The Time Machine
by H.G. Wells
First published 1895 · English · 124 pages
- Novels
- Science fiction
- Dystopia
- Travel
A novella in which a Victorian inventor, known only as the Time Traveller, builds a machine that carries him through time. He tells a group of dinner guests of his journey to the distant future, where he finds humanity changed into strange and unfamiliar forms. As he tries to understand this world and recover his machine, he reflects on class, progress and the fate of civilisation. Short, vivid and thoughtful, it helped establish time travel as a central idea in science fiction.
Quotes
The Time Traveller (for so it will be convenient to speak of him) was expounding a recondite matter to us.
There is no difference between Time and any of the three dimensions of Space except that our consciousness moves along it.
Are you so sure we can move freely in Space? Right and left we can go, backward and forward freely enough, and men always have done so. I admit we move freely in two dimensions. But how about up and down? Gravitation limits us there.”
Strength is the outcome of need; security sets a premium on feebleness.