War of the Worlds Illustration: Man Clinging to Rocky Cliff, c.1898

A desperate Victorian gentleman clings to a jagged rock face, his expression wild with terror as he scrambles upward — this is the world of H.G. Wells' Martian invasion, where ordinary men are reduced to fleeing, climbing, and hiding. Dressed in a dark tweed suit and cap, the bearded figure reaches upward with frantic urgency, the churning mist below suggesting chaos and destruction at his heels. The stark halftone engraving technique gives the scene a breathless, documentary-like immediacy.