The Food of the Gods

Two absent-minded scientists develop a compound that makes anything it feeds accelerate wildly in size, and they lose control of it almost at once. Chickens grow to the height of men, wasps and rats turn monstrous, and before long human children raised on the stuff tower over the frightened world around them. Wells uses the runaway experiment to poke at English complacency and at a society terrified of anything larger than itself. The comedy of giant vermin gives way to a serious question about progress and whether the future belongs to those bold enough to grow into it. This free PDF and EPUB edition includes the complete novel.