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The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
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The Time Machine

by H. G. Wells

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This 19th century story of a scientist who constructs a time machine and travels 800,000+ years into the future holds up remarkably well. I suppose this is in part due to how far into a strange future the narrator takes us, but also due to Well's writing style, which picks and chooses details carefully, smoothly dropping the reader into the worlds he creates. ( )
  blythe025 | Nov 24, 2009 |
We never learn much of the identity of the time traveller (op cit, it does have two 'L's in the book, is that a British spelling?), the beginning of the book refers to him as the time traveller. The story is told in a first-person narration. He is British, and he is male, probably in his prime. It is the classic story, a bit different from the movie versions. We meet the Morlocks, and Weena, strange creatures we encounter only briefly, and learn of man's fate.

The story is well told and moves quickly. He doesn't pause to build suspense, we can feel the urgency of the time traveller's actions.

H. G. Wells suggests man is his own demise, one has to wonder if he was making a political statement, but doesn't stress it as we would expect authors to do today. The book is around 260ish pages, but felt shorter as it reads pretty easily. It is in the public domain and available for free from Project Gutenberg. ( )
  Nodosaurus | Nov 19, 2009 |
A great, almost haunting novel. Wells does not get nearly enough credit for The Time Machine. There is much more here than meets the eye. ( )
  SendersName | Nov 11, 2009 |
The Time Machine is a short novella detailing the journey of a man who found a way to travel along the 4th dimension. It's a story about the evolution of humankind. And a story about the end of time. But more than all of that with The Time Machine, H. G. Wells managed to redefine what a science fiction story is. The Time Machine is not a classic because of immaculate storytelling. The novel is uneven in pacing and style. It is a classic because the common ideas, themes, and mythos of time-travel and time machines originate within these pages, and have continued to influence and captivated ever since. ( )
  Alera | Nov 9, 2009 |
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Series (with order)
Canonical Title
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
The Time Traveller (for so it will be convenient to speak of him) was expounding a recondite matter to us.
Quotations
It is a law of nature we overlook, that intellectual versatility is the compensation for change, danger, and trouble.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

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Book description

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0451528557, Paperback)

The story that launched Wells's successful career-the classic tale of the Time Traveler and the extraordinary world he discovers in the far distant future. A haunting portrayal of Darwin's evolutionary theory carried to a terrible conclusion.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:10 -0400)

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