Before You Begin

Before you begin.

On a snowbound February evening, a stranger walks into the Sussex village of Iping wrapped from head to foot. He takes a room at the inn, keeps the blinds drawn, and asks to be left alone. The villagers are curious; their visitor is impatient, secretive, and surrounded by bottles, books, and unfinished work. Soon the mystery he brings will unsettle the whole village.

H. G. Wells turns an extraordinary scientific possibility into a story of isolation, fear, and the obligations people owe one another. The novel travels from the Coach and Horses to Port Burdock and London through a late-Victorian world where a familiar face can vanish from view. These illustrations offer a companion to the story: look for the objects that carry its mystery, the places that shape it, and the distinct people drawn into its path. Begin with the snow at the inn, and watch what becomes visible.