Illustration for 'The War of the Worlds', chapter 12

The title illustration for the French translation and first French illustrated edition of of The War of the Worlds (La guerre des mondes). Printed in France in 1906. Only 500 copies were printed of this edition, each signed by the Brazilian artist, Corrêa.

The caption for this illustration is "Simultanément deux obus éclatèrent en l’air, mais près du corps du Marsien, au moment où la tête se tortillait juste à temps pour recevoir, et trop tard pour esquiver, un quatrième obus. Celui-ci éclata en plein contre la tête du monstre. L’espèce de capuchon de métal fut crevé, éclata et alla tournoyer dans l’air en une douzaine de fragments de métal brillant et de lambeaux de chair rougeâtre.
— Touché!"

The English language version of this quote is "I saw and thought nothing of the other four Martian monsters; my attention was riveted upon the nearer incident. Simultaneously two other shells burst in the air near the body as the hood twisted round in time to receive, but not in time to dodge, the fourth shell. The shell burst clean in the face of the Thing. The hood bulged, flashed, was whirled off in a dozen tattered fragments of red flesh and glittering metal.
“Hit!”