The Time Machine by H.G. Wells is a science fiction novel published in 1895 that postulated the notion of a “time machine” that enables its operator to travel forward and backward in time at will.  The principle character is an English scientist and inventor known only as the Time Traveller, who begins by explaining to dinner guests that time is simply a fourth dimension and demonstrating a tabletop version of his machines that disappears into the future before their eyes.  A week later he returns to tell an extraordinary tale of a journey hundreds of thousands of years into the future, where he encounters a passive race of humans called the Eloi and a brutish parallel race of Morlocks, who live underground and feed on the Eloi. His machine is discovered and impounded by the Morlocks, and the story revolves on his efforts to get it back and escape. After recounting this tale he embarks on a second journey and disappears. Along the way we are treated to descriptions and speculations on how and why the race has degenerated and the earth is dying, views that reflect Wells’ views on life and social relations.

The idea had its origins in his 1888 story “The Chronic Argonauts” and was written as a serial novel that ran in The New Review from January to May of 1895. It has been adapted repeatedly for radio, film and television, most notably in the 1960 film, which won the Academy Award for its time-lapse photographic effects.

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