H. G. WellsThe Time Machine

Daniel Mundis - Book Project # 2The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells, is a thrilling science fiction novel revolving around the story of a man only known as the "Time Traveler.” Throughout the story the narrator does not reveal his name, nor do any of the other characters in the book. Neither does he reveal the name of the time traveler and many other guests that appear in the background. Everyone has a certain title for which they are known for. The story starts off with the “Time Traveler” inviting a couple intelligent people to a small gathering or party. He shows them a mock of what he believes to be a time machine. No larger than a cubic foot it was described as. He explained how everything was to work. How the universe was is a four dimensional realm with time being the fourth dimension and a plane that could be traveled across. After a short demonstration of how the miniature model worked, he stunned the audience leaving them with nothing but questions. After a short dinner and questions asked by the group, he invited them all back in a couple of weeks to another dinner. Most of the previous group returned along with a few new people. The dinner started without the time traveler present. He was nowhere to be found at the moment. All of a sudden the door is slammed open with the time traveler walking through the door appearing to be extremely tired and somewhat injured. He says very little walks upstairs saying that he will redress and invites everyone down to the smoke room. After seating everyone and silencing any questions, he says that he has a story to tell. If anyone shall interrupt his story with a question, they should leave now for he will not tell it. Everyone is quiet and settled so he begins. He starts off by saying how he finished his machine and how proud he was. He boards his machine to test it and experience what the future holds. He flips his switches and everything turns into a mist or dust. His chest was under immense pressure as he saw everything speed across his vision. Faster and faster things went and moved. Soon day and night went by so fast that it looked like a still picture. His dials for hundreds and thousands of years were moving quite quickly until eventually he felt that he could endure no more and turned it off. He stopped on the near end of the year 800,000. He walked out of a couple shrubs to be greeted by what looked like a large marble statue of a phoenix. He was rather amazed that there were no tall and momentous skyscrapers to be anywhere in site. He was dumbfounded at the small and decorative buildings that scattered across the hillside thought to be made by humans. He encounters a small and soft race of creatures that he believes to be an evolved human race. The gentle race greets him and shows him their common area and food source. As night approaches he decides to sleep in the new world. He sleeps outside away from the gentle creatures and wakes to his time machine having disappeared. He sees the drag marks on the ground from the large thing and deducts that it was dragged into the bronze plates on the base of the phoenix. Frustrated he finds things to busy himself with. Days pass and he even saves a little creature from the current of the river. He thinks her name is weena and explores the landscape with her. They find wells dotting the landscape with air rushing in or out of them. He finds small plate like handles going down them and decides to leave weena for a moment and explore further. In the well it is pitch black with virtually no light to be seen. He lights a match to find these hideous pale white and fuzzy creatures. They have large eyes and scatter from the light leading the time traveler believe that they are nocturnal. When the light goes out the touch him and try to grab him, but the time traveler was faster and stronger. Able to fend off the creatures he hurriedly makes his way back up the well. He finds that the little creatures are also afraid of the darkness and the wells.He makes his way with Weena to what looks like a green porcelain palace. Through further investigation he finds out that it is an ancient museum with many relics in airtight containers. He salvages what he could including more matches for he had used all of his. He finds a club like bar for a weapon and a tool to open the phoenix. As he makes his way out night falls upon them and tries to make his way to what he thinks might be safe area. The Creatures of the night befall upon them and it is a fight for him. Throwing explosive material and setting fires, he runs with weena.Through the confusion he loses her but makes his way to the bronze phoenix with its doors open. As he suspected just after walking in, the doors close leaving him trapped. Fighting the creatures back he makes his way into the time machine’s harness and sets sail forward in time once again. Now the sun doesn't move and a moon is not in sight. Large cretaceous creatures are everywhere and try to kill the traveler. Forward in time more and more little changes until on his last trip forward the air is toxic making it very difficult for him to move. The only thing left in sight was the grass, the ocean, and the sun. He hurriedly makes his return lever activate and zooms back in time.This is the end of the Time traveler's story and so he bids his guests goodnight. The narrator is left intrigued and asks a question or two after everyone leaves about how it was, and the response was a smile. The narrator goes to visit the traveler once more but he gone. Puzzled and wondering when, if ever he will return. The narrator then mentions that as he tells us this story it has been a couple years since the travelers disappearance.I personally loved this book and implore anyone and everyone to read it. It was suspenseful and exciting. An extremely complex vocabulary with a couple great quotes to be mentioned, this short read was one of my favorites. I quite enjoyed how the author told this story from a unique point of view and left me wondering. This was a short story but as I have tried, it cannot be summarized into something small. This book captured my mind and made me excited about what cheery thing was going to happen next or what travesty was to befall upon weena and the traveler. I give this book and easy 4-5 star rating.

Oh how I've missed reading the classics. I love them dearly, but I never seem to get around to reading them. They are truly wonderful and rarely do they ever disappoint, and this one certainly did not. I've been meaning to get around to reading something from HG Wells, so I decided upon the shortest one which also happened to be the one I've seen in movie form. I think this has definitely made my appetite for his writing grow so hopefully in the future I'll be reading War of the Worlds.The Time Machine is one of those books that actually can transcend the time in which it was written. The time traveling plot actually makes the dated writing style fit perfectly, and actually made my reading experience better. It's also a relatively short and quick read, but given that the actual time frame in which this happened is also short it doesn't really detract from the story at all. The one thing that really took me a moment to get use to is the lack of actual names, our main character is The Time Traveler and other characters in his present day are known by similar titles. It doesn't really matter, as the real story has no call for his name and with the ending Wells gives you it really enriches the story. Who ever thought that not knowing the character's name would be a good thing? There is also a tremendous amount of scientific and philosophical thought that goes into this, and it really got me thinking about what will come after us and why.The main story of time travel in this one is one that most are familiar with through at least some pop culture reference. Like Sheldon from Big Bang Theory, which probably my favorite spoof.The story in itself is kind of a chilling realization. You have the kind, dainty and beautiful Eloi who live on the surface of the future Earth. They seem to live the perfect existence. Then you have the lurking, furry, and terrifying Morlocks who live beneath the surface with their machinery. The two races play pivotal role in each others lives and more importantly they play an even bigger role in showing an over the top example of what occurs when one section of human lifestyle distance themselves from another. In this case the seemingly wealthy and lap of luxury against the workers who are relayed upon and yet shunned. But if that's too much thinking for you, you have no need to fear the story is wonderful without all the insight, especially if you've seen the movie.I would certainly recommend this to anyone with an interest science fiction and time travel. It's pretty short and only took me about a day to read so it's certainly not to much of a time consumer. Also if you haven't seen the original movie from 1960 go watch it, I haven't seen the newer one so I'm not sure about it.

Thank you Mr Wells for this great book.

A talented writer, a social critique disguised as an ingenious science fiction tale, an easy-to-read narrative for English language learners. In this short story published in 1895, H G Wells exposes his literary genius in building a plot that involves two main characters: a Machine that defies the fourth dimension and its creator, the Time Traveler. The author imagines a futuristic text with profound social content, giving it an original touch that is different from most science fiction stories I have read. With minimal technology or without aerospace bases, the protagonist travels through Time in his contraption to the first future stop, the distant year 802,701 aD. At this time, the descendants of Homo Sapiens share two distinct classes: the Eloi and the Morlocks. The Eloi are childlike creatures, vegetarians, who live for love and fun. They evolved from those who got used to comfort and well-being. But not everything is perfect. Originating from the working class, the Molocks live deep beneath the earth. They hunt, care for, and feed on the Eloi. Darwin’s theory about the fittest survival didn’t mean the development of an intellectual civilization. In a further future, humanity returns to the invertebrate stage. Beyond, the sun dies and planet Earth ends. Rich in details, Wells directs the reader's mind towards a gloomy tomorrow.

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Um clássico da literatura da fantasia e ficção cientifica mundial! Bem conhecido das pessoas pois há várias versões em filme deste livro. Crítica à sociedade e para onde se dirige (guerras e apocalipse nuclear, fome, etc.). Sempre atual.

Good book to read and then hand it over to a next reader. Not a collectors item. Still good quality.