The Time Machine

By H. G. Wells and Mint Editions

The narrator tells of his incredible journey into the distant future in this landmark of imagination, cornerstone of science fiction and thought provoking look at the possible destiny of humanity.

The Time Machine first appeared in 1896 and stunned readers with a vivid narrative studded with vital ideas unlike any seen in print before. The narrator describes a voyage into the future that depicts the disturbing evolution of society, introduces him to strange companions and stranger foes, and eventually stretches into eras so distant that the dying sun shines dull red an unrecognizable landscape. The sheer scope of the author’s imagination still provokes delight and has provided impetus for countless time travel narratives since.

With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Time Machine is both modern and readable.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mint Editions
• Release date: Jun 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9781513263786

H. G. Wells

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was an English author who wrote about ethical issues through a variety of genres, including history, politics, social commentary, and-what he is most famous for-science fiction. Known as one of the fathers of that genre, his notable works include the science-fiction classics The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds.

Book preview

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

The Time Traveller (for so it will be convenient to speak of him) was expounding a recondite matter to us. His pale grey eyes shone and twinkled, and his usually pale face was flushed and animated. The fire burnt brightly, and the soft radiance of the incandescent lights in the lilies of silver caught the bubbles that flashed and passed in our glasses. Our chairs, being his patents, embraced and caressed us rather than submitted to be sat upon, and there was that luxurious after-dinner atmosphere, when thought runs gracefully free of the trammels of precision. And he put it to us in this way—marking the points with a lean forefinger—as we sat and lazily admired his earnestness over this new paradox (as we thought it) and his fecundity.

You must follow me carefully. I shall have to controvert one or two ideas that are almost universally accepted. The geometry, for instance, they taught you at school is founded on a misconception.

Is not that rather a large thing to expect us to begin upon? said Filby, an argumentative person with red hair.

"I do not mean to ask you to accept anything without reasonable ground for it. You will soon admit as much as I need from you. You know of course that a mathematical line, a line of thickness nil, has no real existence. They taught you that? Neither has a mathematical plane. These things are mere abstractions."

That is all right, said the Psychologist.

Nor, having only length, breadth, and thickness, can a cube have a real existence.

There I object, said Filby. Of course a solid body may exist. All real things—

"So most people think. But wait a moment. Can an instantaneous cube exist?"

Don’t follow you, said Filby.

Can a cube that does not last for any time at all, have a real existence?

Filby became pensive. Clearly, the Time Traveller proceeded, "any real body must have extension in four directions: it must have Length, Breadth, Thickness, and—Duration. But through a natural infirmity of the flesh, which I will explain to you in a moment, we incline to overlook this fact. There are really four dimensions, three which we call the three planes of Space, and a fourth, Time. There is, however, a tendency to draw an unreal distinction between the former three dimensions and the latter, because it happens that our consciousness moves intermittently in one direction along the latter from the beginning to the end of our lives."

That, said a very young man, making spasmodic efforts to relight his cigar over the lamp; that… very clear indeed.

Now, it is very remarkable that this is so extensively overlooked, continued the Time Traveller, with a slight accession of cheerfulness. "Really this is what is meant by the Fourth Dimension, though some people who talk about the Fourth Dimension do not know they mean it. It is only another way of looking at Time. There is no difference between Time and any of the three dimensions of Space except that our consciousness moves along it. But some foolish people have got hold of the wrong side of that idea. You have all heard what they have to say about this Fourth Dimension?"

"I have not," said the Provincial Mayor.

"It is simply this. That Space, as our mathematicians have it, is spoken of as having three dimensions, which one may call Length, Breadth, and Thickness, and is always definable by reference to three planes, each at right angles to the others. But some philosophical people have been asking why three dimensions particularly—why not another direction at right angles to the other three?—and have even tried to construct a Four-Dimensional geometry. Professor Simon Newcomb was expounding this to the New York Mathematical Society only a month or so ago. You know how on a flat surface, which has only two dimensions, we can represent a figure of a three-dimensional solid, and similarly they think that by models of three dimensions they could represent one of four—if they could master the perspective of the thing. See?"

I think so, murmured the Provincial Mayor; and, knitting his brows, he lapsed into an introspective state, his lips moving as one who repeats mystic words. Yes, I think I see it now, he said after some time, brightening in a quite transitory manner.

"Well, I do not mind telling you I have been at work upon this geometry of Four Dimensions for some time. Some of my results are curious. For instance, here is a portrait of a man at eight years old, another at fifteen, another at seventeen, another at twenty-three, and so on. All these are evidently sections, as it were, Three-Dimensional representations of his Four-Dimensioned being, which is a fixed and unalterable thing.

Scientific people, proceeded the Time Traveller, after the pause required for the proper assimilation of this, know very well that Time is only a kind of Space. Here is a popular scientific diagram, a weather record. This line I trace with my finger shows the movement of the barometer. Yesterday it was so high, yesterday night it fell, then this morning it rose again, and so gently upward to here. Surely the mercury did not trace this line in any of the dimensions of Space generally recognised? But certainly it traced such a line, and that line, therefore, we must conclude, was along the Time-Dimension.

But, said the Medical Man, staring hard at a coal in the fire, if Time is really only a fourth dimension of Space, why is it, and why has it always been, regarded as something different? And why cannot we move in Time as we move about in the other dimensions of Space?

The Time Traveller smiled. Are you so sure we can move freely in Space? Right and left we can go, backward and forward freely enough, and men always have done so. I admit we move freely in two dimensions. But how about up and down? Gravitation limits us there.

Not exactly, said the Medical Man. There are balloons.

But before the balloons, save for spasmodic jumping and the inequalities of the surface, man had no freedom of vertical movement.

Still they could move a little up and down, said the Medical Man.

Easier, far easier down than up.

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."

But the great difficulty is this, interrupted the Psychologist. "You can move about in all directions of Space, but you cannot move about in Time."

That is the germ of my great discovery. But you are wrong to say that we cannot move about in Time. For instance, if I am recalling an incident very vividly I go back to the instant of its occurrence: I become absent-minded, as you say. I jump back for a moment. Of course we have no means of staying back for any length of Time, any more than a savage or an animal has of staying six feet above the ground. But a civilised man is better off than the savage in this respect. He can go up against gravitation in a balloon, and why should he not hope that ultimately he may be able to stop or accelerate his drift along the Time-Dimension, or even turn about and travel the other way?

"Oh, this, began Filby, is all—"

Why not? said the Time Traveller.

It’s against reason, said Filby.

What reason? said the Time Traveller.

You can show black is white by argument, said Filby, but you will never convince me.

Possibly not, said the Time Traveller. But now you begin to see the object of my investigations into the geometry of Four Dimensions. Long ago I had a vague inkling of a machine—

To travel through Time! exclaimed the Very Young Man.

That shall travel indifferently in any direction of Space and Time, as the driver determines.

Filby contented himself with laughter.

But I have experimental verification, said the Time Traveller.

It would be remarkably convenient for the historian, the Psychologist suggested. One might travel back and verify the accepted account of the Battle of Hastings, for instance!

Don’t you think you would attract attention? said the Medical Man. Our ancestors had no great tolerance for anachronisms.

One might get one’s Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato, the Very Young Man thought.

In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go. The German scholars have improved Greek so much.

Then there is the future, said the Very Young Man. Just think! One might invest all one’s money, leave it to accumulate at interest, and hurry on ahead!

To discover a society, said I, erected on a strictly communistic basis.

Of all the wild extravagant theories! began the Psychologist.

Yes, so it seemed to me, and so I never talked of it until—

Experimental verification! cried I. "You are going to verify that?"

The experiment! cried Filby, who was getting brain-weary.

Let’s see your experiment anyhow, said the Psychologist, though it’s all humbug, you know.

The Time Traveller smiled round at us. Then, still smiling faintly, and with his hands deep in his trousers pockets, he walked slowly out of the room, and we heard his slippers shuffling down the long passage to his laboratory.

The Psychologist looked at us.

Reviews for The Time Machine

[gmomaj · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Includes three chapters of The Map of Time/Felix J. Palma.One of my all time favorite science fiction titles. The type of book that you can reread.

[arkrayder · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A classic for a reason. I believe this story has stood the test of time and will continue to do so. H.G. Wells was ahead of his time. I really need to read his other works.

[thetruebookaddict · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a really short read, but no less impactful. Wells really was ahead of his time in the prediction of man's future on earth. Yes, certainly, what he predicted for our future has not happened...yet...and we will never know in our lifetimes (or our childrens' lifetimes) if it will happen this way. But I believe the future of our world is bound to end up similarly, especially if mankind doesn't start changing its ways now. And, of course, it's a question of evolution as well. Wells was an expert craftsman in his depiction of the starkly different characters of the Eloi and the Morlocks. Again, for a very short book, the story packs quite a punch. I listened to it on audio and it was very easy book to listen to in this way.

[pdcread · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Set very firmly in the Victorian age, the primary character is a English gentleman and scientist living in Richmond. It starts as a dinner part as he explains to his guests the concept of time and shows them a model of a time machine he has made, and reveals that he has a full size one.

A week later he regals them with his first adventure using the device when he travelled to the year 802,701. In this strange land he comes across the Eloi, a small race of humanoid people, who live in small communities. Their very modern building are looking shabby and they do no work. he concludes that they are peaceful and have adapted to an environment that poses no threats.

Concluding his investigations he returns to his machine and finds it has been stolen. Locating it within a structure nearby, it has been locked away. As night falls he is approached by the sinister Morlocks, an ape like race that live in the dark. He investigates and find that this race are the ones who operate the machinery that enable the Eloi to live as they do. As he tries to recover his machine he gets to know the Eloi better, and explores the locality, find a ancient museum where he finds materials to enable him to recover his machine.

The Morlocks open the structure to trap him, but he uses it to escape to 30 million years in the future, when he sees the last life forms on the earth. He returns to his time, and recounts his tale to the dinner guests. He still has the flowers from this world, which he shows them. One of the guests returns the following day and finds that he is getting ready to travel again. He bids farewell, with promises to return within the hour.

The concept of time travel hadn't really occurred to most people in the Victorian age, most people were still coming to terms with standard time that the railways brought in. Wells uses his vivid imagination to bring to life these new lands that he finds, but there is precious little as to the function and style of the time machine. One that has been on my to read list for a long time, it does show that Wells is an original and innovative writer.

[trilliams · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

You're all Morlocks.

[martinbodek · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What took me so long to read this classic? Well worth the wait. I found it ambitious and interesting, eloquent and fascinating, but overwroughtly pessimistic. Was this truly Wells' view of the future? He predicted many other now-commonplace things with accuracy, so this was certainly his view. In other hands, it may have been more optimistic, but perhaps the quality would be lacking in the story itself. My appetite is now whetted for more Wells and more classics.

[proustitutes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I surprisingly enjoyed this book VERY much! It's tiny, for one thing--I read it in a single car drive to Orlando. Usually I wouldn't be able to afford so much praise to a tiny book. Novella, really. But this book is a glorious exception.

In it, a time traveler talks lucidly and plainly of his experiences traveling into the future. He sees two races of human-like species, descendants from modern day humans. However, they are "lower" than us and less intelligent life-forms.

Wells conjectures on what made them this way over the hundreds of thousands of years, and comes to the conclusion that our technology created a society that made it very easy for humans to survive. Intelligence no longer became a factor in reproduction, as is necessary to ensure intelligent offspring. Therefore you get this end result!

Wells wrote beautifully of social theorizing and what he suspects may happen in both the near and distant future. It's a great book for its time (written in 1895), with people just beginning to wonder about the ultimate effects of technology and increasing industry.

I also enjoyed, by the way, Wells' numerous comments about the continuing heart and sentiment and love of humans, and our capacity for gratitude, which he portrayed so very nicely in the endearing Weena.

[cbl_tn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I thought I knew what to expect from this book since there are so many references to it in popular culture. I was expecting an adventure story along the lines of Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, using a time machine instead of steam ships. I was wrong. This is a dystopian novel with a pessimistic view of humanity's future. The format didn't work well for me. It's essentially a story within a story. The first person narrator recounts the story told by the Time Traveler after his return, with the Time Traveler's story also presented in first person. I like Sir Derek Jacobi, but his voice wasn't right for this book. It needed a reader with a younger voice. I love time travel stories that visit the past. After this experience with time travel into the future, I may stick with the past from now on.

[meditationesmartini · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's funny, I remembered the central metaphor here all wrong--the Morlocks as gentle giants on the surface, the Eloi as exquisite vampires who prey on them. I guess I knew it didn't make any sense ("morlocks live underground" being surely part of our general cultural competency), but I didn't stop to think about it much and simply remembered this as one of the books my dad bribed me to read when I was a kid, the future world as magical and dark, and the further future as deeply chilling. It's interesting that it was that final future fantasy that stuck with me the most: the Morlocks and Eloi as a generic, if vivid, SF binary-opp society (and me getting all the details wrong), but the red dead sun, the slow-moving crabs, the slow fading of the last vestiges of the first heat of Creation and that polyp-like creature flopping and dying in the endless snow. Yikes! It makes you think, how long has it been since we had an end-of-the-world scenario that assumed our natural decline? Whether it's nuclear war or aliens or climate change or the matrix, present-day eschatology is all apocalypse, all the time. It's frivolous, histrionic, masturbatory. We are perfectionists who go to pieces at the slightest thing.Contrast our Victorian Time Traveller and the "manly vigour of the race" (absolute Wellsian language here): these are people who finally have a basic scientific framework in place for understanding what life is, and they are eager to extend it even unto speculation about the building blocks of reality and what machines might be able to interfere with them, unto fables of devolution (from the precambrian we came, to the precambrian we shall return) and the interweaving of the biological and social (there are literally a billion ways to read the Es/Ms as mythologized capitalists and proles, and even Wells couldn't decide on just one, with the Time Traveller's shifting sense of where the (degenerate) mastery lies and where the (degenerate) abjection--in the end, mastery is abjection, and ownership of the means of production hasn't done the Morlocks any favours: I know I'd rather be a happy sexy Eloi even if my friends won't save me from drowning and the neighbours downstairs are getting ready to gut and fillet me.It's shocking how it hits you right in your sense of what's real, in distinction, per above, from our currently favoured escapist end games tailormade for a romantic lead to shake his fist at God. Killing the deity and replacing him with evolution doesn't make us masters (in fact, having a skyfather makes us his favoured children); it displaces us once more from the centre, turns us into a mere chemical notion or momentary dissonance in the physical fabric. It is so much more tragic than the self-aggrandizing "end with violence" or "end with transcendence," since it happens so slowly there's no place for heroism at all. That reflects back on the nineteenth-century man of action at the centre too, of course, making of the Time Traveller, with his eugenic sensibilities and positivist social views and quickness to command the good small people and drub the bad, a kind of virile brain-brute, a veritable--to borrow the name of our local newspaper in "Victorian" Victoria, BC, if you can believe this--"Times-Colonist,"which when I was a kid I totally totally took to mean the "Colonist of Time," the paper that sails on through the times, broadsheets trim and newsprint-gray, collecting the events of the day and placing on them its imprimatur. "We were there. We told you how it was." On this day in history, the headlines said, TIME TRAVELLER PLANTS FLAG OF SCIENCE IN THE YEAR OF OUR WORLDVIEW 802,701.It's actually just that the one paper the Times bought the other (the Colonist, still a fucked name). But in that light, how ripe is this book for any number of "Grendel"-style dip-and-flip inversions that expose the colonizer's total failure to get any of it right? Not only the gentle Morlocks as outlined above, but how about the smart Eloi, whose society actually sounds largely amazing, trying to drum up the interest to dim their sensibilities and teach this week's angry weirdo from the past how to speak their language and that they give of themselves to the Morlocks at the end of their lives because sustenance is a sacrament? Or the proto-(post-post-post-)fascist Morlocks that come back and invade Edwardian London and rule there? Some of these already exist, as many later writers have tried to fill out or address the Time Traveller's evident bewilderment. And it's a neat trick--Wells can't see his own biases, so he catapults his protgonist past the coming socialist utopia that the author himself certainly believed in and into a world so different that any attempt to navigate it is bound to end up as frustrated as the linen-suited orientalist trying to get a rickshaw. No wonder he was the blockbuster writer of his time! He's really good at being all things to all people.

[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.

[akblanchard_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A Victorian gentleman-scientist known only as the "Time Traveler" builds a machine that can transport him far into the future or back into the past. The machine takes the Time Traveler all the way to 802,701 A.D., where he finds that humanity has split into two separate species: the attractive but intellectually-limited Eloi, who dwell above ground in empty-minded happiness, and the brutish Morlocks, who live underground and fear light. The symbolism isn't very subtle; when the Time Traveler returns to the present day he tells his friends that he believes the dim Eloi are the descendants of the British upper crust, while the uncouth Morlocks' ancestry goes back to the country's working classes. He conjectures that the relative ease of Eloi lives caused the species' moral, physical and intellectual deterioration over the centuries. The Morlocks are still subservient to the Eloi in some respects, but after thousands of years, the underground creatures have found a shocking way to take advantage of the surface-dwellers' fragility.In Wells' pessimistic vision, the forces of natural selection have led not to the improvement of humanity, as is commonly supposed, but to its decline. Despite the novella's age and familiarity (there are several adaptations and movie versions), I was surprised at how engrossing this work still is. I highly recommend it.

[olivermagnus · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This classic science fiction novel opens with the Time Traveler, explaining to his Victorian peers, his plans to travel in time. The next scene is a dinner party a week later with the narrator and a few of the Time Traveler's previous guests. The Time Traveler enters the room in terrible shape. After he has cleaned up he begins to tell them of his trip in time. The Traveler tells them that he went to the year 802701 A.D. The England of the distant future is a beautiful place, almost a Utopia, but civilization is in majestic ruin. He first encounters the Eloi, a race of pretty, vacuous beings descended from humans. All other animals are apparently extinct, and the vegetarian Eloi have every need mysteriously provided for.

The Morlocks are hunched-over, pale ape-like creatures with glowing cat-like eyes that live in elaborate underground cities. They quickly steal the time machine and drag it into their territory. Though the time traveler clearly understands the Eloi’s fear of this other race, he has no choice but to pursue his machine underground. The world of the Morlocks is completely devoid of light and the time traveler’s venture underground is one of the most horrific moments in classic literature.

The Time Machine is a social doom prophecy. This was the book that really propelled Wells’s career as an author writing fantasy-like visions with a scientific approach. Wells created a new path for his career, but also for a genre of writing. Some of Wells’s writing will feel dated to modern readers, but it is worth bearing in mind that he was writing the beginning books of modern Science-Fiction. Later authors, including even Wells himself, would go on to improve on the foundation laid here. So many of the questions addressed by time traveling narratives originate with Wells, and for this reason The Time Machine is essential reading for any science-fiction fan.

[slpwhitehead · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Time Machine H.G. Wells

2.5 stars, round to three


H.G. Wells is the grandfather of time-travel writing, and I've heard so many things about this book that I guess I expected it to be GREAT! However, I have been torn by how I feel about this book, so it's taken me a couple of days to decide what to say about it.


The Time Traveler, which is the only name this character is given, has traveled through time to the future. He encounters first what he thinks is an idealistic world of the Eloi, but soon discovers the more sinister and dangerous Morelock. This story is really the telling of a group who come to dine with the Time Traveler (in his present time) and are then told the story of his time traveling.

Based on the description on the back cover of "shock", "fear", and "adventure", I expected the book to be riveting and fast-paced. I expected the Morelocks to be terrifying as they are described as being on the back of the book. However, I found myself sorely disappointed. The book was not shocking or riveting. The book didn't evoke fear nor was there a real sense of adventure to me. Instead, the tale of the Time Traveler's experiences left me yawning; I was simply bored by it. I guess I wanted something that was more fast-paced in terms of the "adventure" of the book.

Having said that, however, there were some things that I loved about the book.

First, the writing is beautifully done. Wells has a way of phrasing an idea that makes a sentence a beautiful thing. Wells can really turn a phrase.

Second, the text is a well-done social commentary about social structures, about the ideas of class (masters and servants), about rich and poor, and about the impact of technology. Taken as a social commentary, it's a great book with some provocative questions and suggestions about where the future will lead us. Even though the text is set in Victorian times, Wells commentary on social structure is equally applicable today.

Sadly, the book just falls sort for me on the "adventure" aspect. I guess I just wanted the time traveling part of the book to have more "action".

[scottcholstad · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wells was a true visionary, a man clearly ahead of his time, and this is merely one of his masterpieces and remains fresh and relevant even today. It's not necessarily the best sci fi novel ever written, but it was the first "best" ever written and remains very high on the list today. Strongly recommended!

[kronos999_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The first use of the time machine, this is a wonderful story. It is fairly short, more novella than novel, detailing how a traveler goes into the future only to be trapped there searching for his lost machine. A true classic of science fiction with good pacing throughout. It is also a critique of the evils of capitalism as taken from the perspective of its time which is almost as interesting as the story.

[df6b_laurene · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This was a well-written book about time travel. In this story the main character goes on a trip to the future. When he arrives, he meets the Morlocks and the Eloi. The Eloi are the good, lighter side of this world. The Morlocks on the other hand are the evil, darker side of this world, they live down below the earth and capture and kill the Eloi. He meets many friendly Eloi, especially one named Weena. She's his little buddy.

[pheelowesq · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mr. Wells, again, writes a fabulous tale. He manages to create a robust character, who turns out to be more introspective than most when faced with cannibals, from a man traveling through Time and recounting his adventure at a dinner party. It's a lovely book, full of sound speculation, most of which could be true. The way the Time Travelers different hypotheses change as he is confronted with more facts is a great window into reason; the facts with which he is confronted are a testament to Mr. Wells imagination. This book is tight and thoughtful.

[goose114_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A scientist asks prominent men to gather so he may explain his invention of the time machine. Not long after the men are asked again to join the scientist for dinner and when the scientist shows up he is disheveled. He explains that he has been in the future and wishes to discuss his journey with the men. The scientist traveled into the distant future when the human race has split into two separate species; a gentle above ground being and a second underground potentially dangerous being. When the scientist’s time machine goes missing he must locate it in order to return to his own time.I picked up this book not knowing anything about it or H.G. Wells. I was really impressed with this novel. Wells’ dystopian world is unlike anything that I have read before. The devolution of the species echoes classism and segregation. This was a short read, but one that really got me thinking.

[tkadlec_7 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another one of those classic books that I had somehow inexplicably made it this long without reading, The Time Machine was well worth the wait.What I enjoyed about the book, as is the case with many good science-fiction books, is how Wells manages to explore much deeper, philosophical issues over the course of an entertaining story. For example, Wells critiques the hierarchy of society by seeing two distinct classes eventually evolve into two distinct species.What's beautiful about his critique is that he manages to leave the reader to form their own opinion. He is equally harsh on the Eloi as he is on the Morlocks in pointedly remarking about each species lack of humanity, so you don't get the impression of favoritism towards one race versus the other (or one class versus the other).A quick, enjoyable read that has aged very well.

[eljjohnson789 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

H.G. Wells is very frank in this book. His story of a nameless scientist who travels to the future very thinly veils his message. I found the book very interesting but the ideas have been outdated. Most of the book consists of a Marxist criticism of capitalism, and I didn't exactly agree with the ideas that Wells included in his book, but he makes an interesting point. I think if you enjoyed "War of the Worlds" you will find this book enjoyable. If I were rating based simply on storyline and intrigue I'd hive it 5 stars, but all things considered (including communist ideals) I am willing to give only 3 1/2 stars.

[loucypher_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have enjoyed everything I have read from H. G. Wells both fiction and non-fiction and this was no exception. A quick little short story read about time travelling to the year 800,000 and what has become of civilization and the earth. The best part of these science fiction stories is how accurate Wells could be writing about the future in the 1800's. Definitely recommend.

[dragonfreak · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The Time Traveler just invented the first time machine and accidently transports himself into year 802,701 A.D. In this very distant future he meets two different kinds of people: The Eloi who are friendly, peaceful, and have everything. And then there are the Morlocks who are live below ground and vicious. Along the way, The Time Traveler saves a small female Eloi from drowning named Weena and together they travel underground so he can meet the Morlocks without knowing their true nature.I didn’t enjoy this book at all. There wasn’t anything that excited me, and it just made me feel like I wasted a bunch of time. And none of it seemed very realistic. Usually science fiction has a hint of realism in it, but it’s so far into the future, I don’t see any of those events happening. Besides that, the plot wasn't too great, I didn't care abou the characters, and for such a short book, so underwelming. By I will give Wells credit that he explained how the time machine works very, very well.Rating: One and a Half Stars *1/2

[brittlandess · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Time Machine begins with an unnamed narrator speaking of how he met the Time Traveler whose name is not given. He tells of how he and a group of other people came to hear about what the Time Traveler thinks of time travel and the fourth dimension. This is then followed by the Time Traveler showing a miniature version of the time machine and tells of how it disappears as well as telling them his plans. A week passes before the narrator tells of how the group came back and waited for the Time Traveler as he had specified. When the Time Traveler comes into the room they are waiting in, they find him a mess and, after eating, learn of where the man had been and what had happened. The story from then on is continuous dialogue, save for the end and some actions by the Time Traveler, as the Time Traveler tells his story. The Time Traveler tells of how the trip through time was and what the land he saw upon arrival was like. He told of the creatures that were our descendants and how they acted. The Time Traveler described how humanity had changed and how Earth had also changed. Later on the night he arrives, the Time Traveler find that his time machine had been stolen. The Time Traveler speaks of his panic and tells of how he had spent that first night in the future. The day after the Time Traveler arrives, he tries to talk to the people in an attempt to find the time machine. He talks about Weena, a girl with whom he becomes friends with after saving her from drowning. The Time Traveler and Weena gain a deep friendship. Later, the Time Traveler catches the first glimpse of the Morlocks, a race that has also descended from humanity and those that stole the Time Traveler’s time machine. Living underground with great eyesight in the dark, the Time Traveler decides one day to go down a deep hole to where he had seen one climb. He describes how terrible this was for him after they had started to poke and touch him. The Time Traveler had run and started to realize that the darkness in which the Morlocks lived in was what terrified the “Eloi”, the race that the Time Traveler had become familiar with. The Time Traveler, also afraid of the Morlocks by this time, decides to go to a place he had seen earlier to try to take shelter during the new moon. Going to what he dubs the Palace of Green Porcelain, the Time Traveler finds out that this place is actually a museum which has various things that the Time Traveler knew of from his time as well as some newer things. This gave the Time Traveler a chance to get a weapon and some more matches, something that he had used to ward the Morlocks off when they came too close. On the way back to where Weena lived, the Time Traveler and Weena were attacked by the Morlocks while they set up camp in a forest at night and, unfortunately, left the fire unattended long enough for it to go out. The Time Traveler ends up running out of the forest as well as setting fire to it, leaving Weena who, if she wasn’t eaten by the Morlocks, to burn. As the Time Traveler returns to where the Eloi had mostly been, he sees a door which had been previously locked open. He heads down, thinking that if the Morlocks are down there, he would use the matches to ward them off. This backfires when he is unable to light a match and, luckily, clambers onto the time machine and goes further into the future. This results in the Time Traveler seeing the sun become large and create a constant sunset. The Time Traveler is nearly attacked again by large crablike creatures before he decides to go back to his own time finally. The tale ends with him arriving the week after he had previously talked with the group. When the Time Traveler finishes his story, many of the people do not believe this account while the narrator is curious. The day after this, the narrator goes to the Time Traveler who has decided to go to the future and take pictures as proof. After this happens, the Time Traveler is never seen again.Reading a book such as the Time Machine was different. The way the Time Traveler remained nameless is certainly interesting. How many of the characters remained nameless was actually very interesting. I like how H. G. Wells wrote the book. It was somewhat confusing at first since I was unable to tell from what sort of view I was reading from. I liked the way that the story was told through the narrator’s point of view but also had the Time Traveler tell of what the experience was like for him. The description of the Eloi and the Morlocks was incredible. The way that the Time Traveler described the future made it seem like a believable account of time traveling. The story is definitely great and understandably a sort of classic.

[okdavy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A true science fiction classic! Most people know the story of H.G. Wells "The Time Machine" from one of the movies or maybe because it has been ingrained in our society for over 100 years. Even though I knew the story, I found reading the book exciting. Being able to see what a person, HG Wells in this case, thought about the future and what he knew about science back in the 18 hundreds was the best part for me. It was well written and kept me interested. 5stars!

[sdtaylor555 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I didn't much care for this book. It was a bit too boring for me.

[readafew · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Time Machine is a pretty short story but still very gripping. I thought it was thought provoking and an interesting lecture on class decadence. The Time Traveler invites some acquaintances over for dinner and drops a big surprise on them. He has discovered how to travel through time and tries to convince them with a model he makes disappear that it is possible. A few days later there is another dinner party and The Time Traveler shows up late to his own dinner and looks like he has been in a fight and begs leave to clean himself up. After which he eats and then tells them all a fantastic story.

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A book that works on level upon level upon level. The first is the obvious - of the horror felt by the traveller as he reaches a future in which hope has been replaced with mind-dulling comfort and ease. Culture has been forgotten; the dark side of the world is precisely that, as if there is no grey: it lives underground.On another level, this is the story of repression. The Eloi, the people who live in the light and merrily go from day to day, are really repressed, and in turn repress, those that live underground, the dreadful Morlocks. Wisely, Wells leaves much of the moralising to the reader.

[drclub · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book has many layers that perhaps reflected the authors vision of society. His political vision of the different isms of the time such as capitalism, socialism, marxism is reflected in the 2 societies of the future as well as the characters who attend the dinner party and who are told the scientists story with a high level of disbelief. On one level we have the morlocks and eloi representing good and bad, on another level they can represent proleteriat vs capitalist with the eloi representing the idle capitalist who does not contribute to society.The author through the scientist looks down on the eloi as good for nothing hedonists and is scared of the morlocks as if they represent the unseen, misunderstood, uneducated, low echelons of Victorian society.The ultimate demise of the world as we know it although disappointing seems a stark warning to contemporary society.By choosing to represent the far-distant future the author very cleverly avoids verification. Now are we asking for the same proof in our time?

[wirkman_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The best science fiction novel that Wells wrote, still worth reading after all these years. It does what sf is supposed to do: open up the world and show the reader something grander beyond both hope and fear.

[davidgraves_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wonderful and focused exposition, exploring humankind's possible futures with steely, horror-tinged realism. Not only an entertaining read, but visionary in scope. A science-fiction masterpiece.