehend the stranger is frustrated when he undresses to take advantage of his invisibility, fights off his would-be captors, and flees to the downs.
There Griffin coerces a tramp, Thomas Marvel, into becoming his assistant. With Marvel, he returns to the village to recover three notebooks that contain records of his experiments. When Marvel attempts to betray the Invisible Man to police, Griffin chases him to the seaside town of Port Burdock, threatening to kill him. Marvel escapes to a local inn and is saved by the people at the inn, but Griffin escapes. Marvel later goes to the police and tells them of this "invisible man," then requests to be locked up in a high security jail cell.
Griffin's furious attempt to avenge his betrayal leads to his being shot. He takes shelter in a nearby house that turns out to belong to Dr. Kemp, a former acquaintance from medical school. To Kemp, he reveals his true identity: the Invisible Man is Griffin, a former medical student who left medicine to devote himself to optics. Griffin recounts how he invented medicine capable of rendering bodies invisible and, on impulse, performed the procedure on himself.
Griffin tells Kemp of the story of how he became invisible. He explains how he tried the invisibility on a cat, then himself. Griffin burns down the boarding house he is staying in along with all his equipment he used to turn invisible to cover his tracks, but soon realizes he is ill-equipped to survive in the open. He attempts to steal food and clothes from a large store, and eventually he steals some clothing from a theatrical supply shop and heads to Iping to attempt to reverse the effect. But now he imagines that he can make Kemp his secret confederate, describing his plan to begin a "Reign of Terror" by using his invisibility to terrorize the nation.
Kemp has already denounced Griffin to the local authorities and is watching for help to arrive as he listens to this wild proposal. When the authorities arrive at Kemp's house, Griffin fights his way out and the next day leaves a note announcing that Kemp himself will be the first man to be killed in the "Reign of Terror". Kemp, a cool-headed character, tries to organize a plan to use himself as bait to trap the Invisible Man, but a note he sends is stolen from his servant by Griffin.
Griffin shoots and injures a local policeman who comes to Kemp's aid, then breaks into Kemp's house. Kemp bolts for the town, where the local citizenry comes to his aid. Griffin is seized, assaulted, and killed by a mob. The Invisible Man's naked, battered body gradually becomes visible as he dies. A local policeman shouts to cover his face with a sheet, then the book concludes.
In the final chapter, it is revealed that Marvel has secretly kept Griffin's notes. Griffin's name is not known by anyone (including the reader) until he meets Kemp, to whom he reveals his identity. Until then, he is referred to as the stranger or the Invisible Man.
[edit] Characters[edit] GriffinMain article: Griffin (The Invisible Man)
[edit] Dr. KempDr. Kemp is a scientist living in the town of Port Burdock. He is a former acquaintance of Griffin, who by chance comes to his house to hide after Griffin's transformation into the Invisible Man. It is to Kemp that Griffin tells his story in a long monologue, but Kemp has already resolved to turn him over to the police.
In the 1933 Universal film adaptation, Kemp is given the first name Arthur and is played by William Harrigan. Unlike in the novel, Kemp in the film does not survive to the end of the story.
[edit] Janny HallJanny Hall is the wife of Mr. Hall and the owner of the Coach and Horses Inn. A very friendly, down-to-earth woman who enjoys socializing with her guests, Mrs. Hall is continually frustrated by the mysterious Griffin's refusal to talk with her, and his repeated temper tantrums.
Mrs. Hall appears in the 1933 Universal film adaptation, where she was played by Una O'Connor. In the film version, her primary occupation is to scream.
[edit] George HallGeorge Hall is the husband of Mrs. Hall and helps her run the Coach and Horses Inn. He is the first person in Iping to suspect that the mysterious Griffin is invisible: when a dog bites him and tears his glove, Griffin retreats to his room and Hall follows to see if he is all right, only to see Griffin without his glove and handless (or so it appears to Hall).
Mr. Hall appears in the 1933 Universal film adaptation, where his first name is changed to Herbert and seriously injured by Griffin. In the film, he is portrayed by Forrester Harvey.
[edit] Thomas MarvelThomas Marvel is a droll tramp unwittingly recruited to assist the Invisible Man as his first visible partner. He carries the Invisible Man's scientific notebooks and stolen money. Eventually Marvel grows afraid of his unseen partner and flees to Port Burdock, taking both the notebooks and the money with him, where he seeks police protection. Although the Invisible Man is furious and vows revenge, he becomes preoccupied with hiding from the law and retaliating against Dr. Kemp, and Marvel is spared. Marvel eventually uses the stolen money to open his own inn, which he calls the Invisible Man, and prospers. The novel ends with him secretly "marvelling" at Griffin's notes.
Marvel does not appear in the 1933 film adaptation, but does appear in Alan Moore's comics series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
[edit] Col. AdyeCol. Adye is the chief of police in the town of Port Burdock. He is called upon by Dr. Kemp when the Invisible Man turns up in Kemp's house. Adye saves Kemp from the Invisible Man's first attempt on his life and leads the hunt for the unseen fugitive. He mostly follows Kemp's suggestions in planning the campaign against the Invisible Man. He is eventually shot by the Invisible Man with Kemp's revolver. Upon being shot, Adye is described as falling down and not getting back up. However, he is mentioned in the epilogue as being one of those who had questioned Thomas Marvel about the whereabouts of the Invisible Man's notebooks, and is never made clear whether this occurred prior to his being shot, or if it occurred afterwards and Adye survived.
[edit] Dr. CussDr. Cuss is a doctor living in the town of Iping. Intrigued by tales of a bandaged stranger staying at the Coach and Horses Inn, Dr. Cuss goes to see him under the pretence of asking for a donation to the nurse's fund. Cuss is scared away after Griffin pinches his nose with an invisible hand. Cuss immediately goes to see the Rev. Bunting, who, not surprisingly, does not believe the doctor's wild story. Later, Cuss and Bunting obtain the Invisible Man's notebooks, but these are subsequently stolen back from them by the invisible Griffin, when he also takes both men's clothes.
[edit] J.A. JaffersJ.A. Jaffers is a constable or "bobby" in the town of Iping. He is called upon by George Hall and Janny Hall to arrest Griffin after they suspect him of robbing the Reverend Bunting. He overcomes his shock at the discovery that Griffin was invisible quickly, determined to arrest him in spite of this. The Invisible Man knocks him unconscious in his flight from Iping.
Jaffers appears in the 1933 Universal film adaptation.
[edit] The Rev. Mr. BuntingThe Reverend Mr Bunting is the vicar in the village of Iping who serves mediocre sherry and has forgotten his Greek. Dr. Cuss goes to visit him following his first encounter with Griffin. Bunting laughs at Cuss' claims of an invisible hand pinching his nose, but the following evening whilst both men are examining Griffin's notebooks the rectory is burgled by the Invisible Man himself. Griffin manages to recover his notebooks and, in a comic touch to the narrative, also manages to make off with most of their clothes. Although Dr. Cuss loses only his trousers, the poor Reverend Bunting has all his clothes stolen.
[edit] Adaptations[edit] Films and TV seriesThe Invisible Man, a 1933 film directed by James Whale and produced by Universal Pictures. Griffin was played by Claude Rains and given the first name "Jack". The film is considered one of the great Universal horror films of the 1930s, and it spawned a number of sequels, plus many spinoffs using the idea of an "invisible man" that were largely unrelated to Wells's original story and using a relative of Griffin as a secondary character possessing the invisibility formula. These were; The Invisible Man Returns (1940) with Vincent Price as Geoffrey Radcliffe, the film's Invisible Man; The Invisible Woman (1940) with Virginia Bruce as the title character and John Barrymore as the scientist who invents the invisibility process; Invisible Agent (1942) and The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944) both starring Jon Hall (as different Invisible Men); and Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951) with Arthur Franz as Tommy Nelson, a boxer framed for murder who takes the invisibility formula to find the real killer and clear his name. Vincent Price also provided the voice of the Invisible Man at the conclusion of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).
Tomei Ningen (1954, Japanese), released by legendary studio Toho; a loose adaptation of the story.
The New Invisible Man, a 1957 Mexican version starring Arturo de Cordova as the title character; this film is a remake of The Invisible Man Returns (1940).
The Invisible Man, a 1958 TV series that ran for two seasons and centered on espionage. Created by Ralph Smart.
The Amazing Transparent Man, a 1960 science fiction/crime thriller about an invisible safecracker.
Mad Monster Party (1967) included the Invisible Man (voiced by Allen Swift) as part of the monster ensemble.
The Invisible Man (1975 TV series), featured a sympathetic Invisible Man, who used his strange abilities for good—and was a far cry from Wells's bitter, destructive character. As with The Six Million Dollar Man before it, the pilot was surprisingly dark in tone, the regular series that followed lightening things up considerably. It began with Doctor Daniel Westin (David McCallum) accidentally rendering himself invisible in a lab accident, while working for the sinister KLAE corporation.
The Invisible Woman, a 1983 TV-movie pilot for a comedy series starring Alexa Hamilton.
???????-????????? (Pronunciation: Chelovek-nevidimka; translation: The Invisible Man), a 1984 Soviet movie directed by Aleksandr Zakharov, with Andrei Kharitonov as Griffin. The plot was changed: Griffin was shown as a scientist talented but not understood by his contemporaries, and Kemp (starring Romualdas Ramanauskas) as a vicious person who wanted to become a ruler of the world with Griffin's help. When Griffin rejected Kemp's proposal, the latter did all his best to kill him (and finally succeeded). The movie remained unknown to the Western audience because of a violation of Wells's copyright.[citation needed]
The Invisible Man, a 1984 television adaptation in six parts, shown on BBC 1.
Amazon Women on the Moon, a 1987 comedy anthology film featured a spoof titled Son of the Invisible Man, with Ed Begley, Jr. playing the son of the original Invisible Man who believes he is invisible, but is in fact visible - creating an awkward situation when he confidently disrobes in front of everyone.
Memoirs of an Invisible Man, a 1992 modernized version of the story, starring Chevy Chase as a man who is accidentally made invisible and is then hunted by a government agent who wishes to use him as a weapon.
Hollow Man, a 2000 film starring Kevin Bacon, and directed by Paul Verhoeven; this film spawned a 2006 direct-to-video sequel Hollow Man 2 starring Christian Slater as "Michael Griffin" and directed by Claudio Fah.
The Invisible Man, a Sci-Fi Channel television series aired from 2000 to 2002, lasting two seasons. It revolves around Darien Fawkes (Vincent Ventresca), a burglar who gets arrested and goes to jail, eventually negotiating his freedom to serve as a guinea pig to a government secret project run by his scientist brother Kevin through "The Agency", a low-budget US department. After being submitted to a surgical procedure to have a synthetic gland implanted in his cerebral cortex, he is able to secrete a substance called "Quicksilver", which coats his skin, hair, nails and clothes and renders him invisible. However, the gland is sabotaged to leak Quicksilver into the host's brain, creating the "Quicksilver Madness", a state in which the host becomes mentally unstable (and consequently more violent and dangerous). The series was somewhat more successful than the original 1975 series, but was cancelled due to cost issues and internal bickering between Sci-Fi and Universal.
The Invisible Man (Cartoon Series) (2011) an ongoing animated television series produced by Moonscoop which is loosely based in the book.
A feature film entitled The Invisible Man is currently in development and scheduled to be released in 2013. It will be the second film in the Universal Horror Revival series of remakes, following 2010's The Wolfman.
[edit] StageKen Hill adapted the book to play form in 1991, and it debuted at Theatre Royal Stratford East in 1991. It played in the West End in 1993 with Michael N. Harbour as Griffin. In November 2010, the play was revived at the Menier Theatre in London running until February 2011.
[edit] RadioThe 2001 Radio Tales drama "The Invisible Man" is an adaptation of the novel for National Public Radio.