The Time Machine

by

H. G. Wells

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946): English novelist and social commentator, chiefly known as a founder of the science fiction genre.

His early novels, called "scientific romances", invented a number of themes now classic in science fiction in such works as The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds and are often thought of as being influenced by the works of Jules Verne. He also wrote other, non-fantastic novels which have received critical acclaim, including the satire on Edwardian advertising Tono-Bungay and Kipps.

(From http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au)

Wells had considered the notion of time travel before, in an earlier (but unpublished) story titled The Chronic Argonauts. He had thought of using some of this material in a series of articles in the Pall Mall Gazette, until the publisher asked him if he could instead do a serial novel on the same theme; Wells readily agreed, and was paid 100 pounds on its publication in 1896.

The novel's protagonist is an amateur scientist simply called the Time Traveller (we never learn his real name, though, tantalizingly, he remarks that he wrote it in the dust in an abandoned museum in the distant future.) Having demonstrated to friends that time is a fourth dimension, and that suitable apparatus can move back and forth in this fourth dimension, he constructs a larger machine capable of carrying himself, and sets off.

His journey forward in time takes him to the year 802701 AD where he finds an apparently peaceful, pastoral, Daoist future, filled with happy, simple humans who call themselves the Eloi. This appearance turns out to be deceptive. The Traveller soon discovers that the class structure of his own time has in fact persisted, and the human race has diverged into two branches. The wealthy, leisure classes appear to have evolved into the ineffectual, not very bright Eloi he has already seen; but the downtrodden working classes have evolved (or devolved) into the bestial Morlocks, cannibal hominids resembling albino apes, who toil underground maintaining the machinery that keep the Eloi – their flocks – docile and plentiful. Both species, having adapted to their routines, are of distinctly sub-human intelligence.

Soon after his arrival he rescues Weena, a female Eloi he found drowning in a river. Much to his surprise she is grateful to him and insists on following him. After some adventures and the eventual death of Weena at the hands of the Morlocks, the narrator returns to his machine and travels into the far future. There he sees the last few living things on a dying Earth, before returning to his time to tell his story to friends. Then he attempts to time travel again and disappears forever into time.

The story reflects Wells' political views; he was a committed communist, and the narrator reasons that the state he sees is the outcome of capitalist class structures. The novel may also have influenced the movie Metropolis. He probably did not see it as an accurate portrayal of the future.

(From Wikipedia, The free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/)

http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/w/wells/hg/w45ti/index.html