Title: The Time Machine
Author: HG Wells
Pub:
ISBN:

Review:
In keeping with the recent interest in Doctor Who and his remarkable Time Travelling T.A.R.D.I.S.: I figured I might look back on a classic of English literature. In HG Wells, The Time Machine. We find a range of thoughts and reflections on both the life and times the Wells lived in. But also the held vision of what the future might hold for all humanity.

Woven in to the story is the condition of society as broken into two classes. Those that worked and lived in sheltered basements and lower levels of building. As well as those who lived and relied on them on the surface. The two take on a completely sinister aspect in the far future as those who rely on services become weak. While those below become stronger yet more volatile and aggressive. Thus we have the effeminate ??? and the aggressive Morlocks.

Unlike the polished and whimsical story as portrayed by Hollywood. The original story does not tell of a happy ending. Nor does it give a glimmer of hope for humanity and the future. We discover a somewhat selfish side to the Traveller's character as he treats the surface dwellers with a level of contempt. Even at the cost of the life of ??? who he had saved in his early encounter with these people.

Then the tragical lines at the end of the book tells us that everything that had taken place would be forever entrenched. Without the chance of redemption. As the Traveller himself becomes a victim of his own arrogance and fatalism. We find this in the lines...

The prelude:
" stared for a minute at the Time Machine and put out my hand and touched the lever. At that the squat substantial-looking mass swayed like a bough shaken by the wind. Its instability startled me extremely,"

Which makes sense of:
"As I took hold of the handle of the door I heard an exclamation, oddly truncated at the end, and a click and a thud. A gust of air whirled round me as I opened the door, and from within came the sound of broken glass falling on the floor."

Forget the movies and the Post Modern Hype. Read the original and see what the real story is. Then make your own decision as to the merits of the book.

M J Flack