H. G. Wells

H. G. Wells

Books on site
4
Total words
186,593
Reading time
10.4 h
Years covered
1895–1898
Longest
The War of the Worlds

H. G. Wells (1866–1946) trained as a biologist under T. H. Huxley, wrote more than a hundred books, and invented most of the furniture of modern science fiction along the way. The novels collected here are the scientific romances of 1895–1898 that made his name: a journey to the end of time, a man who cannot be seen, an invasion from Mars, and the island where surgery turns animals into men.

Every book listed below is free in EPUB, AZW3 and KEPUB. Every edition is the complete text; the word counts on each page are estimated from the file itself.

Every H. G. Wells title on editions.ink

In publication order, with word counts and reading time. The list is generated from the book pages themselves, so a new release appears here automatically.

4free editions186,593words on site~10.4 hreading time1895–1898years covered
YearTitleWordsReading time
1895The Time Machine32,000~2 h
1896The Island of Doctor Moreau46,593~3 h
1897The Invisible Man48,000~3 h
1898The War of the Worlds60,000~4 h

Still only at Project Gutenberg

3 further H. G. Wells titles are in the public domain but not yet built here. They are listed so you can see the shape of the whole bibliography; the links go to Project Gutenberg, where the plain text is available today.

Read next

Authors whose books sit closest on the shelf:

Bram StokerArthur Conan DoyleThomas HardyOscar Wilde

Questions readers ask

How many H. G. Wells books are free on editions.ink?

There are 4 editions on the site, together about 186,593 words, or roughly 12 hours of reading. Each page has the full text as EPUB, AZW3 and KEPUB.

What is the best H. G. Wells book to start with?

The Time Machine (1895): it is the shortest complete work here, at about 2.1 hours.

Are these editions complete or abridged?

Complete. The text comes from the public-domain transcription and is checked against the printed edition named on each book page; nothing is cut, modernised or annotated away.

Which format should I download?

EPUB is the safest default for phones, tablets, Kobo and most reading apps. AZW3 suits older Kindles, and KEPUB is the Kobo-native format with better page-turn and footnote handling on a Kobo device.

Do I need an account or an app?

No. The download links are direct files served from the site; no account, newsletter or paywall is involved.

How long does The War of the Worlds take?

About 4.0 hours at 300 words per minute for 60,000 words — the longest title on this page. The whole list runs to roughly 12 hours.

Part of the author index and the complete catalogue. Every book page carries the full text, chapter summaries, characters, themes and the download links.