The Time Machine

By H.G. Wells

In this book that inspired the international bestseller The Map of Time, follow a dreamer obsessed with traveling through time as he discovers the hidden secrets of a supposedly harmonious society.

The Time Traveler, a dreamer obsessed with traveling through time, builds himself a time machine and, much to his surprise, travels over 800,000 years into the future.

He lands in the year 802701—the world has been transformed by a society living in apparent harmony and bliss. But as the Traveler stays in the future, he discovers a hidden barbaric and depraved subterranean class.

Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world's finest books to their full potential.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Release date: May 3, 2016
• ISBN: 9781439117163

H.G. Wells

H.G. Wells is considered by many to be the father of science fiction. He was the author of numerous classics such as The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The War of the Worlds, and many more. 

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Cover: The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells

The Time Machine

H. G. Wells

Supplementary material written by Benjamin Beard Series edited by Cynthia Brantley Johnson

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The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells, Simon & Schuster

INTRODUCTION

The Time Machine: THE FUTURE AS HISTORY

In 1895, an unknown author named H. G. Wells published his first book, The Time Machine. In scarcely over one hundred pages, The Time Machine posits a technological basis for time travel, presents a dialogue between utopian and dystopian views of the future, and follows the idea of entropy to its logical, and chilling, conclusion. Wells also takes aim at the arrogant nationalism of the British Empire of the end of the nineteenth century, showing the readers of his day a ghastly vision of the potential results of their current actions. The book was an instant success, and with its appearance the genre of popular science fiction was born.

In Wells’s time, horror and gothic fiction were well known, popular literary genres. Works such as the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (published two years after The Time Machine) had wide appeal. But The Time Machine, though it contains elements of horror, was different. Wells imaginatively applied the latest scientific theories to pressing philosophical, social, and political issues. The result was a compelling form of fiction that appealed to the intellect as well as the heart.

Much of The Time Machine will seem familiar to modern readers because the book has been so widely adapted and borrowed from by later writers. But the power and originality of the book are still immediately evident. It is part adventure story, part polemic, and part satiric warning. What keeps it so fresh is that its central theme is universal and timeless.

Wells best encapsulated the meaning of the book himself, when he stated that The Time Machine was about the responsibility of men to mankind. Unless humanity hangs together, unless all strive for the species as a whole, we shall end in disaster.

The Life and Work of H. G. Wells

Herbert George Wells was born on September 21, 1866, in Bromley, Kent, the son of a shop-owning father and a religious mother. The first major event in his life happened when he was eight, and broke his leg. He spent the subsequent months inside, where his father brought him books from the library, including books on natural history and biology, cultivating in him a lifelong love of science and reading.

At eighteen, Wells enrolled at the Normal School of Science in South Kensington London on a scholarship, after narrowly escaping a life as a draper’s apprentice. He was an exceptional student, and took many courses under Thomas Huxley, the famous Darwinist, whose grandson Aldous went on to become a famous author of science fiction novels. Wells never forgot how close he was to missing his education, and often wondered how many bright young minds missed theirs because they couldn’t afford school.

Huxley was a passionate teacher, who had a profound effect on Wells. Huxley was a dedicated educator and a devout disciple of Darwin’s ideas of natural selection, and of the importance of public education. He passed these ideas on to Wells. Also at school, Wells worked on a magazine called the Science Schools Journal. He was the editor and primary contributor. Many of his later works are based on the stories he published in the Journal, including The Chronic Argonauts, the short story on which The Time Machine is based.

Wells left school without graduating and took a job at a public school called Holt Academy in Wales, where he taught science and also officiated rugby matches. One of his students, in a mean-spirited moment, kicked him on purpose in the kidneys. When examined, the doctor discovered he had tuberculosis. He was sick in varying degrees of intensity for the rest of his life.

He began publishing articles in educational and science magazines, and wrote a textbook called Textbook of Biology. In 1891, he moved to London, married his cousin Isabel Wells, and taught in a correspondence college. In 1893, Wells quit his job, and reinvented himself as a writer. Two years later, he left Isabel and married one of his top students, Amy Catherine Robbins. In 1895, at the age of twenty-nine, he created one of the most well-known novels ever written, The Time Machine. It was a huge success. He followed with The Island of Doctor Moreau in 1896, The Invisible Man in 1897, and The War of the Worlds in 1898. These four novels are the foundation for Wells’s literary reputation and the cornerstone of modern science fiction.

Wells turned away from science fiction, however, and wrote dozens of realistic novels about working-class and upper-class citizens in England. In 1903, he joined the Fabians, a socialist society, a move that attracted public attention and sparked controversy about his political beliefs. A few years later, he broke with the Fabians, a move that also attracted public attention and sparked further controversy about his political beliefs.

He went on to publish more than forty books, and reams of literary criticism, essays, newspaper articles, and short stories. He was friends with many of the famous writers of the day, such as novelists Joseph Conrad and Henry James. As the twentieth century progressed, Wells, like many others of his day, became disillusioned with humanity due to the unprecedented horrors of the two World Wars. He wrote until the end of his life, though, publishing Mind at the End of Its Tether in 1945. In 1946, ill and bed-ridden, he died. He left behind a legacy of both optimism and pessimism regarding the value of humanity and the power of the human spirit.

Historical and Literary Context of The Time Machine

England in the nineteenth century was a fractured, confusing place. Exciting advances in science and medicine—such as Louis Pasteur’s development of germ theory and the development of vaccines—promised a better life for humanity. At the same time, the industrial revolution that made some of these advances possible had transformed cities into overcrowded, polluted places where black smog from factories poisoned the air. Poor factory workers, many of them children, worked long hours in dangerous conditions for inadequate wages. The countryside was not left untouched by the push for progress. Coal mines marred the British landscape and coal miners spent several hours a day in the dark and cold underground to feed the cities’ need for fuel. Conditions of the working poor in England were so bad, public outcry—especially concerning the plight of working children—prompted the government to make some reforms. A series of Factory Acts passed in Parliament in the second half of the century restricted working hours and child labor. Still, even at the dawn of the twentieth century, it seemed only the rich would enjoy the advances of the industrial age, while the poor bore the brunt of the work that made the advances possible. We can see what Wells thought the future of such an unfair division of labor and reward would be in The Time Machine.

In addition to the social and political events of the Victorian age, two major works directly influenced Wells in the creation of The Time Machine: Charles Darwin’s 1859 On the Origin of Species and Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s 1848 Communist Manifesto.

Backed up by years of field research, Charles Darwin made a number of radical arguments in On the Origin of Species. First, he argued that the world was millions of years older than previously thought. Second, he posited that all living creatures had common ancestors. Third, he theorized that evolution, a process that took millions of years, produced variation that resulted in different species. Some species were stronger than others, and thus would last longer, a principle he called survival of the fittest. Fourth, and most troubling to many readers, he showed that this evolutionary process did not appear to have a design. Creatures simply adapted to their environments. Darwin’s theories were explosive at the time and remain controversial to this day.

Karl Marx—philosopher, historian, and revolutionary—is considered one of the most influential thinkers of all time. His theory of dialectical materialism maintains that the material basis of reality changes constantly, with a priority of capital over people. In his Communist Manifesto, written with Friedrich Engels, he argues for a radical redistribution of wealth, the elimination of the family unit (which he saw as a consumer-based invention), and the eventual elimination of private property, among other things.

These two influences produce conflicting conclusions. Wells’s Darwinism led him to believe that the universe was chaotic and evolution purposeless. His socialism gave him hope that the perfection of society was possible. We see these influences at odds in The Time Machine.

The Birth of Science Fiction

Wells and his French contemporary Jules Verne are generally credited with being the fathers of science fiction, a literary genre that has much in common with the gothic fiction of the Romantic period of the mid-nineteenth century.

Gothic novels tended to feature brooding tones, remote settings, and mysterious events. The characters’ inner emotional lives receive a lot of attention, as does the struggle between good and evil. The style took its name from Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story, the first book identified as belonging to the genre. Published in 1764, it is set in a medieval society and features plenty of supernatural happenings. English writers Ann Radcliffe and Mary Shelley, and Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe in the United States, are regarded as masters of the form. Wells owes a special debt to Mary Shelley. In her 1818 classic, Frankenstein, she used a contemporary setting and modern social issues, along with reference to both recent and medieval scientific theories, to evoke the readers’ fear of the darkness in human nature, making her the progenitor of Wells’s science fiction.

Today, the conventions of science fiction are familiar to almost everyone: science fiction novels and films feature a world not as we know it today, but which is possibly based on some development of science or technology, sometimes human, sometimes extraterrestrial. We have all seen or read our share of outer-space adventures, from the exploits of Buck Rogers to the epic drama of the Star Wars films. We have all thrilled or recoiled from literary and cinematic visions of the future, from Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World to modern films like Minority Report. In fact, today’s writer is hard pressed to come up with some potential application of scientific knowledge that has not yet been exploited in fiction. In Wells’s time, however, the idea of blending science and fantasy was new. The fictional possibilities Wells explored and developed—including such things as the difficulties of time travel and the potential nature of an alien’s appearance on Earth—form the foundation for the science fiction that would follow, including the works of such science fiction giants as Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Philip K. Dick.

CHRONOLOGY OF H. G. WELLS’S LIFE AND WORK

1866: Born on September 21, in Bromley, Kent.

1887–8: Wells teaches at Holt Academy in Wales. The Chronic Argonauts, the short story on which The Time Machine is based, is published in the Science Schools Journal.

1888–91: Teaches at Henley House School in Kilburn; earns his bachelor’s degree in science in 1890. Marries his cousin, Isabel Wells.

1892–3: Publishes Textbook of Biology and Honours Physiography (with Richard Gregory). Starts publishing work in the Pall Mall Gazette, among other journals.

1894–5: Divorces Isabel and marries Amy Catherine Robbins. Publishes Select Conversations with an Uncle, The Time Machine, The Wonderful Visit, and The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents.

1896: Publishes The

Reviews for The Time Machine

[tess_schoolmarm · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a novella about a time-traveller who firstly embarks to about 8270 AD (?) to the world of flesh eating Morlocks and peace-loving Eloi. I liked this book much better than The War of the Worlds as I think it has withstood the test of time a little better. I loved the vocabulary of Wells, much larger than today's writers and I even had to look up a few words to add to my word journal. Sci-fi is really not my genre at all (I usually despise it), but due to the writing and the short length of this book, it kept by rapt attention and I read it in one sitting. 88 pages

[jonfaith · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Regina Spektor was on NPR today speaking with Terry Gross. The NPR interviewer accomplished no favors. She asked woefully stupid questions about the Soviet Union and its relationship to WWII. this originated when Spektor noted that growing up in the USSR she always felt that the Great Patriotic War had happened recently, given its absorption into the collective consciousness. Emigrating to the Bronx, she was struck that such wasn't a universal condition. Such made me think of The Time Machine.

As with most archetypes of speculative fiction, the premise had been closeted in my brainpan before opening the book, yet, this one succeeded, especially as a treatise on species within or over time. I'm curious what Spengler thought of this?

[coach_of_alva · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I think this must have been one of the first novels to warn that the future might not be a Utopia. I found convincing because the unhappy future wasn’t caused by the establishment of an evil dictatorship or the destruction from a catastrophe. No, it came about as the logical climax of certain social trends, trends that are continuing in our time.What I have learned listening to audio versions of Wells’ classic science fiction novels, which I read when I was young, is that he not only an idea man but also a good novelist, with much skill at scene setting, world building, sharp characterizations, and sheer story telling.Scott Brick portrays the Time Traveler as an upper-class adventurer with a sneer in his voice that his terrible experiences do nothing to remove.

[branimal · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A brilliant inventor creates the world’s first time machine. After explaining its inner-workings to guests of his weekly dinner parties, he arranges for a follow up meeting about a week later. When the group convenes, they find the scientist exhausted and weathered. After cleaning up and consuming a well deserved meal, he sits down to tell of his journey over 800,000 years into the future.

Damn, this book is old. In fact, I’m certain it is the oldest novel I've yet to read clocking in at one hundred and twenty one years since initial publication. Wells seemingly went to great lengths to explain to the reader how a theoretical time machine would operate and I often wondered if Wells had built one himself based on how detailed his explanations and theories were. It would certainly explain the theory that the author himself is the main character.

That isn't to say it’s too philosophical and technical, there is quite a bit of action and danger. The events in the future carried with it a constant sense of urgency. Whether the traveler is trying to understand his surroundings, avoid capture or trying to find his missing time machine, the action moved at a brisk pace. In fact, a memorable moment had the traveler racing forward in time, worrying that a pillar or some kind of concrete structure may now be erected in the spot he occupied when he initially began his journey. Would he become a part of the object when he slammed on the brakes or would his machine and body simply explode? The story would be a hell of a lot shorter if he ended up like Han Solo encased in carbonite.

While I enjoyed the world building and the spectacle of time travel, I found myself re-reading passages over and over again as I struggled with Wells’ writing. I’m sure prose like this was probably commonplace back in the late 1800s but it was a major hurdle for me in 2013. However, you probably don’t need my endorsement or recommendation, this book is certainly a classic that inspired generations of sci-fi writers - it’s just not something I think I’ll find myself picking up again.

Cross Posted @ Every Read Thing

[themythbookshelf · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Time Machine proved to be a lovely, albeit short, read, even for someone who isn't that much of a science fiction enthusiast, but that's probably because I haven't read much of the genre. First published first in 1895, this powerful little book shattered literary ground with a single man, the anonymous Time Traveller, and his "squat, ugly, and askew" machine of "brass, ebony, ivory and translucent glimmering quartz" (110). The tale is told from the perspective of one of the man's acquaintances, who is invited to dinner to hear of his adventure upon his return. Naturally, the Time Traveller's account dominates most of the book, though I found that these two contrasting perspectives complemented each other nicely.The adventure of the Time Traveller consists more of him running around to recover his stolen time machine than anything else. The descriptions of the "post-human humans" he meets are, for this reason, limited, and so is the depth to which the landscape is explored. This read reminded me of two other works, both classics in their own right--Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies. The former vaguely resembles this work in prose and descriptive style, while the latter, in its representation of the Eloi race. The Time Traveller describes the Eloi people, who we are the ancestors of, as innocent, pure, and child-like race, having degenerated into ignorance as a result of privilege and laziness. As the traveller reflects, "there is no intelligence where there is no change and no need of change" and they serve as a wonderful representation of this (97). A dangerously similar description is found in Bartolomé de las Casas' anthropological account of the natives, which is recounted from the perspective of a European missionary. (The difference, however, is that de las Casas enthusiastically viewed them as perfect receptors of the Christian religion, while here such qualities ignite the total opposite reaction).Furthermore, as this is the first of Wells' works that I read, I'm not sure if this is his natural prose — it was elegant but a little too verbose for my taste. Nevertheless, it was acceptable because it suits the character of the Time Traveller rather perfectly. All in all, you do not have to be a sci-fi fan to appreciate this book, though I'm sure it would help.

[tysonadams · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I wonder if vegans object to the Morlocks' diet?

In what is now a classic of the Science Fiction genre, an un-named narrator has local dignitaries over to his place once a week to tell tall tales and show off his latest inventions to. On one of these evenings he limps in the worse for wear, in desperate need of a steak, and discusses his pocket flower collection.

When I was a kid I read a lot of the classic science fiction stories from the likes of HG Wells and Jules Verne. It has been so long since I've read them that I thought it was time to revisit these classics. While I can still fondly remember the 1960 movie - let us not speak of the 2002 adaptation ever - the book felt unfamiliar and akin to virgin reading material.

Whilst The Time Machine does deserve its place in history for influencing/creating Science Fiction as we know it (fantastical ideas explored, social issues analogised), as a novel it is lacking. One example of this is the lack of tension in scenes that are literally life or death struggles. Instead of fearing for the narrator's life and wondering how he'll survive, we are treated to a recounting of the events that could have instead been describing someone having a cup of tea while watching the rain out of the dining room window. A wondrous adventure told as though it was just another day at the office.

[robert.zimmermann · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Second time reading it, and I think I enjoyed it even more this time around. I'm a big Wells fan and thoroughly enjoyed this story. It's short, but there's a great adventure within its pages with some commentary on man, as well. I wouldn't be opposed to reading it some time in the future, again.

[p_s_patrick · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Though over a 120 years old now, this has aged very well for science fiction (which I don't usually like), particularly the central idea of time travel. Aside from this, the other main scientific concept explored - human evolution and speciation, is handled less convincingly in some of its details (speaking as a biologist), though the general idea works quite well. Further aspects of the plot revolve around the basis of society, class, and being human, and these work together with the scientific ideas to provide more for both the protagonist and reader to contemplate. Together this short novel is really very rich in its use of concepts, and these emerge naturally out of the events so that it can be appreciated on more than one level by either educated adults or younger readers.As a story it is told with a particular humour that I appreciated, and with an atmosphere that draws you right into the moment. There could have been slightly more action and edge-of-the-seat events, and a bit less predictability, but there was sufficient pace to maintain interest most of the time. As this is a relatively short novel at 102 pages, it would be difficult not to recommend this to most readers. It may alter how you see society and the world and the human condition, as well the historical and cosmic context of our time on earth.

[adilinaria · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I wasn't a huge fan of this, not because of the story but the narrative style. It was very stiff for me, with all description. Probably my least favorite of all my classical reads so far. I am glad however that I read it, and I really like my edition so I'll definitely keep this one

[writertomg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Obviously, The Time Machine is a well-known classic. And from the 4 (of 5) star review, it's clear that I enjoyed it. So I'll skip that and go to some random thoughts...

I could not believe how short of a story it was. Calling it a novella is, in my opinion, a stretch. Having seen two movie versions, I thought myself familiar with the ins and outs of the story and couldn't believe how much of both movies is made up for the screenplays. I understand that an 80-page short story would need to be fleshed-out to be made into full-length movie, but WOW so much of the movies was changed and molded by the filmmakers. For starters, none of the Eloi or Morlocks speak. To be honest, I still have no idea how the time traveling main character learned their names. And the relationship between the female Eloi (Weena, the only named character) is more of a parent/child or babysitter/child than a love affair and seen in several adaptions, like the Guy Pearce movie.

Overall, it is definitely a fantastic novel. And one can easily see how it shaped and changed science fiction forever. I think everyone should forget the story of The Time Machine that they know from TV and movies and read this novella. A game changer.

[joshuamichail · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

'The Time Machine' is a classic science fiction from well over 100 years ago, in which a man is stuck travelling into the future after having invented a time travelling machine. In H.G. Wells's story we get a peek at what the could look like at several stages, including into the far future. In this story Wells helps establish the classic science-based speculative fiction nature of sci-fi. 'The Time Machine' is a must read classic for anyone interested in science fiction. Numerous works since have paid homage and hark back to 'The Time Machine'. The story is entertaining and captivating, and I recommend reading it.

[bookomaniac-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Leuk om lezen, maar stilistisch duidelijk nog onvolkomen. Goede spanning opbouw.Onthutsend inzicht: het verhaal van de mens is eindig!

[justabookreader · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

After settling in with The Time Machine, I soon realized I didn’t really remember much about this book. Or, at least my memories were fuzzy. I decided about half way through that I had a very big dislike of the Time Traveller. He was arrogant, uncaring, and prejudice. I get the arrogance, he wouldn’t have invented time travel without it, but the rest I could have done without.We begin with a lecture of sorts where the Time Traveller shows his guests a small device that he claims can travel in time. He also claims to have built a larger functioning device that he plans to use to travel in time. Which he apparently does, meeting with two vastly different groups of humans --- the Eloi and the Morlocks. The Eloi are a group of people so simple that he can’t believe this is what has become of the human race. In this same time, he also comes in contact with the Morlocks; a species that lives underground in dark tunnels. He does his best to categorize the humans he’s met but is disgusted when he figures out the relationship between the Eloi and Morlocks. When he’s able to escape and travels to his own place in time, he regales his contemporaries with stories of his travels.There are so many fascinating aspects to this story. Time travel! But, Wells drove me crazy with his ideas of the human race. The pervasive idea that the Time Traveller was so much smarter, better shall we say, than the people he encountered was repulsive. It ruined this book for me. I can dislike a character and still enjoy a book but not in this case. I tried to become fascinated by the time travel but I was too far gone to get any enjoyment out of it.

[baswood · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Although H G Well was not the first novelist to explore the paradox of time travel (Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court had been published nine years earlier) it was the among the first to be centred on the mechanics of time travel and the invention of a time machine. It was certainly the most popular of the time travel books and has been seen as launching a new sub genre of Science fiction, not bad for an author, who had published War of the Worlds in the same year. The Time Machine does not have the same emotional impact as War of the Worlds, its canvas is smaller in both form and subject matter. It is more of a short story or novella and the only person in mortal danger is the Time Traveller himself. Well’s Time traveller goes into the future and so there is an immediate suspense and expectation as to what he will find. This is a deep vein of fiction writing that is still being mined today and Wells does not let his readers down with the world that he creates. 802,701.is the year the time machine first lands and an initially idyllic land is soon shown to be a world that is rapidly plunging into decay:The Time traveller meets the Eloi a small race of people who seem not to have a care in the world as the land supplies all their needs, but they soon prove to be vacuous in the extreme and when the Time travellers Time machined is captured by the Morlocks who live underground a battle for survival begins. Wells’s adventure story is colourful and fast paced as he lays a template for many such stories that will follow his into publication, however there is more to this novel than a straight forward adventure story. Wells ruminates on how the two races had come into being and what pointers there were in Victorian England as why this should be so:“Again, the exclusive tendency of richer people - due no doubt to the increasing refinement of their education and the widening gulf between them and the rude violence of the poor - …So in the end above ground you must have the Haves and below ground the Have-nots, the workers getting continually adapted to the conditions of their labour…“So, as I see it, the Upper-world man had drifted towards his feeble prettiness and the Underworld to mere mechanical industry”As in War of the Worlds, Wells’s depiction of Victorian England is beautifully done. At the start of the story we are introduced to the Time Traveller: a gentleman scientist and his dinner guests: professional gentlemen and journalists who will need to be convinced of the efficacy of the Time Machine. Wells brings these scenes to life and the experiment holds our attention, until the real story kicks off.There is much to enjoy here and although the bare bones of this story have served to fuel so many novels since it was published in1898, this one still holds up. Wells’s writing is very good, the novella is nicely balanced and so I would rate it as a 4 star read.

[nielspeterqm · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As much time travel as futurist dystopia – 800 000 years from now! – this is one of the first "real" sf novels & it reads as fluidly & thoughtfully as ever.

[rsplenda477 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Wells is truly the master of science fiction. He takes us to a strange and mystifying world that alludes to the baseness of human nature.

[thefallingalice · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Der ZeitreisendeDie Erzählung beginnt zum Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts, wo es dem Protagonisten des Buches gelingt eine Maschine zu bauen, die ihn durch die vierte Dimension tragen soll: Die Zeit.Und das soll sein einziger Name werden: Der Zeitreisende. Von Euphorie erfüllt berichtet einer Versammlung ungläubiger Freunde und Bekannter von seiner Erfindung. Doch niemand nimmt sein Gerede wirklich ernst. Zeitreisen?Ihre Meinung soll sich jedoch ändern, als er eines Tages völlig zerkratzt und verschmutzt auftaucht. Noch aufgeregt berichtet er von seinem Abenteuer:Die Zeitmaschine brachte ihn ins Jahr 802.701. Kaum hatte er sich vom Schreck und von den Unannehmlichkeiten der Reise erholt, kam es auch schon zum Erstkontakt mit den Bewohnern. Was ihm berichtet wird, fasziniert ihn vollkommen. Die Erde wird von lediglich zwei Schichten bevölkert wird: Den Eloi und den Mordocks.Die Eloi bevölkern die Erdoberfläche. Sie scheinen glückliche und zufriedene Wesen zu sein, die ihrem Alltag fröhlich und naiv entgegensehen. Ihnen scheint es an nichts zu mangeln, sie müssen sich keine Sorgen machen. Nur die Angst vor der Dunkelheit lässt sie des Nachts nicht ruhig schlafen.Denn unterirdisch leben die Morlocks. Sie kommen nur in der Dunkelheit an die Oberfläche. Sie verbreiten Angst und Schrecken. Dort, wo sie herkommen gibt es keine Nahrung und oft verschleppen sie die unschuldigen Elois. Sie sind bösartig und grausam. So glaubt der Zeitreisende.Science Fiction als GesellschaftskritikWells´ Roman gilt als Pionierroman der Science Fiction insbesondere im Gebiet des Zeitreisens. Diesen Roman ordnet er selbst zu seinen „scientific romances“, die die ersten drei Romane seines Schaffens umfassen und heute in das Genre der Science Fiction eingeordnet werden können.In seinem Roman versucht Wells eine zukünftige Welt zu beschreiben, die zunächst als eine Art Utopie erscheint. Doch so oberflächlich der Zeitreisende im Roman zunächst das Jahr 802.701 betrachtet, muss auch er später feststellen, dass seine Vermutungen und die Schilderungen der Eloi nur wenig Wahrheit beinhalten.Denn geht man tiefer und nähert sich der eigentlichen Wahrheit, muss man feststellen, dass die Welt, die der Zeitreisende dort betreten hat, einem Schlachthaus ähnelt. Was früher Menschen waren, sind heute nur noch verschrumpelte Wesen. Die zu Zeiten des Zeitreisenden noch viel gelobte Technik und die ausgefeilte Sprache als Mittel zur Kommunikation sind verkümmert. All das entstand aus der immer größer werdenden Schere zwischen Arm und Reich. Die einen schwingen sich Herrschern über die anderen auf. Damit kritisiert der Autor auch zu seine Lebzeiten gesellschaftlichen britischen Verhältnisse.Jedoch hat seine Mahnung auch heute nicht viel an seiner Aktualität verloren.Ein zeitloser RomanDie Zeitmaschine ist ein durchaus zeitloser Roman.Wells wählte für seine Erzählung ein weit entferntes Jahr. Er verzichtet auf Beschreibungen von möglicher technischer Geräte in der Zukunft, die einen Roman oft unglaubwürdig machen – spätestens wenn seine Jahreszahl für die Menschen zur Wirklichkeit geworden ist.So schafft er es – nicht letztendlich auch durch eine großartige Sprache – die Glaubwürdigkeit des Romans auch über Jahrzehnte und Jahrhunderte aufrecht zu erhalten. Die Geschichte passt in jede Zeit, kann von jeder neuen Generation mit dem größten Vergnügen verschlungen werden und verliert nichts von seinem Charme und seiner Aktualität.So kann der Autor sich auf das konzentrieren, was wirklich im Vordergrund stehen soll: Der gesellschaftliche Wandel und die Probleme die damit einhergehen können. Und dadurch, dass der Autor nicht mit seiner Kritik spart und immer wieder Menschen zum Nachdenken anregen kann, gibt es vielleicht ein kleines Fünkchen Hoffnung auf eine bessere und verantwortungsvollere Zukunft. Aber nur vielleicht.

[lord_boris-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A strong three stars. Man travels in time to the year 802,701 and comes back with a thinly veiled warning to a rich and indolent society. A society that has perhaps succeeded in "ameliorating the conditions of life to a climax."

"There is no intelligence where there is no change and no need of change. Only those animals partake of intelligence that have to meet a huge variety of needs and dangers."

A short but enjoyable tale. My main criticism was the lack of vividness when describing the physical world of 802,701. The imagination could have done with a few more pointers to properly picture it. The chapter near the end where he goes even further into the future and finds himself on a desolate beach in front of the dying, red sun was brilliant.

[nx74defiant · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Classic. An unnamed time traveler tells his tale. His listeners don't believe him of course. He skips from his time to the distant future. No stops in-between like the movie.

[ghr4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

H.G. Wells's groundbreaking 1895 novel The Time Machine remains a highly captivating story of time travel to the distant year 802,701 and the de-evolution of mankind. The narrative style in which the Time Traveller recounts his adventure to his astonished friends works well, particularly as the pieces together the elements he encounters in that strange world of the future; with the gathering of new clues his thoughts and theories evolve until he ultimately realizes he horrifying truth of the Eloi and the Morlocks (although early on Wells does casually drop in a sly morsel of wry foreshadowing). One of the first and still one of the best of the science fiction genre. Wollheim's introduction in the Airmont Classics paperback edition provides fascinating insights into the Wells's earlier iterations of the story.

[crazymamie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was originally published in 1895, and, pardon the pun, it stands the test of time. Although the writing style is one you will recognize if you have read anything by say, Henry Rider Haggard or Edgar Rice Burroughs, the first person narration of the story still is adequate enough to pull you in and gives it the feel of an adventure being told to you orally. The first two chapters set up the story that is to be told by the Time Traveler, a scientist who has built a time machine capable of traveling into the future and back again. By chapter three, the Time Traveler is relating his tale of traveling a great distance into the future and finding that humanity has become two distinct species - one, the Eloi dwell above ground and are happy if not overly intelligent beings. The other species, the Morlocks, dwells below ground and represent a sinister working class. Excited by his success in time travel, the Traveler leaves behind his time machine to explore the new world before him only to find upon his return that his machine is nowhere in sight. Suspecting foul play, the Traveler realizes that it is very likely that he will have to venture into the underground world in order to retrieve his invention and travel back home.This story is cleverly told, but fell just a bit flat for me. I loved the vision that Wells shared in his futuristic tale, but wanted the Time Traveler to be smarter. Still, often people who are gifted in one area are lacking in another. I wanted a man who was intelligent enough to build a machine capable of traveling into the future to also be capable of forward thinking. He should realize that if he intends to travel into the future, he should pack provisions and think through some contingency plans before actually taking off. However, I could also see the mad scientist type who got caught up in the linear thought progression of time travel without stopping to think about practical matters. I think this book was perhaps supposed to be more of a study in societal development than a sci-fi tale, but it provides both and is worth the time it takes to explore it. I loved the museums that the Time Traveler encounters and was impressed by Wells ability to tell a story that can still stand up today, more than a century after he wrote it. "And you cannot move at all in Time, you cannot get away from the present moment.""My dear sir, that is just where you are wrong. That is just where the whole world has gone wrong. We are always getting away from the present moment. Our mental existences, which are immaterial and have no dimensions, are passing along the Time-Dimension with a uniform velocity from the cradle to the grave. Just as we should travel down if we began our existence fifty miles above the earth's surface."

[dste_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

 First off, I have to say that I enjoyed this book more than Wells' other book The Invisible Man. Unlike in that book, this one began by identifying the inventor of the time machine as a time traveler right off the bat instead of playing around with the revelation of an idea that’s contained within the title (as in, Oh, what do you think is up with this guy? He’s kind of weird and covered in bandages. He couldn’t by any chance be invisible, could he?) It also began by explaining the scientific theory behind the time machine, speaking of time as the fourth dimension and so on. I thought that the explanation of the underlying theory was one of the most interesting parts of [The Invisible Man], and the fact that this book began with something very similar ensured that it began on a good note. I also thought that it was a smart move on the author’s part to have his character travel exclusively into the future. He did mention the possibilities that existed if one travelled into the past, but usually in literature (and in theory) travelling into the past exposes one to all sorts of possible dangers and paradoxes: If you change even some small aspect of the past, is the present you return to affected in some major way? What happens if you go back in time and accidentally cause the death of one of your ancestors? etc. Travelling into the future can affect only events that haven’t happened yet, and thus vastly simplifies things. Travelling into the future also provided an opportunity for the author to engage in utopia and dystopia-type speculation. Yeah, that’s right, it’s both! At least, that’s my interpretation. I actually have no idea what all the literary experts out there classify it as. What I do know is that Wells takes some time to subtly take a dig at all the other utopia fiction of his time period: “This, I must warn you, was my theory at the time,” he says after explaining how the creatures of the time, the eloi and the morlocks, came to be. “I had no convenient cicerone in the pattern of the Utopian books.” Personally, I do think that the book was more interesting with the time traveler attempting to figure things out on his own instead of having another character explain everything to him. For one thing, it makes his final determination even more chilling. One thing that must be mentioned is that, because the story was told from the perspective of a character who is not the time traveler, the reader knows that the time traveller will make it back to his own time because he is telling the story after having already arrived there. That being said, I didn’t seem to mind, perhaps because there are further events after the time traveler tells his initial story. I thought this ending portion was one of the best parts of the book; I love the concluding lines especially.

[matthew254 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Time Machine was, at one point, one of the prototypes used to full-on construct a budding literary genre: science-fiction. It still holds up pretty well and only suffers from a few noticeable pacing errors and human-centric. However, for an over 100 year old science fiction piece, it still has a charming kind of pseudo-futuristic allure to it. The proto-steampunk setting almost inadvertently dodges any assumed technological outdatedness. The book has been adapted into several different forms, most notably two feature films, one made in 1960 and a lesser-known adaptation from 2002. Sadly, they both aren't as true to the story as one might hope. One a slightly comical note I'd like to mention that for someone like myself who has a mild case of kabourophobia, the brief scene towards the end involving giant crabs nearly made me mess myself.

[emscape · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Wells' prototypical tale of time travel catches the imagination more than might be expected from a book of its era. It begins slowly, with our narrator gathering a group of friends to whom to tell his story, but soon gains momentum once he arrives in the far future and encounters the childlike Eloi and the more sinister Morlocks. The narrator philosophizes about how these races may have come about, which is also a commentary on current society and the dangers of lifestyles and societal choices that foster comfort and complacency among the wealthy and push the lower income classes literally underground. Further adventures of the time traveller will not be forthcoming, and that's unfortunate, because I would like to have heard more from him.

[pmtracy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The story is the account of an unidentified narrator relaying what was told to him by The Time Traveller. After having created a machine to travel forward in time, the Traveller returns to tell his friends of the society he encountered.Man has evolved into two species. The Eloi, described as beautiful, playful, small people, live above ground in what appears to be a utopian society. The Morlocks are an albino, half-man, half-ape species that lives underground. Over his time with the Eloi, the Traveller develops the theory that the Eloi are the noble, ruling class. All goods are made by the Morlocks and the Eloi simply fill their days with play and eating. The Traveller later learns the ugly truth that the Eloi are actually the bred food source for the Morlocks.This was a super-quick read. However, Wells managed to pack in a lot of detail into a small space. He was very descriptive with an economy of words. The relationship of the two races makes an interesting social commentary about the working class and elites. I'm not familiar with politics of the late 1800s, but it's definitely something for consideration today.

[rajivc_18 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I had a blast reading this book. The writing style may seem a bit dated, from the perspective of today's young reader ( I doubt that I can get my son to read HG Wells ), but I quite loved the book. Apart from a feeling of nostalgia about writing styles long gone by, I think that HGW was a pioneer of early science fiction. I quite like the way that he used the, then new, postulate that time was the fourth dimension, to draw out a whole story about time travel. this is a subject that fascinated all of us since we were kids.He brought out a whole new world of imagery, and a whole new world. His description of this world, and the people of that world was fascinating. A sad love story, and the hero who does not feel at home in his own world anymore... This is the stuff of great story telling...

[ursula_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells was my latest read. It's part of the 1001 Books list, of course. It's a short little thing - I started and finished it before getting through the other book I'm working on. Like my last read, I was surprised by how little I actually knew about this book. I knew essentially nothing beyond what the title gives you.There's not much to it, really - the Time Traveler shows his assembled dinner guests a model of his time machine, and demonstrates it traveling through time (or at least disappearing). He shows them the real thing in his laboratory, and his guests are skeptical. At their next dinner party, the Time Traveler appears late and disheveled. When he gathers himself enough to join them for dinner, he tells them of his adventures in the future. The majority of the book is the Time Traveler telling his tale of visiting the year 802,701. Partway through the story, I realized that I'd heard of the Eloi and the Morlocks before - these are the two directions that man seems to have evolved by this time. I was surprised by what a grim view of the future Wells put forth here. Taken in context, of course, it's a reaction to evolution as a continual engine for improvement. He extrapolates the contemporary class structure out to its eventual extremes. The Eloi are gentle, but weak, half-witted and fearful, while the Morlocks are threatening, ugly and also imbecilic (Wells was pretty sure time would evolve the intelligence right out of all of us, apparently). Recommended for anyone interested in early science fiction, quick and easy-to-read classics, or dystopian fiction. A quote: "Still, however helpless the little people in the presence of their mysterious Fear, I was differently constituted. I cam out of this age of ours, this ripe prime of the human race, when Fear does not paralyse and mystery has lost its terrors."

[jmoncton_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In this classic science fiction novella, the Time Traveler creates a Time Machine that allows him to travel backwards and forwards in time. He ends up travelling far into the future. Man has evolved into 2 distinct races, a passive, fun loving group with child-like intelligence and a predatory group that hunts the other species. This story seemed an odd combination of Victorian novel, gothic horror and dystopian doomsday book. I wish I knew more about the context of this story. It almost felt like Wells was warning people about the evils of technology and how it could lead to the end of society and the earth.

[auntieclio · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a seminal work of science fiction, and as such blazed the trail for the genre as a whole. Reading it over 100 years after initial publication, gives me a sense of understanding science fiction. While taking this into consideration, as well as being a product of the Victorian era, I still found The Time Traveler to be more than a little overwrought in this tale. One surprising thing I learned was that Kodak did indeed have a camera available in 1895 and HG Wells must have been very well informed.

[paakre-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the first book I read all the way through on a Kindle, and watched my progress in "locations" instead of pages. Do all time travel books become about the history of technology and man's relationship to it? The narrator is a Victorian gentleman who reports on his trip to the future non stop, with no pauses, and no dialogue. It is hard to believe that a group of men, the other characters from his time period, no matter how stalwart, would listen to such a long story without interrupting once and questioning some of the details. But still, since I am reading time travel books (When You Reach Me, A Wrinkle in Time) I wanted to try the granddaddy of them all.