Two scientists, Bensington and Redwood, conduct research into the growth process of living things. The result is a chemical foodstuff (which they name Herakleophorbia IV) that accelerates and extends the process past its normal cycle. Setting up an experimental farm, the pair test the substance on chicks, causing them to grow into giants. Unfortunately, the slovenly couple hired to feed and monitor the chicks allow other creatures to eat the food, and soon giant rats, wasps and worms are terrorizing the countryside. The ...
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Two scientists, Bensington and Redwood, conduct research into the growth process of living things. The result is a chemical foodstuff (which they name Herakleophorbia IV) that accelerates and extends the process past its normal cycle. Setting up an experimental farm, the pair test the substance on chicks, causing them to grow into giants. Unfortunately, the slovenly couple hired to feed and monitor the chicks allow other creatures to eat the food, and soon giant rats, wasps and worms are terrorizing the countryside. The chickens then escape and overrun a nearby town. Urged on by a civil engineer named Cossar, Bensington and Redwood take responsibility for the mayhem. Armed with buffalo rifles and explosives, the men hunt down the monstrous vermin and burn the experimental farm to the ground. The rest of the book focuses on the humans that have been reared on the food. Redwood mixes the substance into his own son's bottle, causing him to grow and making him wholly dependent on it. Other children are given the food, including Cossar's three sons, a princess, and the grandson of the couple hired to look after the experimental farm, Albert Caddles. Unwilling to stop feeding it to them (doing so would prove fatal), Cossar and Redwood look after their massive offspring until they finally reach 40 feet in height. The rest of the world doesn't take so kindly towards the young giants. Fear and mistrust run rampant, goaded by an opportunistic politician, John 'The Giant Killer' Caterham, as well as the occasional outbreak of giant vermin (mosquitoes, spiders, etc.). Despite their attempts to prove useful to society, the giants are restricted and segregated at every turn, while Bensington is driven into hiding by an anti-giant mob. The worst treatment is reserved for Caddles. Having been forced to spend most of his life working in a chalk pit, he one day sets out to see the world he has been isolated from. Walking right into London, surrounded by thousands of tiny people and confused by everything he sees, he demands to know what it's all for and where he fits in. Getting no answer and told to return to his chalk pit, Caddles wanders aimlessly until he is finally gunned down by the police. The conflict is brought to an inevitable head. The book ends on the eve of all-out war between the 'Pygmies, ' small in body and mind but vast in numbers, and the 'Children of the Food, ' who claim to fight not just for themselves, but for growth itself in all its forms. Whether they succeed or not is left unanswered.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. Light shelfwear to extremities of book, previous owners inscription on inside front endpaper, otherwise fine. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 244 p.
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Seller's Description:
Used-Good. Good hardback in embossed green cloth. 1st UK edition. 18pp publisher's catalogue at rear dated 20 Sept.1904. Some light foxing; bookplate on front pastedown; binding tight; spine worn at head & foot, with dull gilt lettering; gilt on front board bright.
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Seller's Description:
Good. Later. Good Hardcover has blind stamped cover, corners and spine, no dust jacket, bookplate, text edges smudged. Please Note: This book has been transferred to Between the Covers from another database and might not be described to our usual standards. Please inquire for more detailed condition information.
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Seller's Description:
Good. First American edition. Green cloth stamped in gilt. Front hinge cracked and roughly mended, faint dampstains at the lower corner and edges of the majority of pages (affecting some text), rubbing at board edges, thin line of discoloration on rear board, good only.
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Seller's Description:
First edition of Wells' satiric utopian novel. Octavo, original blind-stamped green cloth, gilt titles to the spine and front panel. In near fine condition. Housed in a custom half morocco and chemise clamshell box. Like many of Wells' works, The Food of the Gods and How it Came to Earth is an allegory of class struggle and imperialism as illustrated in a fantastic utopian future. Wells called the novel "a fantasia on the change of scale in human affairs." The story was adapted into several graphic novels and B-movies including the 1976 science fiction thriller of the same name produced and written by Bert I. Gordon.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. Size: 5x0x8; Paperback as pictured/just a touch of wear to cover/text clean of marks/safe and secure shipping/FREE DELIVERY CONFIRMATION AND TRACKING ON ALL DOMESTIC ORDERS/
