"The Rats" is a horror novel set in London in the 1990's. The story is about extraordinary large rats who begin to attack humans and devour them. The story begins with the rats' first attack. A salesman, who was rejected by the man he loved, takes to alcoholism. His life gradually goes 'downhill' and he ends up sleeping rough on the street. While sleeping in a back alley, he is attacked by these huge rats and eaten alive. The main character, Harris, is then introduced. Harris is an art teacher at the local primary school. When one of his pupils is bitten by one of the rats, Harris offers to take him to hospital. The pupil later dies of 'Weil's Disease.' Harris is asked to help deal with their predicament by Foskins from the Ministry of Health. As Harris grew up in the area, he knew it quite well and volunteered to show the exterminators where about his pupil saw the rats. Gradually, the attacks became more frequent, more public and bloodier. The rats began attacking trains, zoos and the school Harris worked at. Foskins' team of scientists and experts came up with an idea to infect them with a lethal disease. They would inject puppies with the disease and use them as bait for the rats. This plan seemed to work as the disease swept through the rat population. The vermin came into the streets to die. The threat seemed to be over. Life for the Londoners returned to normal until the rats attacked a cinema. Foskins called an emergency meeting to get new ideas and end the threat once and for all. After much deliberation an idea put forward by Harris was put into action. London was to be evacuated, transmitters would force all the rats into the open when they would all be gassed. The plan worked and the threat of the rats was extinguished.
             I intend to discuss how James Herbert's rats in the book of the same title appear to be a superior species to the humans in the book.
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