The Time Machine: A Science Fiction Novella

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CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, Oct 19, 2015 - Fiction - 60 pages

The Classic Science Fiction Novella

The Time Machine

By H. G. Wells

1898

Wells had considered the notion of time travel before, in a short story titled "The Chronic Argonauts" (1888). This work, published in his college newspaper, was the foundation for The Time Machine. Wells frequently stated that he had thought of using some of this material in a series of articles in the Pall Mall Gazette, until the publisher asked him if he could instead write a serial novel on the same theme. Wells readily agreed and was paid £100 (equal to about £10,000 today) on its publication by Heinemann in 1895, which first published the story in serial form in the January to May numbers of The New Review (newly under the nominal editorship of W. E. Henley). Henry Holt and Company published the first book edition (possibly prepared from a different manuscript) on 7 May 1895; Heinemann published an English edition on 29 May. These two editions are different textually and are commonly referred to as the "Holt text" and "Heinemann text", respectively. Nearly all modern reprints reproduce the Heinemann text.

The story reflects Wells's own socialist political views, his view on life and abundance, and the contemporary angst about industrial relations. It is also influenced by Ray Lankester's theories about social degeneration and shares many elements with Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel Vril, the Power of the Coming Race (1871). Other science fiction works of the period, including Edward Bellamy's novel Looking Backward: 2000-1887 (1888) and the later film Metropolis (1927), dealt with similar themes.

This work is an early example of the Dying Earth subgenre. The portion of the novella that sees the Time Traveller in a distant future where the sun is huge and red also places The Time Machine within the realm of Eschatology, i.e. the study of the end times, the end of the world, and the ultimate destiny of mankind.

About the author (2015)

H. G. Wells was born in Bromley, England on September 21, 1866. After a limited education, he was apprenticed to a draper, but soon found he wanted something more out of life. He read widely and got a position as a student assistant in a secondary school, eventually winning a scholarship to the Royal College of Science in South Kensington, where he studied biology. He graduated from London University in 1888 and became a science teacher. He also wrote for magazines. When his stories began to sell, he left teaching to write full time. He became an author best known for science fiction novels and comic novels. His science fiction novels include The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Wonderful Visit, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, The First Men in the Moon, and The Food of the Gods. His comic novels include Love and Mr. Lewisham, Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul, The History of Mr. Polly, and Tono-Bungay. He also wrote several short story collections including The Stolen Bacillus, The Plattner Story, and Tales of Space and Time. He died on August 13, 1946 at the age of 79.

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