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The War of the Worlds, by British author H.G. Wells, is a science fiction novel first published in a serialized version in 1897 and then in hardcover in 1898
. It was an immediate success and since its initial publication the novel has never been out of print. Its unnamed Narrator is a man living in a London suburb who tells the story of a Martian invasion of England. In 1938, American director Orson Welles produced a radio broadcast based on the novel that some listeners interpreted as a real report, resulting in widespread panic. Two highly successful film adaptations of The War of the Worlds have been made—in 1953 and in 2005.