Herbert G. Wells

The Invisible Man. Short Stories. Essays

The Time Machine

H.G. Wells

The H.G. Wells classic that helped launch the time travel genre. The Time Traveller, a dreamer obsessed with traveling through time, builds himself a time machine and, much to his surprise, travels over 800,000 years into the future. He lands in the year 802701: the world has been transformed by a society living in apparent harmony and bliss, but as the Traveler stays in the future he discovers a hidden barbaric and depraved subterranean class. The Time Machine inspired the international bestseller The Map of Time by Félix J. Palma. As a gift to our readers, we are including the first three chapters of The Map of Time in this ebook edition.

🤷‍♀️ does it count if I just read the chat gpt summarised version idk…

sophie yang 

A Victorian scientist and inventor creates a machine for propelling himself through time, and voyages to the year AD 802701, where he discovers a race of humanoids called the Eloi. Their gently indolent way of life, set in a decaying cityscape, leads the scientist to believe that they are the remnants of a once great civilization. He is forced to revise this assessment when he comes across the cave dwellings of threatening ape-like creatures known as Morlocks, whose dark underground world he must explore to discover the terrible secrets of this fractured society, and the means of getting back to his own time. A biting critique of class and social equality as well as an innovative and much imitated piece of science fiction which introduced the idea of time travel into the popular consciousness, The Time Machine is a profound and extraordinarily prescient novel.

One of the formative texts of the Sci Fi genre.

Easy to read in this edition; the appendices suggest the original text is a bit less rewarding to a modern reader. 

Good story, keeps you emotionally and intellectually invested. Way ahead of it's time, naturally.

Liam Richardson

One of the formative texts of the Sci Fi genre.

Easy to read in this edition; the appendices suggest the original text is a bit less rewarding to a modern reader. 

Good story, keeps you emotionally and intellectually invested. Way ahead of it's time, naturally.

General Press

'The Time Traveller', a dreamer obsessed with traveling through time, builds himself a time machine and, much to his surprise, travels over 800,000 years into the future. He lands in the year 802,701— the world has been transformed by a society living in apparent harmony and bliss, but as the Traveler stays in the future he discovers a hidden barbaric and depraved subterranean class. 'The Time Traveller' conveys the Time Traveller into the distant future and an extraordinary world. There, stranded on a slowly dying Earth, he discovers two bizarre races—the effete Eloi and the subterranean Morlocks—a haunting portrayal of Darwin’s evolutionary theory carried to a terrible conclusion.

Patrick Book

This is a pleasant fiction that I'm sure was absolutely jarring at the time of its publishing. But it is difficult to place such a seminal work into the context of the past when our entire lives have been surrounded by the results of its influence. That's why it's hard to say that in the modern era it's anything more than a pleasant fiction.

lala

This work by H.G. Wells has been credited in popularizing the concept of time travel with the use of a machine. Despite the fact that it was originally published in 1895, the book dove into time travel concept very well. Due to the age of this novel, the sentences are sometimes hard to read, but that’s okay. In this novel, the main character, only referred to as The Time Traveller, construct a time machine and subsequently used it to travel to the year 80,271 A.D. There, he finds two kinds of society namely the Enoi and the Morlocks. The social commentary on class and how technological advancements affect humanity are more central to the story than it is on how The Time Traveller manages to time travel. I find this to be an interesting, quick, read, and even though it’s thin, you got to experience emotions of friendship in this novel. If you’re looking for a classic that’s quick and entertaining, this may be it.

I give this book 4 hither and tither. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

envee

istg if i have to read one more book about colonizers meeting indigenous populations...

Marie

H. G. Wells

Victorian scientist propel himself into the year 802,701 AD, where he is delighted to find that suffering has been replaced by beauty and contentment in the form of the Eloi, an elfin species descended from man. But he soon realizes that they are simply remnants of a once-great culture.

Benedict Neo

Reading time machine was very enjoyable and refreshing, though I liked Back to the Future's time travelling mechanism better. The thought-provoking story which was mostly scientifically accurate encourages one to look forward into the future and ponder about the fate of humanity.

The fate of humanity in 802, 701 A.D. presents a bifurcated civilization, the above ones drunk with pleasure and ease, live happy and peaceful lives — an idyllic and utopian world many dream of. In contrast, the underground creatures lives in the dark and haunts the ones above at night for survival. 

Reading the story impressed upon me the chilling imagery of a society divided into two distinct bubbles, one constituting the rich and powerful, the other the poor and destitute. This inequality and divide is already present today, where the tech giants and billionares hold appalling amounts of capital, while millions of others suffer in the dark. 

The story also conjured up an idea I heard from Jordan Peterson, something about humanity's inability to be content with abundant pleasure and ease, in other words, even if a utopian world where all suffering and trials that plagues the world today were to become reality, a life that is blissfully perfect would have troubling effects on our psyche. It's theorised that we would start causing destruction and mayhem to espace the banality and mundaneness of a life without suffering. Thus, a utopian world that is described in the book seems contradictory to our biological nature that works best under an optimum balance between suffering and pleasure. Not to mention that AGI or climate change (something that's much nearer and real) will wipe us out by then.

Sowa's gift for my 32nd birthday. Small book that fit into my purse and was read during moments in between. I finished it on the train from Prague to Rijeka. The book is a short glimpse. And, apart from little creatures, it was the trusting narrator (not the Time Traveller) that was most intriguing. Maybe because of his familiarity.

Dora Tominic

Disclaimer: this is not a review.

Sowa's gift for my 32nd birthday. Small book that fit into my purse and was read during moments in between. I finished it on the train from Prague to Rijeka. The book is a short glimpse. And, apart from little creatures, it was the trusting narrator (not the Time Traveller) that was most intriguing. Maybe because of his familiarity.

Barbara Williford

I never get tired of H G Wells imagination. An English Scientist recounts to his friends his journey into 802,701 AD when he sees the future of two warring species of humans. Here is is stuck for a period of time and must find his way to his current time period.

Vicky (A City Girl's Thoughts)

I remember reading this freshman year of college. Really enjoyed it.

So begins the Time Traveller’s astonishing firsthand account of his journey 800,000 years beyond his own era—and the story that launched H.G. Wells’s successful career and earned him his reputation as the father of science fiction. With a speculative leap that still fires the imagination, Wells sends his brave explorer to face a future burdened with our greatest hopes...and our darkest fears. A pull of the Time Machine’s lever propels him to the age of a slowly dying Earth. There he discovers two bizarre races—the ethereal Eloi and the subterranean Morlocks—who not only symbolize the duality of human nature, but offer a terrifying portrait of the men of tomorrow as well. Published in 1895, this masterpiece of invention captivated readers on the threshold of a new century. Thanks to Wells’s expert storytelling and provocative insight, The Time Machine will continue to enthrall readers for generations to come.

I never get tired of H G Wells imagination.  An English Scientist recounts to his friends his journey into 802,701 AD when he sees the future of two warring species of humans. Here is is stuck for a period of time and must find his way to his current time period. 

Gillian Rose

A much quicker pace than I expected and pretty enjoyable!

The Time Machine (Bantam Classics)

Aditi

This is a very interesting book because aside from being a good sci-fi read, it also clearly illustrates and comments on the social philosophies and ideas of the author's time, as all worthwhile alternate universe fiction tends to do.

Beautifully readable and entertaining even 127 years after original publication. Architectural ideas later picked up in Gibson (Agency) and Liu (Remembrance of Earth’s Past).

里森

Deyana

Striking, abysmal images near the end. Cannot help but remember something about giant crabs and red sea--seeming like a fever dream.

Aditi Verma

In the Time Traveller's miraculous new machine, we will be carried from a Victorian dinner table to 802,701 AD, when the Earth is divided between the gentle, ineffective Eloi, and the ape-like Morlocks; forward again by a million years or so to glimpse a dying world of blood-red beaches and menacing shapes; and on again to the last days of our planet, a remote twilight where nothing moves but darkness and a cold wind.

cora rolfes 

short and wild. love a good reflection on humanity 😍

Claire Jorgensen

Lincy

Amir M 

The first half was exactly what I wanted from a time-travel science fiction. Unexpected events, new ideas, not too verbose, the logic was solid. However, the second half felt like an average episode of Rick and Morty.

anna elisabeth

bere mendez

this was like that one time travel episode of spongebob

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