The Time Machine in Who Doesn't Love a Classic?

Apr 14, 2016 LiLi rated it really liked it

Shelves: fic-19th-c

Listened to this one on LibriVox. The language and storytelling is great. It's complex enough to be intellectually engaging, but simple enough to be listened to while doing chores around the house.

I really enjoy the style of writing from this period, so I probably liked it a lot more than if it had been written in the modern day. ...more

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Jul 14, 2011 Book Concierge rated it really liked it

Shelves: library, concierge, audio, movie, science-fiction, classic, nature

Audiobook performed by Scott Brick.

Classic science fiction from one of the “fathers” of the genre (along with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback). At a dinner party in 1895 London, the host introduces the idea of a fourth dimension of time, and demonstrates a small model of a machine he has constructed to travel through time. His guests, who are learned men, are incredulous and suspect some sort of legerdemain. But he insists it was not a trick, and further claims to have built a full-size machine t Audiobook performed by Scott Brick.

Classic science fiction from one of the “fathers” of the genre (along with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback). At a dinner party in 1895 London, the host introduces the idea of a fourth dimension of time, and demonstrates a small model of a machine he has constructed to travel through time. His guests, who are learned men, are incredulous and suspect some sort of legerdemain. But he insists it was not a trick, and further claims to have built a full-size machine that will allow a man to travel through time. He then invites them, plus a few additional gentlemen, to a future dinner where he promises to explain further. However their host is not in the house when they assemble the next week, though he has left instructions to begin without him. When he finally does appear, he is disheveled and clearly distressed and exhausted. After he has cleaned himself and eaten some, he tells them of his travels through time and what he has witnessed as the future of the Earth and her inhabitants.

This is a gripping story and very well told. Wells imagines a future that is very different from the society of 1895 London, and from any of today’s civilizations. As the Time Traveler (he is never given any other name in the story) recounts his adventures he explains his evolving theories of what has happened. Darwin’s theories of evolution had been well established and accepted in learned circles by the time Wells was writing this book. His Time Traveler had expected to find an age of glorious invention, demonstrating man’s growing intelligence, but has to alter his assumptions of how man will evolve based on what he observes.

What I find most fascinating is the decline of intelligence that Wells imagines. The Time Traveler supposes that as men developed industry and societal structure, they came to a point where there was no need to struggles to achieve all their needs. As necessity is the mother of invention, they slowly lost their inventiveness, their curiosity, their desire to improve or change their environment. I am reminded of a statement of Ray Bradbury’s where he laments the influence of mass media on today’s society; in effect, he feels that we are choosing to abandon curiosity and intelligence in favor of mindless entertainment. A society that does not read is no better off than a society that cannot read.

I listened to the audio book narrated by Scott Brick. Brick’s performance of the audio book hits just the right tone. He strikes the right balance between an objective scientist reporting the results of his experimentation, and the fright, delight, anxiety of the Traveler as he relives the experiences. ...more

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