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The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
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The Time Machine (original 1895; edition 2013)

by H. G. Wells

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17,575336286 (3.73)818
H. G. Wells' The Time Machine, from 1895, popularized the idea of a vehicle that allows its user to travel intentionally and selectively across time, and indeed Wells is credited with coining the very term "time machine." The Time Traveler of this novella tests his time machine with a leap forward to the year 802,701 A.D., to find that evolution has produced two very different post-human races - the peaceful and childlike fruit-eating Eloi and the Morlocks - pale, darkness-dwelling troglodites who operate the underground machinery that makes this seeming paradise possible.… (more)
Member:24hoursayear
Title:The Time Machine
Authors:H. G. Wells
Info:CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (2013), Paperback, 104 pages
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Work Information

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells (1895)

  1. 113
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    sturlington: The Time Ships is a sequel to The Time Machine.
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    Rocannon's World by Ursula K. Le Guin (quigui)
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    DeusXMachina: Human evolution
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1890s (4)
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English (321)  Spanish (7)  Norwegian (1)  Italian (1)  German (1)  Portuguese (1)  Hebrew (1)  Dutch (1)  French (1)  All languages (335)
Showing 1-5 of 321 (next | show all)
Wells at his finest ahead of his time and going well beyond our time. The name is of course familiar but the creativity and vision is amazing--especially when trying to read him as if you are of his time trying to grasp these ideas for the first time. Remarkably unsettling with a great ending--moving right on to another of his books. Some time later I am still thinking about the ending--a nice feat for a book written over a hundred years ago. Feels tossed off, but keeps creeping back into my mind that he didn't time travel again because he couldn't resist it, but chose to time travel again because he could no longer live in his current time. Not a choice, but his only option. ( )
  KurtWombat | Feb 3, 2024 |
This was a 2023 Santathing Book, and it was the perfect size and topic for an easy read for after Christmas. I wasn't expecting much, I've seen one or two movies based on this book, and wasn't interested in a basic adventure story. However, I was very wrong about this book. It is most definitely a product of its time, with Industrial Revolution being taken to non-nonsensical ends, but I was surprised with the humanity found in this. The narrator is definitely a product of his time, but he fought it, basically trying to understand the Morlocks, getting past his revulsion for them. ( )
  TheDivineOomba | Jan 21, 2024 |
Thoroughly enjoyed the book. However, would not recommend for people who do not like Philosophy. The main character presents his experience very conceptually, making hypotheses to explain his surroundings. Though this may not appeal to many people, I found this approach clever, scientific, and humble.
A quick read. ( )
  MXMLLN | Jan 12, 2024 |
An entertaining proto-sci-fi story from the Victorian era. Steampunk when there was no other sort of future. The story itself is a bit weak. It's pretty short, though, so it's worth reading. ( )
  cmayes | Dec 21, 2023 |
Meh. I don't really have much to say on this as I'm pretty disappointed. Like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, it's one of those brilliant ideas for a novel that ended up very poorly written. I read that Wells rushed this one because he needed the money. I think it's the TIME in which he wrote it that made it so marvelous---because, nowadays, I can't see this even getting published without some major filling in of the story. ( )
  classyhomemaker | Dec 11, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 321 (next | show all)
Without question The Time Machine... will take its place among the great stories of our language. Like all excellent works it has meanings within its meaning and no one who has read the story will forget the dramatic effect of the change of scene in the middle of the book, when the story alters its key, and the Time Traveller reveals the foundation of slime and horror on which the pretty life of his Arcadians is precariously and fearfully resting...

The Arcadians had become as pretty as flowers in their pursuit of personal happiness. They had dwindled and would be devoured because of that. Their happiness itself was haunted. Here Wells’s images of horror are curious. The slimy, the viscous, the foetal reappear; one sees the sticky, shapeless messes of pond life, preposterous in instinct and frighteningly without mind. One would like to hear a psychologist on these shapes which recall certain surrealist paintings; but perhaps the biologist fishing among the algas, and not the unconscious, is responsible for them.
added by SnootyBaronet | editNew Statesman, V.S. Pritchett
 

» Add other authors (137 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Wells, H. G.primary authorall editionsconfirmed
Aldiss, Brian W.Afterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Arvan, JohnCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Auer, AlexandraTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Banks, JohnNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Bear Canyon CreativeCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Bear, GregIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Bonneville, HughNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Brick, ScottNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Brown, EricNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Cosham, RalphNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Cox, BrianNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Crofts, ThomasEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
De Michele, RossanaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Edwards, LesCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Grammer, KelseyNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hardy, RobertNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Jacobi, DerekReadersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Janusz K. PalczewskiForewordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Jones, GwynethIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Kennedy, Paul E.Cover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lee, AlanCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
May, RogerNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Mayes, BernardNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
McLean, StevenNotessecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Mugnaini, JosephIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Munro, AlanNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Naujack, PeterTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Nelson, MarkNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Oliva , RenatoContributorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Otto, GötzNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Page, MichaelNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Pagetti, CarloIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Parrinder, PatrickEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Prebble, SimonNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Priestley, J. B.Introductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Reney, AnnieTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Roberts, JimNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Teti, TomNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Vance, SimonNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Wagland, GregNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Warner, MarinaIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Wells, SimonIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Williams, PeterTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Wollheim, Donald A.Introductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Zebrowski, GeorgeForewordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Zimmerman, WalterNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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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.
Strength is the outcome of need; security sets a premium on feebleness.
Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no intelligence where there is no change and no need of change. Only those animals partake of intelligence that have to meet a huge variety of needs and dangers.
I grieved to think how brief the dream of the human intellect had been. It had committed suicide. It had set itself steadfastly towards comfort and ease, a balanced society with security and permanency as its watchword, it had attained its hopes—to come to this at last. Once, life and property must have reached almost absolute safety. The rich had been assured of his wealth and comfort, the toiler assured of his life and work. No doubt in that perfect world there had been no unemployed problem, no social question left unsolved. And a great quiet had followed.
He, I know—for the question had been discussed among us long before the Time Machine was made—thought but cheerlessly of the Advancement of Mankind, and saw in the growing pile of civilisation only a foolish heaping that must inevitably fall back upon and destroy its makers in the end. If that is so, it remains for us to live as though it were not so.
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Wikipedia in English (2)

H. G. Wells' The Time Machine, from 1895, popularized the idea of a vehicle that allows its user to travel intentionally and selectively across time, and indeed Wells is credited with coining the very term "time machine." The Time Traveler of this novella tests his time machine with a leap forward to the year 802,701 A.D., to find that evolution has produced two very different post-human races - the peaceful and childlike fruit-eating Eloi and the Morlocks - pale, darkness-dwelling troglodites who operate the underground machinery that makes this seeming paradise possible.

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Penguin Australia

4 editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.

Editions: 0141439971, 0141028955, 0143566431, 0141199342

Coffeetown Press

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Tantor Media

2 editions of this book were published by Tantor Media.

Editions: 1400100771, 1400109094

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Urban Romantics

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