The Chronic Argonauts: A Precursor to The Time Machine

H.G. Wells

Sep 2012 · Wildside Press LLC

About this ebook

In 1888, while a student, H.G. Wells published "The Chronic Argonauts," a 3-part story serialized in The Science Schools Journal. He would later return to the themes and recreate the story as the classic novel, The Time Machine. (After The Time Machine's publication, Wells tried to suppress "The Chronic Argonauts," going so far as buying all copies he could find and destroying them.) Today, the story is a rarity in its original publication, but it is hardly a classic work in the same vein as its successor novel. As a literary curiosity, it commands some interest, but do not go into it expecting anything on the scale of Wells's later, greater novels.

Ratings and reviews

H.G. Wells was a writer whose words may seem a little too descriptive in comparing them to the works of authors of our time, but within those words lies a particular kind of brilliance when it comes to story telling. I thought it was very imaginative and tempered with a unveiling shroud of mystery that kept your attention going as to what is going to happen next. Not as good a reading as the "Time Machine", but within these pages you can get a glimpse of the creative mind behind such a captivating thought process that H.G. Wells had.

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About the author

Often called "the father of science fiction," British author Herbert George (H. G.) Wells' literary works are notable for being some of the first titles of the science fiction genre, and include such famed titles as The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Island of Doctor Moreau, and The Invisible Man. Despite being fixedly associated with science fiction, Wells wrote extensively in other genres and on many subjects, including history, society and politics, and was heavily influenced by Darwinism. His first book, Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress Upon Human Life and Thought, offered predictions about what technology and society would look like in the year 2000, many of which have proven accurate. Wells went on to pen over fifty novels, numerous non-fiction books, and dozens of short stories. His legacy has had an overwhelming influence on science fiction, popular culture, and even on technological and scientific innovation. Wells died in 1946 at the age of 79.