The Time Machine - HG Wells

Published by Pan Books Ltd/Fabbri Publishing Ltd: Barcelona, Spain, 1992.
First published 1895.

One of HG Wells' most famous stories, The Time Machine is an 1895 novella that popularised the term 'time machine' itself!

The novella is a very easy read, and not quite as grim as some of HG Wells' stories - though it still manages to be mildly cynical about the development of humankind.

Our protagonist, only ever referred to as 'The Time Traveller', is an inventor who, at the beginning of the book, hosts some dinners, where he firstly demonstrates a model time machine, and then - arriving late and in quite a bad state to the second dinner - tells his guests (including our un-named narrator) the tale of time travelling that makes up the rest of the main narrative.

The Time Traveller tells how he travelled forward to the year 802,701, where he encountered two species descended from modern humans: the innocent child-like Eloi, and the subterranean cannibalistic Morlocks. The Time Traveller's machine is stolen by the Morlocks very early on, and he must explore the land and figure out how to get it back. He also develops a friendship/semi-romantic-relationship with a female Eloi named Weena whom he saves from drowning. 

Being a novella, and being more interested in the speculative fiction of how society might transform in the distant future, there isn't much more plot to The Time Machine than what I've already mentioned. In fact, although I've presented the previous paragraph as a brief description of the world, most of the statements I made are slowly figured out by the Time Traveller during the course of proceedings, originally being set up as mysteries.

I wouldn't call HG Wells a favourite author of mine, but The Time Machine is a true classic, an easy read, and worth checking out for fans of classic science-fiction.

Completed 22 September 2025.

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(2025 Reading Challenge - "Multiple Time Periods")

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