summary of the stranger at the Inn
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The Invisible Man doesn't get along with anyone in society: he didn't get along with anyone before he was invisible and now things have only gotten worse. He thinks the laws shouldn't apply to him and eventually he gets killed by a mob. Epic fail, Invisible Man.
Here's the slightly longer version:
The Invisible Man starts with a stranger arriving at the town of Iping. He's a private guy, which is a problem when you live in a town where the major export is gossip. The stranger doesn't get along with the villagers, especially the people who own the inn where he's staying. He spends most of his time trying to do something scientific in his room. But eventually – after the villagers (rightfully) accuse him of robbery – the stranger snaps. He takes off all his clothes and reveals that he's – wait for it – invisible! (Yeah, we know, it's in the title.)
The Invisible Man fights the village and flees, leaving his important scientific notes behind. To get them back, he forces a homeless dude named Marvel to help him. They go back to Iping and get the Invisible Man's stuff, but the villagers attack and craziness ensues. The Invisible Man beats them to a pulp and wreaks some major havoc.
At another town (Port Stowe), the Invisible Man steals money and drops it into Marvel's pockets. Like the lousy sidekick he is, Marvel runs away to Burdock, money in hand (or in pocket, we guess). The IM tries to kill Marvel, but a bunch of people at a bar fight him off; one person even shoots him, but it's just a scratch. The Invisible Man takes shelter in a house that happens to be owned by an old college friend named Kemp, and this is where we learn that our not-so-hero's name is Griffin.
While staying in his digs, Griffin tells Kemp his back story story, which is several chapters long (and we mean long). Here's the gist: he was poor and he wanted to study invisibility (as most young people do), so he stole money from his father, who then committed suicide (we're not entirely sure why). Finally Griffin figured out the invisibility thing and proceeded to do a few things: (1) burn down his landlord's building; (2) wander around London; (3) steal from a department store; and (4) put on a ridiculous outfit from a theatrical costume shop and go to Iping to work.
Turns out Kemp had alerted the police to Griffin's whereabouts when he arrived, but when they come to arrest him, he escapes. (Remember, he's invisible, so it's not too tough.) Kemp works with the police to catch Griffin, who in turn, tries to catch Kemp. In the end, a bunch of people in Burdock gang up on the Invisible Man and kill him. As he dies, Griffin loses his invisibility and we get our first glimpse of the Visible Man.
Finally, in the epilogue, we learn that Marvel still has Griffin's scientific notes, which probably have all sorts of cool inventions in them.
The book starts with a stranger arriving in a snowstorm at the Coach and Horses, an inn/bar in Iping. (If you've read War of the Worlds, you know that Wells often likes to set his stories in real, or real-ish, places, so it's no surprise that Iping is a real town in England.)The stranger is totally covered, with only his shiny nose showing. He's also wearing spectacles with sidelights, which basically look like goggles. At least one person says he looks like he's wearing a diving helmet (the old-fashioned kind, of course.)The stranger looks, well, strange, but he's got money, so Mrs. Hall, the innkeeper, gives him a room.Still, Mrs. Hall is surprised by his appearance when she sees him in his room without his hat:
[A]ll his forehead above his blue glasses was covered by a white bandage, and […] another covered his ears, leaving not a scrap of his face exposed excepting only his pink, peaked nose. […] The thick black hair, escaping as it could below and between the cross bandages, projected in curious tails and horns, giving him the strangest appearance conceivable. (1.16)
Luckily, he's covered the lower part of his face with a serviette (a napkin), so she doesn't have to deal with what's there.Mrs. Hall assumes that this guy was in an accident. She tries to get him to talk about what happened (nosy much?), but he doesn't want to talk about his "accident" with a gossipy innkeeper. Instead, he asks her about getting his luggage from the railroad station. Not quite as good for gossip. Sorry, Mrs. Hall.The invisible man arrived at the Iping village in February. During this time, the village underwent a chilling cold with wind and snow. Usually, visitors don't visit the place during this weather. The inn business used to go down during this season. When the owner if the inn Mrs. Hall saw a visitor during such a season, she became very happy and wanted to make more money. And at the same time, the stranger did no bargaining and instead asked her to add money to his bill if anything gets damaged by him. When the stranger arrived at the inn he was totally wrapped from head to toe. All of his body parts were covered by cloth excluding his little shiny nose. His face was covered by bandages which gave him an intense look.