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The Time Machine

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The Time Traveller (for so it will be convenient to speak of him) was expounding a recondite matter to us. His grey eyes shone and twinkled, and his usually pale face was flushed and animated. The fire burned brightly, and the soft radiance of the incandescent lights in the lilies of silver caught the bubbles that flashed and passed in our glasses.

48 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2009

3 people are currently reading
40 people want to read

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Lorenz B. Graham

21 books2 followers

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5 stars
29 (34%)
4 stars
25 (29%)
3 stars
22 (25%)
2 stars
7 (8%)
1 star
2 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
Profile Image for Kaitlyn.
348 reviews16 followers
May 9, 2017
Read for a school assignment. Meh. I thought it would be more exciting.

Side note: I wish I could read classic stories and not have them ruined by male characters saying shit like, "I know you don't understand, you sweet, silly little girl." At one point he literally says, "I am man," as if that were sufficient to explain his inevitable success. Barf.
Profile Image for linzi.
53 reviews
August 24, 2019
Cute, cool simple illustrations that are very reminiscent of early comic books, I guess to further the “classic” feel of the book.

Took me fully like five minutes to read the whole thing. Also, at the end there’s a list of all the books HG Wells wrote which. Wow. Many many books.
I’ve read none of them, and I would like the amend that sometime soon lol.

Might start with the actual book of The Time Machine as although this wee thing was fun I have a strange feeling- hmmm I wonder why- that maybe, just maybe, a lot of stuff was chopped out to make it more concise. Just- just possibly.

Anyway, yea, dope. As well as wanting to read the full book I’d also love to read more of these Illustrated Classics.

Downside was that it was a lil sexist. Some lines were so goddamn cringy and made me wanna barf at this guys feeling of superiority.
Profile Image for Darcy Roar.
1,359 reviews27 followers
July 12, 2017
Meh. I've not yet read the original, but if this is any guide I think I might skip the novel all together. I feel like I've seen a much better futurama episode of this & that might be unfair as this work did(& still does) have a big impact of pop culture, but the work is just past it's prime. In the art direction this work falls squarely into the classic comic style which just feels innately icky to me. Blergh, not worth it.
6,248 reviews40 followers
August 17, 2021
It's said that the time machine can go backwards and forwards in time. One thing not brought up is that if it goes backwards in time then the scientist can possibly mess up and change the entire timeline, something usually brought up in science fiction stories.

This one goes forward and when he first stops it his house is in the middle of a destroyed city so there had been at least one major war. The second time he stops he finds out that there's another war going on. He thinks science has made wonderful advances in the future but it seems they have all gone to the furtherment of war.

He ends up 800,000 years in the future and humans have evolved and devolved, both. Those who live on the surface are child-like in how they act and they eat only fruits, no meat and no vegetables.

The ones underground are the Morlocks and they eat the Eloi, the ones on the surface, which causes me to wonder why the Eloi never bothered to try and destroy the entrances to the underground to stop the Morlocks from reaching the surface.

The scientist falls in love with a woman from the future but he chooses to return to our time. Why not stay there and try to help them stop the Morlocks and find some other food sources?

After the story there's a short section on Queen Elizabeth I and the Spanish armada. There's also a page of text on Charles Darwin.

Even though the story is a classic I do think at times it was sort of illogical.
Profile Image for Rob Chappell.
163 reviews4 followers
July 19, 2017
This was the first science fiction novel that I can recall reading, when I was in the 6th or 7th grade. Truly a masterpiece of the genre, and a seminal work that has inspired several generations of sci-fi writers to create their own time travel stories. The book captivated me right from the start, with a plausible explanation of how Time (as the 4th dimension) is bound up with the other 3 dimension of everyday experience. No explanation is offered for exactly how the time machine was able to traverse the chronological continuum -- but none is really needed.

The story combines adventure, romance, philosophy, and sociology into a seamless whole, encouraging readers to think not only about temporal physics but also about sociology, politics, and the future of the human race. Incorporating some of the latest scientific theories (from the 1890s, when the book was written), Wells takes the reader on an unforgettable journey from Victorian London to the last days of life on Earth -- and back again, to a mysterious ending!

Highly recommended for all lovers of sci-fi from middle school on upward.
Profile Image for Caroline.
175 reviews
February 10, 2020
Not sure why I hadn't read this years ago - it's reportedly a timeless (no pun intended) classic and from my favourite era of literature. The truth is that I found this a very one-dimensional read. Time traveller X, who we know nothing about, invites some peers to dinner and tells them an unlikely tale of time travel we are to understand is the truth. The dystopian far-future he experiences does show some well thought out insight and possibly is a didactic fable on the potentially negative direction of the human race at a time when Victorian Britons they thought they knew everything. Glad I've read it, but not to be repeated.
Profile Image for Nathan.
445 reviews4 followers
November 17, 2018
Interesting and fun, but not particularly poignant when it comes to pointing to the future in my opinion.
47 reviews2 followers
December 30, 2019
This painted a different picture than what was in my head after reading the novel, but it was still a decent interpretation. Enjoyed the old-timey illustrative style of it.
Profile Image for Terrangirl.
24 reviews1 follower
November 21, 2010
When I first read this book I was 4. Well technically I didn't read it, but my parents and aunts/uncles read it to me. I was just looking at the pictures, since it was a classic illustrated edition. I loved it so much that I was asking for the specific story again and again. It is officially the first book I remember. Later in my life I read it countless times (by my self :p) in a regular edition.*
I loved it then and still love it! I would recommend it to any one with a soft spot to science fiction

Profile Image for Dale Muckerman.
253 reviews2 followers
December 13, 2017
I read this right after reading the book. The Classics Illustrated version is lots of fun and is closer to the original than many of the film versions, even though the cosmic end parts of the novel are not included.
Profile Image for Virginia.
248 reviews7 followers
Read
July 6, 2017
I get that it's because of the source material/time period but uhhhh, this book has some QUESTIONABLE themes
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews

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