Герберт Уэллс - Кентервильское привидение. Человек-невидимка / The Canterville Ghost. The Invisible Man

“Yes, I fired the house! I was only just beginning to realise the extraordinary advantage my invisibility gave me.”

Are the following statements true or false? Correct the false ones.

1. The idea of making an animal transparent occurred to Griffin suddenly. He hadn’t planned it before.

2. The experiment with the cat was successful.

3. Griffin let the cat out and didn’t think about it again.

4. Griffin decided to make himself invisible because he was in trouble. He hoped to solve his problems in this way.

5. The process of turning invisible was very painful.

6. Griffin left the house quietly before the landlord returned.

1. Why did the cat miaow during the process?

2. What do you think of vivisection? Is it allowed in this country?

3. Do you think the landlord had the right to know what Griffin did?

4. Why did the landlord return the next day? What was the purpose of his visit?

5. Why did Griffin fire the house? What do you think of it?

“As I got on Great Portland Street, I was hit violently behind, and turning, saw a boy carrying a box of bottles. His astonishment was so funny that I laughed aloud. I took the box out of his hands, and threw it up into the air.

“A few people crowded around us. I realised what I had done. In a moment the crowd would be all around me, and I should be discovered. I pushed by a boy, ran across the road, and soon reached Oxford Street.

“In a moment someone stepped on my foot. I felt very cold. It was a bright day in January, and I was naked, and the mud on the road was freezing. I had not thought that, transparent or not, I should be cold.

“Then an idea came into my head. I jumped into an empty cab. And so, cold and scared, I drove along Oxford Street. I was not feeling as happy and powerful as I had when leaving my house a few minutes before. This invisibility, indeed! My one thought was how to get out of trouble.

“A woman stopped my cab, and I jumped out just in time to escape her. I was now very cold, and felt so unhappy that I cried as I ran.

“A little white dog ran up to me, nose down. I had never realised it before, how dangerous a dog could be for me. He began barking, showing that he felt me. I ran on and on until I saw a big crowd.

“I ran up the steps of a house, and stood there until the crowd had passed. Happily the dog stopped, too, then ran away.

“Two boys stopped at the steps near me. ’Do you see bare footmarks?’ said one.

“I looked down and saw the boys staring at the muddy footmarks I had left on the steps. ‘A barefoot man has gone up the steps,’ said one. ‘And he hasn’t come down.’

“‘Look there, Ted,’ said one of the young detectives, and pointed at my feet. I looked down and saw a silhouette of my muddy feet.

“‘Why, it’s just like the ghost of a foot, isn’t it?’ He stretched out his hand. A man stopped to see what he was catching, and then a girl. In another moment he would have touched me. [179]Then I made a step, and jumped over onto the steps of the next house. But the smaller boy saw the movement.

“‘What’s the matter?’ asked someone.

“‘Feet! Look!’

“In another moment I was running, with six or seven astonished people following my footmarks. I ran round corners and across roads, and then as my feet grew hot I cleaned them with my hands. I did not leave footmarks any more.

“This running warmed me, but I had cut my foot, and there was blood on it. It began snowing. And every dog was a terror to me.”

“So last January I began this new life. I had no home, no clothes, no one in the whole world whom I could ask for help. I had to get out of the snow, to get myself clothes, then I could make plans. I could see before me – the cold, the snowstorm and night.

“And then I had a good idea. I went to a big department store, where you can find everything: meat, furniture, clothes.

“I did not feel safe there, however, people were going to and fro, and I walked about until I came upon a big furniture section. I found a resting-place, and I decided to remain in hiding until closing time. Then I should be able, I thought, to find food and clothes and disguise, perhaps sleep on a bed. My plan was to get clothes, money, and then my books at the Post Office, to stay somewhere, and realise the advantages of my invisibility (as I still imagined).

“Closing time arrived quickly. My first visit was to the clothes section, where I found what I wanted – trousers, socks, a jacket, a coat, and a hat. I began to feel man again, and my next thought was food.

“Upstairs was a restaurant, and there I got cold meat and coffee. I also saw a lot of chocolate, and some wine. Then I went to sleep on a bed, very warm and comfortable.

“As I woke up, I sat up, and for a time I could not understand where I was. Then I saw two men approaching. I got up, looking about me for some way of escape, and the sound of my movement made them look at me. ‘Who’s that?’ cried one, and ’Stop there!’ shouted the other. I ran round a corner and into a boy of fifteen. He shouted and I knocked him down, rushed past him, turned another corner. In another moment feet ran past and I heard voices shouting, ‘All to the doors!’ and giving one another advice how to catch me. But it did not occur to me at the moment to take off my clothes, as I wanted to get away in them. ‘Here he is!’

“I gripped a chair, and threw it at the man who had shouted, and rushed up the stairs. He came upstairs after me. Upstairs were a lot of those bright pots. I took one of them, and smashed it on his silly head. I rushed madly to the restaurant, and there was a man in white like a cook. I found myself among lamps. I hid among them and waited for my cook, and as he appeared, I smashed his head with a lamp. Down he went, and I began taking off my clothes as fast as I could.

“This way, Policeman,’ I heard someone shouting. I ran and found myself in my furniture section again, and hid there. The policeman and three other men came there. They saw my clothes. ‘He must be somewhere here,’ said one of the men.

“But they did not find me. I stood watching them and cursing my bad luck in losing the clothes. About eleven o’clock, when the snow had stopped and it was a little warmer, I went out without any plans in my mind.”

Are the following statements true or false? Correct the false ones.

1. Though Griffin was invisible, people noticed him in the streets of London.

2. Not only people but also dogs noticed the Invisible Man.

3. Griffin felt happy and powerful now that he was invisible.

4. In his new life Griffin had only one college friend who could give him home, clothes, food, and professional help.

5. Griffin planned to rob a department store of food and clothes and then to become powerful and famous.

6. Griffin behaved like a real criminal in the department store.

7. Griffin had to leave the department store naked because he was visible in clothes and he could be caught.

1. What do you think of the joke Griffin played with the boy carrying a box of bottles?

2. What do you think the people could do to Griffin if they caught him in London streets? Why was Griffin afraid to be caught?

3. What do you think happened to those people whom Griffin attacked in the department store?

“I had no home – no clothes, – to get dressed was to lose all my advantage,” said the Invisible Man, “I could not eat, because unassimilated food made me grotesquely visible again.”