The Selenites

Claude Shepperson

Photomechanical reproduction of a watercolour

H.G. Wells, ‘The First Men in the Moon,’ The Strand 21 (Jan–Jun 1901): 167.

Cavor and Bedford’s encounter with the Selenites. Wells describes them as insectile and Shepperson depicts them as something indeterminate, somewhere between an insect and a higher animal. The satire is the same: the working classes are reduced to the status of ants, and the creatures on the Moon a symbol of those on Earth. As usual, the artist captures the sheer oddness of Wells’s vision, giving form to what had never before been imagined. [Click on the image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links.]

Scanned image and text by Simon Cooke.