The Crystal Egg

"The Crystal Egg" is a science fiction short story written by H. G. Wells in 1897.

The story tells of a shop owner, named Mr. Cave, who finds a strange crystal egg that serves as a window into the planet Mars.

The story was written the same year in which Wells was serializing The War of the Worlds in Pearson's Magazine, a year before it was published as a novel. Because of the vaguely similar descriptions of the Martians and their machines, "The Crystal Egg" is often considered a prequel to The War of the Worlds, though there is no clear foreshadowing of the events that transpire in the novel.

Adaptations

Jorge Luis Borges was inspired by "The Crystal Egg" for his 1949 story, "The Aleph".
In 1952, "The Crystal Egg" was made into an episode of the science fiction anthology television series Tales of Tomorrow. The episode was a half hour in length and told in first person narration. The episode is vague as to whether it is set in the 1890s when Wells published his story or in the 1950s when the show was being broadcast. However since he is recording his story on a phonograph record it is more than likely that it is supposed to be the 1950s.
In Manly Wade Wellman's Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds, Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II and Kevin J. Anderson's The Martian War, Crystal Eggs appear and are used by the Martians to prepare for their invasion by spying on Earth.
In 2001, the Radio Tales series produced the drama "Watchers", an adaptation of H. G. Wells's story for National Public Radio.
The story was adapted as part of the second episode of the 2001 miniseries, The Infinite Worlds of H. G. Wells. Wells himself appeared as a character, who is inspired to write The War of the Worlds from the events. In the show, the crystal egg comes to Earth as a meteorite and serves as a two-way teleportation gate as well. Cave is divided into two characters, a married couple (William and Rosa); a Martian scientist takes Rosa back to Mars through the egg, before rendering it inoperable. British Intelligence later comes to acquire the egg.
Kim Newman's short story "The Red Planet League" (collected in Gaslight Grimoire) reinterprets the events of "The Crystal Egg" as part of an elaborate hoax played by Professor Moriarty on Stent (the Astronomer Royal from The War of the Worlds) after Stent attempted to discredit Moriarty's The Dynamics of an Asteroid. In Newman's story, Cave is actually Moriarty in disguise.

External links

Works by H. G. Wells

Nonfiction	Crux Ansata The Fate of Man Floor Games The Future in America: A Search After Realities Little Wars The New World Order The Open Conspiracy The Outline of History Russia in the Shadows The Science of Life A Short History of the World Travels of a Republican Radical in Search of Hot Water World Brain

Novels	Ann Veronica Bealby Christina Alberta's Father The Dream The First Men in the Moon The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth The History of Mr Polly The Invisible Man The Island of Dr Moreau Joan and Peter Kipps Love and Mr Lewisham Marriage Men Like Gods A Modern Utopia Mr. Britling Sees It Through The New Machiavelli The Passionate Friends The Research Magnificent The Sea Lady The Secret Places of the Heart The Shape of Things to Come The Sleeper Awakes The Soul of a Bishop Star-Begotten The Time Machine Tono-Bungay The Undying Fire The War in the Air The War of the Worlds The Wheels of Chance The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman The Wonderful Visit The World Set Free In the Days of the Comet

Collections	The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents The Plattner Story and Others Tales of Space and Time Twelve Stories and a Dream The Country of the Blind and Other Stories

Short stories	"The Chronic Argonauts" "The Country of the Blind" "The Crystal Egg" "A Deal in Ostriches" "Empire of the Ants" "The Land Ironclads" "The Man Who Could Work Miracles" "Mr. Ledbetter's Vacation" "The New Accelerator" "The Pearl of Love" "The Queer Story of Brownlow's Newspaper" "The Red Room" "The Star" "The Stolen Body" "A Story of the Days to Come" "A Story of the Stone Age" "Triumphs of a Taxidermist" "The Truth About Pyecraft" "A Vision of Judgment"

Screenplays	Things to Come The Man Who Could Work Miracles The New Faust

Film adaptations	A Trip to the Moon (1902) The First Men in the Moon (1919) The Invisible Man (1933) Island of Lost Souls (1933) Things to Come (1936) The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1937) The History of Mr. Polly (1949) The War of the Worlds (1953) The Time Machine (1960) First Men in the Moon (1964) Half a Sixpence (1967) The Food of the Gods (1976) The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977) Empire of the Ants (1977) The Time Machine (1978) H. G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come (1979) The War of the Worlds: Next Century (1983) Food of the Gods II (1988) The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) The Time Machine (2002) War of the Worlds (2005) H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds (2005) H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (2005) H G Wells: War with the World (2006) War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave (2008) The First Men in the Moon (2010) War of the Worlds – The True Story (2011)

The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells

Martians	Black smoke Embankment-machine Flying-machine Handling-machine Heat-Ray Red weed Tripod

Radio	The War of the Worlds Grover's Mill, New Jersey The Night That Panicked America Orson Welles

Films	The War of the Worlds (Haskin, 1953) The War of the Worlds: Next Century (Szulkin, 1981) H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (Hines, 2005) H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds (Latt, 2005) War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave (Howell, 2008) War of the Worlds (Spielberg, 2005) War of the Worlds The True Story (Hines, 2011)

Jeff Wayne	Musical Version Highlights 1984 video game 1998 video game

TV series	Mor-Tax Mor-Taxans Episodes

Sequels	Edison's Conquest of Mars Killraven (Earth-691) Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches Rainbow Mars The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II War of the Worlds: New Millennium Scarlet Traces The Martian War

Miscellaneous	Adaptations and sequels HMS Thunder Child Doctor Clayton Forrester "The Crystal Egg" Comic The Space Machine Superman Arcade game Star-Begotten Scary Movie 4 George Herbert