The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents

About this book

The volume is a collection of short, speculative tales by H. G. Wells, originally printed in late‑Victorian periodicals such as the Pall Mall Budget and the Observatory. The opening story, “The Stolen Bacillus,” drops the reader into a laboratory where a bacteriologist shows a pale‑faced visitor a sealed tube of live cholera germs. Their conversation quickly turns to the terrifying possibility of releasing the pathogen into a city’s water supply, and the narrative erupts into a frantic chase through London’s streets as an anarchist attempts to carry out the plot. The story’s brisk pacing and focus on a single, high‑stakes scientific menace set the tone for the remaining thirteen stories, each promising a similarly compact blend of curiosity, danger, and the unexpected.

Wells writes with a clear, conversational prose that reflects the scientific optimism and social anxieties of the 1890s. His narration combines precise description, microscopes, glass slides, cabmen’s chatter, with a wry, almost theatrical tone, making the extraordinary feel plausible. Readers who enjoy early science‑fiction that mixes moral intrigue with a dash of humor, as well as those interested in Victorian attitudes toward disease and anarchism, will find this collection engaging.