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The Time Machine

by H.G. Wells, Donald Wollheim (Introduction by)

3.79 of 5 stars 3.79 · rating details · 115,142 ratings · 3,015 reviews

When the Time Traveler courageously stepped out of his machine for the first time, he found himself in the year 802,700--and everything had changed. H.G. Wells's famous novel of one man's astonishing journey beyond the conventional limits of the imagination is regarded as one of the great masterpieces in the literature of science fiction.

Paperback, Airmont Classic Series CL44, 126 pages

Published June 1st 1964 by Airmont Pub Co (first published 1895)

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Jan 02, 2013 Lou rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: december-2011-read-list, adapted-to-screen, classics, fantasy

If there was one single reason to read this it would be that H.G Wells was a favoured author and an inspiration to the Legendary writer Ray Bradbury. Pictured below in a time machine movie prop.

2333 December 19th
Alas this is a fine work from a writer of bygone times and if he could only discover his vision and writings of Time Travel were in fact prophecies and became true. As I have indeed traveled to 802,701AD and meet the lovely Weena a female Eloi and the dreadful Morlocks. The Time Machine...more

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Feb 27, 2013 Giulia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

C’è un po’ di tutto: relatività, entropia, critica al darwinismo sociale e al capitalismo. C’è il recupero di archetipi antichi in un futuro inquietante dove resiste la divisione Eden-Inferno. C’è l’inizio della fantascienza, la rinuncia al vero in favore del fantastico. Insomma, è uno di quei libri che segnano la storia della letteratura. Però ha i suoi difetti e, infatti, se a tratti è davvero molto coinvolgente, altre volte è un po’ noioso, macchinoso e ripetitivo. Però tanto di cappello a We...more

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May 03, 2012 Tanu rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book really should have been longer. I mean it not in the “I can’t get enough” sense, more like, ‘its necessary to make the book and the themes it portray effective’ sense. I am a bit puzzled about my feeling regarding this classic. On one hand, I love the Marxist social commentary, the innovativeness of future world, the Eloi and the Morlocks, but, it really didn’t make an impact on me, and dystopias usually do!

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Mar 24, 2012 Mike (the Paladin) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, science-fiction

I was torn between 3 and 4 stars on this one and finally went with 4 based on the time it was written. It doesn't read like a more recent SF novel, but it's another thought provoking read. The storage devices that survived times passing, the question of what went with him on his last trip and what kind of society would now result stays with us. Not a bad read.

This has been made into more than one movie (the earliest probably being the closest to the actual book). It like many of Wells' works has...more

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May 26, 2010 Michael added it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, audio-book, read-in-2009, obscure-references-book-group, read-in-2010

Without "The Time Machine," we might not have science-fiction. Or at least not as we know it.

That's not to say that someone wouldn't or couldn't have come along and filled a gap had H.G. Wells not written this. But would it have been as popular and caught fire with the imagination of the reading public if had been something or someone else. Maybe not.

What I'm trying to say is that sci-fi fans owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Wells for this story. Not only was it hugly influential, but it's...more Without "The Time Machine," we might not have science-fiction. Or at least not as we know it.

That's not to say that someone wouldn't or couldn't have come along and filled a gap had H.G. Wells not written this. But would it have been as popular and caught fire with the imagination of the reading public if had been something or someone else. Maybe not.

What I'm trying to say is that sci-fi fans owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Wells for this story. Not only was it hugly influential, but it's still entertaining and readable to this day. Following the convention of the period, Wells relates the story twice removed. It's a first-person narrator relating the story of another first-person narrator. Wells introduces us to the Traveller, who has invented a way to break the barrier to the fourth dimension. He plans to travel in time and does so, going into the far future and meeting the Eloi and the Morlocks.

If you've seen the movie, you're probably familiar with most of what unfolds. But if you've only seen the movie, you've really only experienced half of the story. Like many great episodes of sci-fi shows today, the success of "The Time Machine" comes from the abililty to use fantastic fiction to comment on current real-world issues. "The Time Machine" does that in such a subtle way, making readers think and carry that thought process long after the final page is turned.

That's not to say it's all philosophical discourse (I'm looking at your Robert A. Heinlein). The novel wouldn't endure if it was just that. It's got a good adventure story at its center and it hangs the philosophical argument on that. Wells shows a mastery of this type of storytelling that many other writers in this field (again, I point to Robert A. Heinlein) have tried but come up woefully short in achieving.

It's a classic, no question about it. If you've not read it in a while, it's worth a second, third or even fifteenth look. If you've not read it all, you should treat yourself to one of the truly innovated stories in world literature. It's not every day you can read a story that is the starting point for an entire genre. (less)

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Jan 23, 2009 Jacob rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: i-own, 2008-2009, verne-and-wells, sci-fi-fantasy-etc

January 2009

As always, there is little to say when coming late to a classic, except this: I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to read H. G. Wells!

It feels a bit embarrassing. I went on a smallish time travel reading marathon near the end of last year, but I somehow managed to skip over The Time Machine, the grand-daddy of all modern machine-based time travel stories. Perhaps I didn’t think it was necessary because I already knew the story; I watched the Wishbone version when I was a kid, an...more January 2009

As always, there is little to say when coming late to a classic, except this: I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to read H. G. Wells!

It feels a bit embarrassing. I went on a smallish time travel reading marathon near the end of last year, but I somehow managed to skip over The Time Machine, the grand-daddy of all modern machine-based time travel stories. Perhaps I didn’t think it was necessary because I already knew the story; I watched the Wishbone version when I was a kid, and I may have seen the 1960s film (and if I ever saw the 2002 adaptation--and I’m not saying I have--I certainly wouldn’t admit it).

But what the Wishbone version and film adaptations (including, I imagine, the most recent film--although I’m not saying I’ve seen it) all seem to lack is the sociological aspect of the story: it is not merely a wild tale of adventure through time. The world 800,000 years into the future, as the Time Traveler found it, is vastly different from late-Eighteenth Century London, but it is also a product of those times: the Eloi, those small and playful people, are the atrophied descendants of the British upper-class, who over millennia of easy living devolved into weak and helpless child-creatures, who would be living in the Utopia that Wells’ fellow writers (Morris, Bellamy, and others) wrote about were it not for the Morlocks, those savage, blind cannibalistic children of the eternally repressed worker class. The end result of this seemingly natural social regression is barely hinted at in the film and television adaptations of Wells’ story--which I gleefully read for the first time this past week. It is one thing to know the story, but quite another to learn the context behind it.

My copy of The Time Machine is an Everyman Centennial Edition, which along with the novel contains notes, an appendix, a chronology of Wells’ life and times, and an introduction byJohn Lawton. Although I usually ignore introductions in fiction, I found this, along with the chronology, as fascinating as the story itself. Here, the historical context surrounding the novel, includng Darwin’s and T. H. Huxley’s influence on Wells as well as an examination of Wells’ life and times, provides for illuminating background reading about the story. No doubt any modern edition will be equally informative, and rightly so. This is a fantastic story, and I cannot recommend it enough.
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Jul 25, 2010 Jenelle rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

how can things really be the way they seem/
love'm Elois & Morlocks. the speciazation of humanity in Wells' imagined future is still so fresh & cool!
there's very little real science in this book, which has done miracles for protecting it from its age (the Monica Vitti effect: being mysterious). however, it's a great study into how our ethos about science has changed in the last hundred years. here's the scientist-adventurist, looking vaguely aristocratic and very very romantic, with his a...more

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Jun 22, 2012 W.E. Linde rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"In a moment my hand was on the lever, and I had placed a month between myself and these monsters."

What a classic, wonderfully imaginative science fiction sentence.

I had read H.G. Wells' The Time Machine many years ago. I remembered enjoying it, and thinking there were some creepy elements to the story. And since that was all I remembered, I decided I needed to revisit this. I'm on a mission to read or reread classic science fiction and horror writers, so I used that as an excuse to bump The T...more

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Mar 24, 2012 Cheryl in CC NV rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

GR says five stars means 'it was amazing.' Well, I was amazed by how much I liked this. I'm not clever enough to enjoy Classic Literature - but this was surprsingly fun! Exciting, resonant, thoughtful - and much more accessible to modern readers, whether fans of SF or not, than I thought it would be.

Yes there were some slang and some allusions I didn't understand, especially at the dinner parties at the beginning. Nor do I understand why each gathering had different members. Nor do I understand...more

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Oct 22, 2008 Beth F. rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books, classic, time-travel, science-fiction, 2008

One of the most difficult courses I took in college was a class called Sociological Theory. The professor was either brilliant or a total nut, I’m still not sure, and one of the questions for our final exam was actually:

Why? (Use diagrams to support your response).

Ugh, ugh, ugh!!! I walked out of that class with a B and I kid you not, I have never worked so hard for a B in my life! I pity the one guy in my class who walked away with an A and don’t even want to think about what his social life w...more One of the most difficult courses I took in college was a class called Sociological Theory. The professor was either brilliant or a total nut, I’m still not sure, and one of the questions for our final exam was actually:

Why? (Use diagrams to support your response).

Ugh, ugh, ugh!!! I walked out of that class with a B and I kid you not, I have never worked so hard for a B in my life! I pity the one guy in my class who walked away with an A and don’t even want to think about what his social life was like during that semester because I know mine was down the tubes.

At one point, the kooky prof mentioned The Time Machine as some interesting (but not required) reading to pick up on the side. But since he already had us reading upwards of 1,000 pages a week and we were required to hand in a 7-10 page paper every Monday (just for the one class!!!!), I was like, “screw you! H.G. Wells can kiss my ass!”

And that’s the funny thing about regret. Because now I’m wishing I’d have made time in my busy schedule to read it. Maybe I should have blown off another class for a couple hours so I could have read The Time Machine. And then I could have thought about it in a state of mind that was open and receptive to what was being said and layering it with some weird, academic extrapolations and connections (the kind professors slurp up) and it would become something ultra-meaningful and profound. Or something.

But no, I read it now. At age 29. Because I was dragging my feet and didn’t feel like finishing the book I’m supposed to be reading about Al Qaeda. And so the entire time I was reading it, I was like, “hm, interesting. If I was a younger person and still remembered the specific details about theories I studied in my past life as a student, the ideas in this book would have given me a nerd brain orgasm. And hot diggity damn! This book would have made a fantastic paper for my Soc. Theory class! By referencing several schools of sociological thought and combining those with discussions of evolution, social deconstruction and combining all that with the social norms of Victorian peoples—that would have knocked that prof’s socks off!"

So anyway. I liked this book okay. I’m really not a huge science fiction fan and that aspect probably kept me from getting into it as much as I could have given its potential for creating nerd brain o’s. Plus, it was only 90 pages long. It’s hard to really get into something that’s that short. Parts of the story felt like they weren’t fleshed out enough and Wells seemed to have skimmed over several scenes that shouldn’t have been skimped on. But then I found out that his original intent for this story was to turn it into a full-fledged novel but that just never happened due to some financial burdens and it sort of made sense.

The basic plot revolves around a Victorian gentleman and his theories about time travel. To prove them, he builds a machine and travels 800,000 years into the future where he befriends a group of people, the Eloi, who are descended from modern human beings. They are much shorter, childlike people who only eat fruit and spend most of their day playing games. They have no concept of work, they have no critical thinking skills and are incapable of logical reaction to problems. They are also terrified of the dark.

After spending a few days with them, the Time Traveler discovers another distinct species, also descended from modern man but of a much more sinister nature. This second group lives underground, only comes out at night, is a bit more cunning than the gentle people who live aboveground and this group is also extremely predatory in that they cannibalize the Eloi. These are the Morlocks.

The Time Traveler has several adventures during his time spent amongst the Eloi and the Morlocks and towards the end of the story, Wells makes some fairly blatant comparisons between the Eloi and the ultra-rich of our own society. If they spend their entire days being attended to by others, they will lose the ability to care for themselves and if they’re not careful, over the course of time and evolution of the species, they could turn into the Eloi, a group of wimpy wimpsters upon whom a life of privilege has backfired. (less)

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Nov 29, 2008 Werner rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of 19th century fiction (esp. science fiction), and of adventure fiction

Shelves: science-fiction, classics, books-i-own

Wells was the first science fiction writer to posit time travel by mechanical means as a literary conceit for presenting both ideas and storylines that otherwise couldn't be explored in fiction; he had done this already in his 1888 story "A Chronic Argonaut," which is sometimes erroneously described as an early version of this novel, although the characters and plot are quite different. But it was through The Time Machine that the idea caught the popular imagination, and became a staple of the g...more Wells was the first science fiction writer to posit time travel by mechanical means as a literary conceit for presenting both ideas and storylines that otherwise couldn't be explored in fiction; he had done this already in his 1888 story "A Chronic Argonaut," which is sometimes erroneously described as an early version of this novel, although the characters and plot are quite different. But it was through The Time Machine that the idea caught the popular imagination, and became a staple of the genre. (This work illustrates as well as any other the basic difference between Wells' "soft" approach versus that of "hard" SF patron saint Jules Verne; unlike Verne's technologies, this one isn't extrapolated from any existing knowledge and doesn't lay claim to any real probability as a prediction of future human achievement. It's just a pure and simple exercise in "what if?" regardless of scientific fact. Unlike many of Verne's technological wonders, it hasn't come to pass in the present (and Wells didn't expect it to). But it comes to grip with philosophical issues in a much more direct way than most of Verne's work.

As the book description above indicates, those philosophical issues are very much bound up with Darwinism, which the young Wells absorbed as a pupil of "Darwin's bulldog," Thomas Huxley. While the budding author never questioned the truth of what he was taught, he was much more ambivalent about its philosophical implications than the Social Darwinist, moneyed elite of his day (which embraced it with delight). He accepted the idea that "progress" would inevitably result in a Utopian conquest of nature that would abolish toil and scarcity --but he also recognized that, according to Darwinist dogma, without the toil, scarcity, and danger that supposedly functioned as the catalyst for continued upward evolution, the race would necessarily stagnate and devolve. Moreover, the sharp class divisions of Victorian society, with the genetic isolation and mutual antagonism of higher and lower classes, viewed through a Darwinist lens, was a perfect set-up for the evolution of separate and hostile species locked in a struggle for survival; and that one would become the prey of the other was as "natural" a phenomenon as the supposed ratchet towards "progress." And overarching this whole view of the world is the fact of the inevitable future exhaustion of the sun, which (in the absence of anything like Divine intervention) means that the world orbiting it is doomed to eventual extinction, rendering all human existence and achievement existentially meaningless. All of these ideas are worked out to their grim conclusions in the novel, leaving the narrator to observe, near the end, that "it remains for us to live as though it were not so" --a line that certainly serves as its own commentary!

Although I liked it, my rating of this novel isn't quite as high as that of most of my Goodreads friends. It's one of those novels, IMO, that are more important for their historical significance, and for the ideas they present, than for their entertainment value. Character development isn't strong here; we never even learn the Traveler's name, for example, and his interactions with the Morlocks and Eloi (even with Weena) aren't very deep. There is definitely danger and adventure; it's not wholly a novel of colorless ideas. But all the Traveler accomplishes in the end is bare survival, bringing back to the present a cargo of depressing ideas. For the original Victorian readers who shared his presuppositions (and for their counterparts today), those ideas would certainly be gripping and disturbing; and for readers who have never imagined time travel, that very concept would have been a striking source of wonder --like Capt. Nemo's submarine for Verne's original readers. But today, time travel is an old-hat concept for SF fans; it takes more than the bare idea to elicit wonder and excitement. And for readers who don't share his presuppositions, it's hard to suspend disbelief in his depictions of the future, while the ideas he's preaching fall flat. But they remain important ideas to understand, whether you agree with them or not, if you want to fully comprehend what Darwinism means philosophically.(less)

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Apr 11, 2009 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopias-and-utopias, post-apocalyptic, sf, read-more-than-once

Ooo - I liked this a lot! What rich worlds Wells creates! In the year 802701 A.D., humans have evolved ("evolved"?) into two distinct species, borne from an increasingly growing chasm between the leisure class and the working class. The Time Traveler experiences this world in a way that is both entertaining and aphoristic. He finds that without challenges and change, humans have become simplistic and animalistic. He theorizes that "an animal perfectly in harmony with its environment is a perfect...more

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Nov 13, 2012 Sean rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 19th-century, sci-fi, victorian, read-in-2012

The Time Machine is a classic novel in the Science Fiction genre but is it is an average book overall. It is short read at just over 100 pages that tells the story of a scientist who builds a time machine and travels 800,000 years into the future. Much of the story describes the time traveler’s surroundings and his assessment of the environment and society that he visits. The Time machine has been superseded by better time travel stories but this book can be credited as the pioneer of such tales...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Zeek rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, classics-sci-fi, dystopian, favorites-all-time, fiction, literary, sci-fi, steampunk

SO- if you’re any kind of Sci Fi nerd, as I am, you know this story. I mean, know this story. Not only have you read the book, you’ve seen the old movie starring Rod Taylor and you’ve also seen that glowy, gadgety, steam punky, levered, whirling time machine guest star on a recent TV show which shall remain nameless, because it’s become a fixture in nerd culture worldwide.

But here’s a recap in case you aren’t as aware of it: Around the turn of the century, a guy makes a time machine. He travels...more
SO- if you’re any kind of Sci Fi nerd, as I am, you know this story. I mean, know this story. Not only have you read the book, you’ve seen the old movie starring Rod Taylor and you’ve also seen that glowy, gadgety, steam punky, levered, whirling time machine guest star on a recent TV show which shall remain nameless, because it’s become a fixture in nerd culture worldwide.

But here’s a recap in case you aren’t as aware of it: Around the turn of the century, a guy makes a time machine. He travels to the distant future and makes it back with a story to tell. Apparently in the future the human race has evolved into two sub-species: The shiny, happy Eloi who live above the ground with nothing to do but eat, play and indolently make love. Below ground it is a different story. Hairy, with subterranean eyes accustomed to the dark, the Morlocks are an brutish, threatening lot which the traveler surmises descended from the lower class of people who’s jobs it were to “get their hands dirty”, i.e. the laborers of our culture. (Not as much a point for Socialism as I guess Wells intended as coming off slightly snotty and academically elitist.)

Because he’s sure the Morlocks are treating the Eloi as cattle on which to feed, and partly I’d say because he had taken the lovely Eloi, Weena, to bed, the traveler decides to take it on himself to smoke the Morlocks out of their subterranean homes. Plus… they had his Time Machine. His plan works beyond his imaginations and when waking the next day, he finds his Time Machine- all set up like bait in a trap. But he knows something the Morlocks do not- he can escape the trap with ease. And escape he does- but not without a tense confrontation with the white haired, red-eyed creatures.

Farther into the future he goes, watching the sun grow red and huge and then wane, till only darkness and stars permanently fill the skies. And then he comes home- to the exact moment he left- a little distance away, because, after all, the Morlocks had moved his machine, and though time had changed, distance had not.

The end of the tale leaves those listening, not believing a word of the travelers supposed flight of fancy- but one friend comes back days later because he’s just not sure. He of course sees the traveler disappear in his machine. He’s still waiting for the his return.

The story doesn’t really get good till about the time the scary Morlocks show up… but, quite honestly, the tiny smooth-skinned Eloi creep me out more. With scientific touches- classic to his stories- H. G. Wells plays a game of “what if?” with the future that still feels unique even as it spawned an entire genre and thousands of similar stories. I wish Wells had a time machine to take him to today so he could see how beloved his stories were and still remain. I wonder if he would have changed his future world to be a little more happier, a little less dystopian? Then again, maybe not- he seemed to have been an excellent judge of human nature, if misguided by what would fix it.
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Jul 21, 2012 Jenni rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: the-classics

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...more

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Nov 26, 2012 Stephanie V rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a great book about a man who goes into the future on a time machine. The man begins to explore and finds strange looking people that have become of the human race. The time travelers time machine is stolen, though, and he has to try to find it. On his way to find it, he finds a great many other thingsand learns about the future. i loved this book because it was very interesting (the topic was) and it was greatly entertianing.
Even though this was a short book, it kept my attention. It was...more

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Aug 07, 2012 Amy Sturgis rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 19th-century, science-fiction-vintage

I adore rereading this classic. It is "must read" material for anyone interested in the development of science fiction in general or the inspiration for steampunk in particular. It also shows H.G. Wells at his social-scientist best, both critiquing the social realities of his time and applying his understanding of evolution to larger processes and patterns in the human experience.

Several aspects of this remarkable novella keep me coming back for more. I love the portrait of the lone inventor-exp...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Ash rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Sci-fi fans

Shelves: movie, science-fiction, own, favorites, steampunk, 1001, 1000guardian, 2011-read

This book was published in 1895, so you can imagine the kind of technology and science advancements they had in those days. Yet this book can be read even today and the fun is not lost. I was initially planning to give this book 4 stars but the ending was what I liked the most about the book. A very realistic ending and the epilogue was great.

The term "Time machine" was coined by H.G.Wells and this is now universally used to refer to such a vehicle. What was more interesting to know was that, We...more

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Aug 30, 2009 Ross rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ross Bautista
Ms. Wheeler
H. English II
8/30/2009
Choice Summer Reading
The Time Machine
"'I've had a most amazing time'" (17). The Time Machine is an American classic by famous science-fiction writer H. G. Wells. Anyone who enjoys a fine piece of science-fiction literature will find this book a delightful change from modern sci-fi works.
How and why man evolve is a question that stumbles the best of us. In this novel, the time traveler suspects the future evolution of man is the product of communism...more Ross Bautista
Ms. Wheeler
H. English II
8/30/2009
Choice Summer Reading
The Time Machine
"'I've had a most amazing time'" (17). The Time Machine is an American classic by famous science-fiction writer H. G. Wells. Anyone who enjoys a fine piece of science-fiction literature will find this book a delightful change from modern sci-fi works.
How and why man evolve is a question that stumbles the best of us. In this novel, the time traveler suspects the future evolution of man is the product of communism. "'Communism,' I said to myself" (32). During this point in the story, the Time Traveler finds himself in the community of the distant future. When he sees the Eloi, the human race of the future, he notices that they are neither male or female, young or old, or physically developed. He suspects that the human race has evolved into this form because they have made life too easy. These lazy, ignorant, easy-going people are the end result of man not working hard enough.
Another aspect of The Time Machine is of course time. The Time Traveler thinks time is the fourth dimension. "'Any real body must have an extension in four directions: it must have Length, Breadth, Thickness, and-Duration'" (2). The Time Traveler talks about how we can move freely in the three known dimensions. After he concludes that time is the fourth, his guests question why we can't move in it. The Traveler contradicts them by saying we are already moving in it. He proposes a way to move faster. H. G. Wells' thinking is revolutionary for his time. Today, many people have been influenced by this work. Some, even to the point of creating a successful device to accomplish this feat.
One know H. G. Wells was inspired to write this novel by his mere existence in the human world. Wells made this novel to warn people of what may come. He was hoping this book would scare people into becoming careful so they wouldn't end up like the Eloi.
It's hard to tell if Wells accomplished his goal without having to do further research. Though it seems that with his fantastic style of writing and his following it would be hard not too.

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Sep 12, 2009 Ben Babcock rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: english-3950, 19th-century, 2009-read, science-fiction, time-travel, owned

Maybe it's unfair to compare them, but having read this hot on the heels of The War of the Worlds , I liked The Time Machine better. On thematic grounds it's a close battle, but The Time Machine is a far superior story, hands down.

I'm not even going to touch the whole "time travel" concept as Wells presents it in this book, both because it was written in 1895 and because science fiction has so thoroughly confused the matter that trying to claim something "accurately" depicts time travel is alway...more Maybe it's unfair to compare them, but having read this hot on the heels of The War of the Worlds , I liked The Time Machine better. On thematic grounds it's a close battle, but The Time Machine is a far superior story, hands down.

I'm not even going to touch the whole "time travel" concept as Wells presents it in this book, both because it was written in 1895 and because science fiction has so thoroughly confused the matter that trying to claim something "accurately" depicts time travel is always going to be specious. The main character has a time machine and he goes forward (then backward) in time. Got it? Good.

As with The War of the Worlds, precious few characters have names. In fact, I counted a grand total of two named characters: Filby, "an argumentative person with red hair" and Weena, an Eloi woman who befriends the Time Traveller. We never learn the name of the Time Traveller or the narrator of the book. Still, Wells somehow manages to pull this off with aplomb. And this time, he's even somehow acquired a story to mix in among his speculation and political theory!

Wells' Time Traveller builds his time machine in the hopes of going into the far future, where humanity will have solved all the problems looming ominously in the near future as Britain enters the 20th century. So when the Time Traveller arrives in 802,701, naturally he's pleased to find out that humanity has split up into two species, neither of whom retain the capacity for abstract thought, let alone solutions to all our problems. The happy-go-lucky, child-like Eloi live in a state of daytime bliss punctuated by their nightly Fear of the dark-loving, subterranean Morlocks. The Morlocks make off with the Time Traveller's machine, so he has to live with the Eloi while he plots to recapture it.

The Eloi and the Morlocks are the result of the ultimate separation of humanity, according to the Time Traveller, into a leisure-loving aristocracy (the Eloi) and the service-loving labourers (the Morlocks)—capitalism carried to its logical evolutionary extreme. Political theory aside, there's unquestionable, if unoriginal, validity in the statement that "the cause of human intelligence and vigour" is "hardship and freedom." Unfortunately, Wells never really advances beyond this basic thesis. We never learn if the example he sets during his confrontation with the Morlocks inspires the Eloi to improve themselves or not.

Despite Wells' enthusiastic confidence that the march of science would one day provide the answer to our problems, the Time Traveller, as his representative of the scientific genius, is far from a paragon. Indeed, he displays almost instinctual vitriol toward the ape-like Morlocks. The Eloi, on the other hand, "had kept too much of the human form not to claim my sympathy" despite "their intellectual degradation." To the Time Traveller, Beauty is Good and Ugly is Bad. Some readers may take this as a lack of depth on Wells' part; I interpret it as evidence of depth of character in the Time Traveller—that is, he's not all the virtuous hero; he occasionally succumbs to the prejudices of his era.

The Time Machine is a conflict-laden adventure backed by some interesting ideas, the best of both worlds, unified by Wells' trademark descriptive style. It's a "what if" story, a story of wonder—one-hit wonder. And in that limited respect, while short, it's satisfying.(less)

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Aug 11, 2008 DJ rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: little boys and sci-fi fans

Shelves: fiction

Stranded in India with nothing to read, I picked this granddaddy of science fiction up in an Indian 'American classic' print for 50 rupees (just over a US dollar) - a steal for both its literary importance and compelling story.

One of the first sci-fi novels ever to be written from one of the first writers ever to write sci-fi, 'The Time Machine' is a short but captivating journey into the early 20th century imagination - and a fascinating extrapolation of popular philosophies.

Though the science...more

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Jul 25, 2008 Kristen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 1001-books-before-you-die

I am sure that you have seen the movies that have been made from this book, there are quite a few and most of them are very entertaining. Unfortunately none of the movies that I have seen have captured the social meaning behind this book. Certainly they have the adventure part down pat, but the rest of it is changed, for the times I’m sure. I would advise those of you who love Sci-fi to read this book, and to those of you, like myself who have a hard time getting into that genera, look at this a...more I am sure that you have seen the movies that have been made from this book, there are quite a few and most of them are very entertaining. Unfortunately none of the movies that I have seen have captured the social meaning behind this book. Certainly they have the adventure part down pat, but the rest of it is changed, for the times I’m sure. I would advise those of you who love Sci-fi to read this book, and to those of you, like myself who have a hard time getting into that genera, look at this as a classic and read it anyway.

The unnamed inventor of a time machine, known only as the traveler, leaves his home to travel forward through time. Seeing drastic changes in the world he finally settles on a distant future to get out and explore. He quickly meets tiny humans which he refers to as the Eloi. They are fair to look at, complete ADD cases with little to no true knowledge or skills. The Traveler attempts to communicate with them and has some difficulty. He spends a great deal of time in this futuristic world and discovers that the Eloi are not alone in this new world, and that their counterparts are far more sinister.

One of the biggest changes made in the movies is the cause of the split between the Eloi and the Morlocks. It is very interesting to read Well’s actual reasoning, which is the separation and elitism between the social classes. This becomes more defined and is the actual basis of the entire novel. Rather than being a true Sci-Fi book, this really is about Victorian Society and what it would look like if left unchanged for 800,000 years. Because this book only vaguely touches on the science involved, it is likely to never be outdated. Though this is not a fast read by any means, it is a fun and meaningful one. I don’t know that I would hand it to a 10 year old because odds are they would be bored before he even leaves for the trip. However if you can take a deep breath and leave our societies mindset behind (the theory that everything needs to be exploding and that we all need instantaneous gratification at all times) this is a brilliant piece of fiction that spans several genres and is in fact as timeless as the Traveler.
(less)

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Apr 24, 2008 Tracy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Time Machine was required reading for a course I took in college about the history/evolution of science and man's place in nature. Wells' classic, along with Shelley's Frankenstein and Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, was written in response to the panic that ensued following Darwin's publication of The Origin of Species. People were freaked out by the idea that we evolved from "lesser creatures" and feared that if evolution explains how humans developed, then "de-eveolution" must also be a...more

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May 10, 2011 Ivonne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Once again H.G. Wells let us dwell in futuristic landscapes with our feet still in the present. It is amazing how this author manages to bring actual and current topics to fiction and future and mixes them to make you think about reality, it all with the perfect touch of entertainment, good narration, incredible stories and amazing characters you can relate to.

I like the way he tells the story in this book, that first person telling us what he's seeing and how he deals with the situation he fin...more

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May 16, 2013 Mohamed rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: foreign-literature

-- الرواية من ترجمة : محمّد العزب موسى .
-- يعتبر الكاتب من أوائل الكتّاب الإنجليز الذين كتبوا روايات أدبيّة من " الخيال العلمى " .
-- الرواية كُتبت عام 1895 م .
-- بدايتها ضعيفة جدًا .
-- دعنا نقول أن العيب فى التّرجمة ! :D
-- فكرة أن رواية مثل هذه تُكتب فى أواخر القرن قبل الماضى فهذا بالتأكيد شئ جميل .
-- بشكل عام لست من هواة الخيال العلمى ، لعلّها لو وقعت فى يدى فى مراحل تعليميّة سابقة لأعجبتنى كثيرًا ، نادم جدًا على عدم بدئى القراءة من الصغر !

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Jul 10, 2011 Rebecca rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, adult-fiction

(We listened to this book on CD on a road trip with our children.)

Wow. Sophisticated writing and incredibly thought provoking. Because we listened to rather than read this, there were many times that I wished I could have stopped and re-listened to a well-worded idea or a deep (deeper than I could absorb!) theory. This was not feasible, so one day, I will re-read this book.

Incidentally, my twelve-year-old son loved it, but my nine-year-old daughter did not.

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Apr 21, 2012 Ada Pelin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bilim kurgunun ilk örneklerinden biri olduğunu düşünürsek ilham verici bir kitap. O zamanın gerçekliğinin, kendini yeni yeni gösteren proloterya-burjuvazi ayrımının korkunç bir hale dönüştüğü bir gelecek hayal etmiş Wells. Kafamda işlerin böyle devam ettiği bir alternatif evren oluşturdu. Şimdi yaşasa ve orta sınıfın böyle güçlendiğini görse nasıl bir kurgu yazardı merak ettim.
Ayrıca, evrim karşıtlarının da seveceği bir kitap değil :)

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Mar 29, 2008 Catherine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a surprisingly fast read. I enjoyed the narration greatly. Wells does a good job of including detail but not over doing the descriptions. The story was different than many movie versions I've seen, but I suppose that is the way it is when books are made into movies.
*Spoiler*
I was amazed that in all of the movie versions that I have seen of this book that none of them to my knowledge mention the fact that the Morlocks are cannibals. It is an intriguing idea to think that our descendents...more

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Apr 23, 2009 Greg of A2 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-scifi, read-before-1990

I recall reading this after seeing one of the movie versions again and it actually stood up pretty well. Scary at times (Morlock cannibalism!) with the touch of a romance built in. Stands up to this day.

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Jan 09, 2010 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

SUMMARY
"This is my mini model of the time machine", said the young scientist proudly. Filby and everyone else just stared boringly. Then a random man yelled " Well make it do something!". Then...POOF...it was gone! Filby was amazed as he ran his hands over the table that the model had been sitting on. He was shocked, especially when the young scientist came back one day looking like a zombie!!!

REVIEW
The Time Machine is a very good book. I loved it because it made me want to read more, also, at...more

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About H.G. Wells

Herbert George Wells, better known as H. G. Wells, was the third son of a shopkeeper. After two years' apprenticeship in a draper's shop, he became a pupil-teacher at Midhurst Grammar School and won a scholarship to study under T. H. Huxley at the Normal School of Science, South Kensington. He taught biology before becoming a professional writer and journalist.

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“Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no intelligence where there is no need of change.” — 117 people liked it

“We should strive to welcome change and challenges, because they are what help us grow. With out them we grow weak like the Eloi in comfort and security. We need to constantly be challenging ourselves in order to strengthen our character and increase our intelligence. ” — 76 people liked it

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