The Stolen Body

The Stolen Body is a sci-fi tale by H. G. Wells,¹ first published in November 1898 by The Strand Magazine. It later appeared in collections like “Twelve Stories and a Dream.”

H.G. Wells, or Herbert George Wells, was an English writer who excelled in various genres, including novels, stories, biographies, and social satire. He’s often referred to as the “father of science fiction,” alongside Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback.

Wells’ versatility in writing, demonstrated in works like Kipps and The History of Mr. Polly, led many to see him as a worthy successor to Charles Dickens.

Plot

The main characters in the story are a couple of investigators interested in physical research, called Mr. Bessel and Mr. Vincey. They did several experiments trying to project the appearance of their spirit through space. One night, Mr. Bessel manages to leave his body and communicate with Mr. Vincey as a kind of ghost.

Therefore, an evil entity possessed his body during his absence. So, Mr. Vincey feels the appearance of his partner asks for help. And he decides to go and look for him at his apartment. But he finds the place alone and wholly shattered. Thus, Mr. Vincey goes out to look for his friend and discovers that Mr. Bessel has carried out a series of violent events in London.

Despite this, Mr. Vincey has different dreams and premonitions where his friend Mr. Bessel asks for help. Finally, he finds a medium who helps him locate his friend and tells him where he is. Surprisingly, the body was sunk and abandoned by the entity near the Baker Street station. After they rescue him, Mr. Bessel narrates all his experience of how he left his body and how he went into some place or another state out of this world.

Licensing

H. G. Wells. The Stolen Body. From Weird Tales Magazine, Volume 6, Issue 5, 1925. Originally published in 1898. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929. The longest-living author of this work died in 1946, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 77 years or less. Text from Wikisource: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Stolen_Body
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