GANGNES: In this case insipidity would be defined as "want of taste or judgement; weakness, folly" (Oxford English Dictionary). The narrator is not altogether pleased with the French operator's comments; France cheers England's "triumph" over the Martians, after having offered no aid during the crisis. Essentially, his "tousand congratulation" are in poor taste considering the circumstances.

GANGNES: This is a truly terrifying moment if we remember that the Martians do not digest food. They did not take the supplies in the pantry because they wanted them for themselves to consume; they took the supplies because they suspected that a human being was in the house, and by taking the provisions they can starve him out.

GANGNES: In this case, the word refers to an organism's sex based on chromosomes (which most Victorians would conflate with gender). The "budding off" makes it clear that Martians do not have sexual intercourse, so any differences in chromosomes (if any) are inconsequential. The Martians have achieved a kind of asexual utopia, where their energies and emotions are not "wasted" on finding a mate. Human beings, with our base impulses and inefficient digestive systems, don't stand a chance against advanced beings who quickly process sustenance, never sleep, and don't have to bother with courtship and breeding.

From STOVER 188: (with regard to cutting this section) "Wells may have considered the fact that the narrator's reference to a 'tenth cylinder' is three too many. On the other hand, his miscounting of the seven actual landings would be consistent with his unreliability on so many other points."

From MCCONNELL 228: at the time, ~$180

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 215: at least ten times the usual amount

GANGNES: In this case, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the door to "subsidiary building in the grounds of or adjoining a house, as a barn, shed, etc."

GANGNES: A large collection of orchids would, indeed, have been quite valuable. The craze surrounding "orchid hunting"--the search for rare and beautiful orchids to collect (and/or sell to collectors)--was at its height during the late nineteenth century, to the point where the fad had a name: "orchidelirium." Some varieties would fetch extremely high prices, and wealthy Victorians sank excessive amounts of money into their collections.

Sources and more information:

• Claire Cock-Starkey, "The Dangerous and Highly Competitive World of Victorian Orchid Hunting," MentalFloss, November 18, 2016.
• Andrew Amelinckx, "Old Time Farm Crime: The Cutthroat World of Victorian Orchid Hunters," Modern Farmer, August 1, 2014.
• Li Zhou, "Orchidelirium, an Obsession with Orchids, Has Lasted for Centuries," Smithsonian.com, January 29, 2015.

From MCCONNELL170: "That is, he drove the horse-drawn carriage of the heavy field guns."

GANGNES: As other scholars have pointed out (e.g., HUGHES AND GEDULD 210), the marked difference in the role of the artilleryman in the Pearson's version as compared with the volume constitutes a significant change between the two versions. He is the "man" in the new chapter--"The Man on Putney Hill"--added for the volume, and he is a conduit through which the novel explores how humankind might grapple (or fail to grapple) with such a crisis as the Martian invasion. See Installment 9.

From DANAHAY 75: church bells ringing

GANGNES: Which is to say, the church bells rang in such a way that indicated the time was midnight.

GANGNES: HUGHES AND GEDULD and STOVER both disagree with MCCONNELL about the meaning of this phrase.

From MCCONNELL 159: "The landlord fears he may be selling (not buying) a 'pig in a poke.'"

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 207: "One nineteenth-century slang meaning of 'pig' was goods or property. Hence the sentence might simply mean: 'I'm selling my bit of property.' Another slang meaning of 'pig' was nag, donkey, or moke; while 'bit of' was an adjectival term that could be used variously to express affection for the subject it preceded. ... Another possibility is a real pig, i.e., the landlord is surprised--after asking a pig buyer to pay a pound and drive the pig home himself--to be offered two pounds with a promise moreover to return the pig. According to this, people are simply talking at cross-purposes, and the narrator then explains that he wants a dogcart, not a pig."

From STOVER 98: "The landlord is puzzled by the narrator's haste to pay two pounds for his 'bit of pig' (=his valuable piece of property) coupled with a strong promise to return it."

GANGNES: In this case, according to the Oxford English Dictionary: "waging or carrying on regular recognized war; actually engaged in hostilities," which is to say, the narrator is imagining, and is excited about, an epic war between the British and the Martians.

GANGNES: This indicates that the weather is volatile and likely heralds an imminent storm. See Oxford English Dictionary on "barometer": "an instrument for determining the weight or pressure of the atmosphere, and hence for judging of probable changes in the weather, ascertaining the height of an ascent, etc" and Encyclopædia Britannica entry.

GANGNES: It is not clear whether "Markham" is supposed to refer to a real editor of a specific newspaper. W. O. Markham edited the British Medical Journal, but that publication was not an illustrated paper. It is highly likely that "Markham" is a fictional character who is an acquaintance of the narrator.

Source:

• Brake, Laurel, and Marysa Demoor, editors. Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland. Academia Press and The British Library, 2009, pp. 78-9.

GANGNES: To "lie in state" is "the tradition in which the body of a dead official is placed in a state building, either outside or inside a coffin, to allow the public to pay their respects" (Wikipedia). The "black shroud" here refers metaphorically to a burial shroud or a shroud worn by mourners. Here, then, Wells compares the entire city of London and its inhabitants as corpses, and the black smoke (and resulting black dust) as its burial covering.

GANGNES: These are potential ways to kill oneself and join the rest of London, the narrator considers.

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 223: "The drunken man who is black as a sweep and the dead woman with the magnum of champagne. Wells added the statement that she is dead in revising the serial and evidently forgot to drop the mention of her here."

GANGNES: Lost its balance or similar and fell.

From DANAHAY 182: "the birds form circular patterns like a halo"

GANGNES: Which is to say, in spite of the weakened state of Britain during the Martian invasion and the rebuilding period, no other country took advantage of this weakness and attacked Britain or its colonies. The narrator takes heart about the human spirit from this, despite the fact that in the same paragraph he mentions cannibalism, and we must remember what he, himself, did to the curate.

GANGNES: French, "Name of God!"

GANGNES: French, "Long live England!"

GANGNES: "Special constables" in the Victorian period were private citizens who were appointed or volunteered to help the official police keep the peace in times of crisis. The "white badge" (below) likely refers to the white armbands issued to special constables in the nineteenth century. "Staff" may indicate their truncheons, or the narrator was given another kind of wooden weapon.

More information:

• "History of the Metropolitan Police Service - 19th Century" on Wikipedia
• "The History of the Special Constabulary" on the Old Police Cells Museum website

GANGNES: Someone had broken in while the narrator was gone.

GANGNES: The hypothesis here is that the Martians do not bury their dead because the dead do not decompose on their planet, or at least do not decompose in a way that risks making others ill.

From MCCONNELL 298: "At conjunction, the Earth and Mars are on opposite sides of the Sun."

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 225: "Mars and Earth are in (superior) conjunction, and farthest from each other, when they are lined up with the sun between them; they are in opposition, and closest to each other, when they are lined up with Earth between Mars and the sun."

From DANAHAY 189: "It is far away from earth, but will be 'in opposition' again."

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 225: "These sinuous markings are evidently signals. The first occurs on Venus and signals Mars that the Martian invasion of Venus is under way, and the response, occurring on Mars, appears immediately after ('dark' presumably because the signal makes a dark mark on a photographic plate)."

GANGNES: This is a reference to the real article in Nature that was mentioned in Installment 1 ("A Strange Light on Mars").

GANGNES: Which is to say, the human being captured by the Martians.

GANGNES: The narrator heard about the Red Weed spreading across England through its waterways.

GANGNES: The Fighting Machines, Handling Machines, Heat Ray, and other Martian technologies that are useful rather than for ornamentation or protection from the elements.

GANGNES: The narrator thinks that the Martians are smart enough to tell by looking at the curate's head injury that there must be some other human inside the house who had attacked the curate.

GANGNES: Which is to say, all the narrator can think about is eating food.

GANGNES: There are no Earth plants around to compete with the Red Weed for space; the red Martian plants are taking over Earth's green vegetation.

GANGNES: Presumably the narrator is hoping to eat one of the dogs, as he planned to with the dog that came near the ruined house.

GANGNES: It is not clear whether the Martians ate these animals, humans ate them, or other animals ate them. The text suggests that the Martians prefer to eat human beings.

GANGNES: Which is to say, like a chimney sweep covered in coal dust from cleaning a chimney.

From MCCONNELL 283: "the area [of London] north of the Thames, from the Tower of London on the East to St. Paul's Cathedral on the west, enclosed within the original walls of London"

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 223 and 228: "On Sundays stores and businesses in the City of London are closed, and as the area is largely nonresidential, few people are to be seen." The City is "London's commercial and financial center, north of the Thames between the Temple (on the west) and Aldgate Pump (on the east). The Bank of England and the Royal Exchange are situated in The City."

From DANAHAY 177: "the central part of London that contains many important financial and governmental buildings that would normally be closed on a Sunday"

GANGNES: The New River is actually an aqueduct created in the 1600s, hence the fact that is a source of drinking water here. See "The New River" on the History of London website.

From MCCONNELL 226: "'Automatic mines' are mines set to detonate on contact with any moving object; they are so called to distinguish them from mines exploded by electric current from shore. ... The mines are set to block the expected advance of the Martians into the counties (Leicester, Warwick, Nottinghamshire, etc.) in the middle of England."

GANGNES: Smoke suffocates wasps; this practice is still done today, often with smoke-like products that can be purchased for this purpose.

GANGNES: which is to say, cause the engine driver harm or even death by pushing him into the coal furnace that fuels the steam for the engine

From DANAHAY 116: "sack"=looting

GANGNES: The narrator's brother is one of the first to arrive during the process of looting a bicycle shop, which allows him to steal a bicycle before they are all taken.

From MCCONNELL 220: gold coins worth two pounds, eighteen shillings (each)

From DANAHAY 124: gold coins worth two pounds each ("the man has a lot of heavy money in his bag")

GANGNES: Note that MCCONNELL's and DANAHAY's respective accounts of a sovereign's worth are not the same as one another or as HUGHES AND GEDULD's (and STOVER's) below.

From HUGHES AND GEDULD: "refers to sovereigns: gold coins worth one English pound each."

GANGNES: Note that HUGHES AND GEDULD's account of a sovereign's worth is not the same as MCCONNELL's or DANAHAY's above. STOVER (157) agrees with HUGHES AND GEDULD.

From MCCONNELL 224: extensions

From DANAHAY 127: new branches of "black smoke"

GANGNES: which is to say, cut the telegraph wires to make distance communication impossible

From MCCONNELL 195: "That is, the authorities are blocking off the area from which the Martian invasion comes."

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 213: "Adjoining the Waterloo Station terminus of the South-Western Railway was another station belonging to the South-Eastern Railway (a separate company providing service to locations in the direction of Margate, Dover, Folkstone, and Hastings), whose terminus was Charing Cross. Normally there were barriers preventing passengers from moving directly from one railroad to another. These barriers had been lifted because of the emergency situation."

From STOVER 137: residue from the Black Smoke upstream

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 213: "Threepence a copy was three to six times the normal price."

From DANAHAY 102: "Wells is implying that newspapers were exploiting the situation by making their newspapers unusually expensive."

From MCCONNELL 197: "That is, an official statement which does not quite claim to be an official statement."

GANGNES: The newspaper editors were so eager to get the newspapers printed and sell them that they did not include any journalistic commentary or other textual commentary on the proclamation; they simply reprinted it.

GANGNES: The other content they would have expected this newspaper to usually contain was left out so that it could accommodate the entire proclamation in large letters.

GANGNES: The shopkeeper is displaying maps of Surrey in his store window because that is the region in which the Martian invasion is taking place (Woking and its surrounding villages are in Surrey). He likely hopes that advertising the map in his window will prompt customers to buy maps of Surrey from him so they can follow the action.

GANGNES: Regent's Park is a large public park in the northern part of central London. It lies north of the Thames, and it would likely take the narrator's brother a little under an hour to walk there from the south, depending on where in Westminster he is and where his apartment is situated. Wells's final home was near Regent's Park.

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 232: Regent's Park is "central London's largest park, containing the London Zoo and the Botanical Gardens. It extends north from Marylebone Road to Primrose Hill; and west from Albany to Grand Union Canal."

GANGNES: early hours after midnight ("wee hours")

GANGNES: In this case, not unintelligent, but rather, unaware or unknowing.

From MCCONNELL 201: "This was nearly fifty times the normal price of a newspaper."

From DANAHAY 107: "The price of a newspaper [since earlier in the installment] has now risen from threepence to a shilling, or twelve pence."

From MCCONNELL 202: "equivalent of fifty dollars at the time"

GANGNES: These villages are all to the north or east of Woking and would be suitably arranged to face the crescent of Martian fighting machines.

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 230: Hounslow is "a suburban area of Middlesex, about ten miles west of central London."

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 231: Ockham is "a village in Surrey, about two and a half miles southeast of Woking and five miles northwest of Guildford."

GANGNES: MCCONNELL and HUGHES AND GEDULD seem to be at odds here about the historical significance of this reference. STOVER (147) agrees with HUGHES AND GEDULD.

From MCCONNELL 206: "From September 2 to October 7, 1812, the French Army of Napoleon occupied Moscow, burning and destroying more than three-fourths of the city. They were finally compelled to retreat, however, due to Russian guerrilla resistance and the impossibility of acquiring adequate provisions."

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 213: "To frustrate the Martians by destroying their major objective, London, as the Russians did to Napoleon in 1812 by setting fire to Moscow."

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 209: The narrator "intends to make a northerly bypass of Leatherhead then circle back to it from the east."

GANGNES: short for "aluminium" (British; American aluminum)

From MCCONNELL 176: "First isolated in 1825, aluminum ... began to be produced in massive quantities only after the discovery, in 1866, of a cheap method of production by electrolysis."

From DANAHAY 87: "literally means day of worship; people are dressed as if for going to church on Sunday"

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 210: This is the Church of St. Nicholas; it is later smashed by the Martians.

From DANAHAY 89: "Inns and pubs were allowed to sell alcohol only during particular hours specified by law."

From STOVER 93-4: "The narrator's neighbor in Woking assumes, with a touching faith in bourgeois property values, that 'the insurance people' will settle for damages once the Martians are defeated."

GANGNES: STOVER corrects HUGHES AND GEDULD's annotation, though does not mention them specifically in the note, despite referencing them in other notes.

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 206: "Their notion is that there was an operational or tactical dispute--about how to deal with the situation--among the officers of the elite Horse Guards at the Horse Guard barracks (a building in central London opposite Whitehall). The Horse Guards are the cavalry brigade of the English Household troops (the third regiment of Horse Guards is known as the Royal Horse Guards)."

From STOVER 94: Horse Guards here "is a shorthand reference to the British War Office, located on Horse Guards Parade near Downing Street in London. As Americans refer to the Department of Defense as 'The Pentagon' after its office building, so the British called its War Office 'the Horse Guards.' Not to be confused with the Household Calvary regiment The Royal Horse Guards, even then a tourist attraction when on parade."

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 207: Wells uses this name in place of the name of a real pub: the Princess of Wales.

From DANAHAY 72: the name of a local pub

From DANAHAY 76: in its path

GANGNES: In the 1898 edition, "wallowing" is removed.

From STOVER 107: The narrator's false promise to return the dogcart was likely the cause of the landlord's death; he couldn't escape because the narrator had taken his means of conveyance.

From MCCONNELL: "To 'unlimber' a gun is to detach it from its limber, a two-wheeled carriage drawn by four to six horses, and prepare it for firing."

GANGNES: which is to say, signalling peace or surrender

GANGNES: The narrator is only able to see the people who are burning because the fire burning on their bodies creates light.

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 204: "The Chertsey and the Chobham roads start at Woking station, then divide. The 'Something' that 'fell with a crash far away to the left' fell presumably to the west. So the road referred to here is presumably the Chobham Road."

GANGNES: riding a horse

GANGNES: In this case, an attack or conflict. Stent and Ogilvy sent their telegraph before there was any sign of overt hostility from the Martians; they contacted the barracks so that the soldiers might come to the pit and protect the Martians from being attacked by humans, not the other way around.

From MCCONNELL 148: "Collars at the time were detached from the shirt, generally made of celluloid, and fastened around the neck with a stud."

GANGNES: In this instance, unbelievable; the narrator is relieved that his wife believes his story about what happened to him because his neighbors did not.

GANGNES: Because the newspapers didn't hear from Henderson after he sent a telegram with the news about the capsule's landing, the newspaper decided that it must have been a hoax, so it did not report a story on it. People have been murdered by the Martian heat-ray by this point, and hardly anyone who wasn't at the pit knows about the incident.

GANGNES: As HUGHES AND GEDULD point out (see below), this is a mistake that was not corrected in any of the novel's revisions. The error is somewhat jarring considering that Wells painstakingly situates the Martian invasion at extremely specific real locations. For more information on where this project situates the landing site, see the map page on The (De)collected War of the Worlds.

HUGHES AND GEDULD 206: "This is a slip. The second cylinder falls to the northeast ... in or near the 'Byfleet' or 'Addlestone' Golf Links (really the New Zealand Golf Course, then the only course thereabouts and the one Wells must mean)."

GANGNES: Which is to say, invade Earth and destroy human beings; Earth is closer to the Sun than Mars is.

From MCCONNELL 127: "The clockwork would keep the telescope rotating in synchronization with the movement of its celestial object."

GANGNES: Presumably this timing is necessary because the capsules are all being "aimed" at roughly the same area geographically; the cylinders need a "straight shot" from their giant gun (cannon), and the Earth takes 24 hours to rotate back to roughly the same position in reference to the Sun. It may also take a significant amount of time to reload a new capsule into the gun.

GANGNES: the heat radiating from the cylinder (not harmful/nuclear radiation)

GANGNES: British "pubs"/bars

GANGNES: This statement implies that most English people became far more familiar with astronomy after their country was invaded by aliens from another planet.

From MCCONNELL 135: "Any chemical compound containing oxygen. The surface of the cylinder has been oxidized in the heat generated by its fall through the atmosphere."

GANGNES: You will see below that three different annotated editions of the novel give three different definitions of this reference, and they do not agree as to whether it is Wales or Ireland that is meant to be the "third kingdom."

From HUGHES AND GEDULD 203: England, Ireland, and Scotland

From STOVER 70: Of Great Britain

From DANAHAY 52: England, Scotland, and Wales