The Time Machine

Herbert Wells

May 2023 · Aegitas

About this ebook

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells is a science fiction novel that was first published in 1895. The story follows an unnamed Time Traveller who builds a machine that can transport him through time. He travels to the year 802,701 AD where he encounters two distinct species of human-like creatures, the Eloi and the Morlocks. The Eloi are childlike and peaceful, living above ground in a utopian society, while the Morlocks are savage and cannibalistic, living underground in darkness. Wells uses his narrative to explore the themes of evolution, class struggle, and the dangers of technological advancement. The Time Traveller's journey through time serves as a commentary on the consequences of social and technological progress. The Eloi and the Morlocks represent two extremes of human evolution, with the former being the result of a life of luxury and the latter being the product of a life of labor and hardship. The novel also touches upon the idea of class struggle, with the Eloi representing the upper class who have no need to work and the Morlocks representing the working class who are forced to live in harsh conditions. Wells' portrayal of the Morlocks as cannibalistic monsters highlights the fear of the working class rising up against their oppressors. Furthermore, The Time Machine also warns against the dangers of technological advancement. The Time Traveller's machine represents the pinnacle of human ingenuity, but it also leads him to witness the destruction of humanity. The novel suggests that unchecked technological progress can lead to catastrophic consequences. The Time Machine is a thought-provoking novel that explores complex themes through an engaging narrative. Wells' commentary on social and technological progress is still relevant today, making this novel a timeless classic of science fiction literature.

About the author

Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer. He was prolific in many genres, writing dozens of novels, short stories, and works of social commentary, satire, biography, and autobiography, including even two books on war games. He is now best remembered for his science fiction novels and is often called a "father of science fiction", along with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback. During his own lifetime, however, he was most prominent as a forward-looking, even prophetic social critic who devoted his literary talents to the development of a progressive vision on a global scale. A futurist, he wrote a number of utopian works and foresaw the advent of aircraft, tanks, space travel, nuclear weapons, satellite television and something resembling the World Wide Web. His science fiction imagined time travel, alien invasion, invisibility, and biological engineering. Brian Aldiss referred to Wells as the "Shakespeare of science fiction". His most notable science fiction works include The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897),The War of the Worlds (1898) and The War in the Air (1907). He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. Wells's earliest specialised training was in biology, and his thinking on ethical matters took place in a specifically and fundamentally Darwinian context. He was also from an early date an outspoken socialist, often (but not always, as at the beginning of the First World War) sympathising with pacifist views. His later works became increasingly political and didactic, and he wrote little science fiction, while he sometimes indicated on official documents that his profession was that of journalist. Novels such as Kipps and The History of Mr Polly, which describe lower-middle-class life, led to the suggestion that he was a worthy successor to Charles Dickens, but Wells described a range of social strata and even attempted, in Tono-Bungay (1909), a diagnosis of English society as a whole. A diabetic, Wells co-founded the charity The Diabetic Association (known today as Diabetes UK) in 1934.