Уэллс подчёркивает невежество толпы, затравившей Гриффина, и одиночество человека–невидимки. Открытие Гриффина пугает даже доктора Кемпа, его товарища по университету. Именно Кемп выдаёт Гриффина полиции.
Противопоставляя Гриффина, которого он называет «самым даровитым из физиков, когда–либо существовавших на свете», толпе невежественных и возбуждённых людей, которая убила его, писатель не видит, каким образом можно сделать науку достоянием масс, заставить её служить народу. В этом и сказывается буржуазная ограниченность автора «Человека–невидимки», ограниченность его критики положения учёного и науки в капиталистическом обществе.
Мастерски построен сюжет книги. Всячески обыгрывая невидимость, достигнутую Гриффином, Уэллс забегает вперёд, стремясь заинтриговать читателя необычностью и таинственностью описываемых ситуаций. Вместе с тем, обставляя эти ситуации множеством мелких бытовых подробностей, автор создаёт у читателя впечатление полной реальности существования человека–невидимки. Научное же, так сказать, обоснование невидимости Гриффина дано в конце книги. Таким построением Уэллс ещё больше оттеняет контраст между Гриффином — человеком–невидимкой, стремящимся стать над обществом и идущим ради этого на преступления, и Гриффином — учёным, сделавшим великое открытие в области физики и биологии. Построение сюжета, таким образом, подчинено главному замыслу романа, оно ещё ярче подчёркивает, как буржуазное общество уродует учёного.
Роман Г. Дж. Уэллса «Человек–невидимка» — не только увлекательный научно–фантастический роман, но и правдивое повествование о положении учёного в буржуазном обществе.
Я. Засурский
Herbert George Wells
THE INVISIBLE MAN
CHAPTER I
THE STRANGE MAN’S ARRIVAL
The stranger came early in February, one wintry day, through a biting wind and a driving snow, the last snowfall of the year, over the down, walking from Bramblehurst Railway Station, and carrying a little black portmanteau in his thickly–gloved hand. He was wrapped up from head to foot, and the brim of his soft felt hat hid every inch of his face save the shiny tip of his nose; the snow had piled itself against his shoulders and chest, and added a white crest to the burden he carried. He staggered into the “Coach and Horses” more dead than alive, and flung his portmanteau down. “A fire,” he cried, “in the name of human charity! A room and a fire!” He stamped and shook the snow from off himself in the bar, and followed Mrs. Hall into her guest parlour to strike his bargain.[1] And with that much introduction,[2] that and a couple of sovereigns flung upon the table, he took up his quarters in the inn.
Mrs. Hall lit the fire and left him there while she went to prepare him a meal with her own hands. A guest to stop at Iping in the winter time was an unheard–of piece of luck, let alone a guest who was no “haggler”,[3] and she was resolved to show herself worthy of her good fortune.
As soon as the bacon was well under way, and Millie, her lymphatic aid,[4] had been brisked up a bit by a few deftly chosen expressions of contempt, she carried the cloth, plates, and glasses into the parlour, and began to lay them with the utmost éclat.[5] Although the fire was burning up briskly, she was surprised to see that her visitor still wore his hat and coat, and stood with his back to her and staring out of the window at the falling snow in the yard.
His gloved hands were clasped behind him, and he seemed to be lost in thought. She noticed that the melted snow that still sprinkled his shoulders dripped upon her carpet.
“Can I take your hat and coat, sir,” she said, “and give them a good dry in the kitchen?”
“No,” he said, without turning.
She was not sure she had heard him, and was about to repeat her question.
He turned his head and looked at her over his shoulder. “I prefer to keep them on,” he said with emphasis; and she noticed that he wore big blue spectacles with side–lights,[6] and had a bushy side whisker over his coat collar that completely hid his face.
“Very well, sir,” she said. “As you like. In a bit the room will be warmer.”
He made no answer, and turned his face away from her again, and Mrs. Hall, feeling that her conversational advances were ill–timed,[7] laid the rest of the table things in a quick staccato[8] manner, and whisked out of the room. When she returned he was still standing there like a man of stone, his back hunched, his collar turned up, his dripping hat–brim turned down, hiding his face and ears completely. She put down the eggs and bacon with considerable emphasis, and called rather than said to him:
“Your lunch is served, sir.”
“Thank you,” he said at the same time, and did not stir until she was closing the door. Then he swung round and approached the table with a certain eagerness.
As she went behind the bar to the kitchen she heard a sound repeated at regular intervals. Chirk, chirk, chirk, it went, the sound of a spoon being whisked rapidly round a basin. “That girl!” she said. “There! I clean forgot it. It’s her being so long!” And while she herself finished mixing the mustard, she gave Millie a few verbal stabs[9] for her excessive slowness. She had cooked the ham and eggs, laid the table, and done everything, while Millie (help, indeed!) had only succeeded in delaying the mustard. And him a new guest, and wanting to stay! Then she filled the mustard–pot, and, putting it with some stateliness upon a gold and black tea–tray, carried it into the parlour.
She rapped and entered promptly. As she did so her visitor moved quickly, so that she got but a glimpse of a white object disappearing behind the table. It would seem he was picking something from the floor. She rapped down the mustard–pot on the table, and then she noticed the overcoat and hat had been taken off and put over a chair in front of the fire. A pair of wet boots threatened rust to her steel fender. She went to these things resolutely. “I suppose I may have them to dry now?” she said, in a voice that brooked no denial.
“Leave the hat,” said her visitor in a muffled voice, and turning, she saw he had raised his head and was looking at her.
1.2
with that much introduction — ограничившись только этим для знакомства. That much соотв. русскому «всего навсего»
1.3
no “haggler” — не из тех, кто торгуется. Отрицание с глаголом to be более выразительно и энергично, чем not. См. то же no hero — «отнюдь не герой», и no believer in voices — «не из тех, кто верит в голоса».
1.7
her conversational advances were ill–timed — её попытки завязать разговор были несвоевременны