The Time Machine with "The Star"

By H.G. Wells

Includes The New York Times article on the obituary Wells wrote for himself in 1936, ten years before his death, and a detailed biographical timeline.

In Victorian England a gentleman inventor identified simply as the Time Traveller tells a dinner tale of his journey to 802,701 A.D. where the world is populated by the peaceful if apathetic Eloi, a society of childlike adults, and the brutal tunnel-dwelling Morlocks. After a harrowing escape and witnessing horrific futuristic landscapes he returns to the present day where he has been away for only three hours. His incredulous listeners are speechless when the Time Traveller produces proof of his journey. With this slender yet fully realized work of imagination Wells created a colossal classic of enduring fascination.

The Warbler Classics edition pairs The Time Machine with Wells' short story "The Star." As a burning star hurdles through space on a collision course with Earth, the warnings of scientists fail to arouse public alarm--even while flooding, earthquakes, intense heat, and melting ice caps due to climate change cause massive havoc.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1734735309
• ISBN13: 9781734735307
• Release Date: March 2020
• Publisher: Warbler Classics
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 3.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

I saw the movie first. The difference from the book was a surprise.

An unnamed time traveler sees the future of man (802,701 A.D.) and then the inevitable future of the world. He tells his tale in detail. Some of the details are fascinating as the traveler comes to discover the secret of the results of social stratification over centuries, which eventually creates two separate species of humans. Which species is more human? Can anything be done to prevent or correct this? I grew up on the Rod Taylor /George Pal movie. When I started the book, I expected it to be slightly different, with a tad more complexity than with most book/movie relationships. I was surprised to find the reason for the breakup of the species (Morlock and Eloi) was class Vs. atomic (in later movie versions it was political). I could live with that, but to find that some little pink thing replaced Yvette Mimieux was too much. After all the surprises, we can look at the story as unique in its time, first published in book form in 1895, yet the message is timeless. The writing and timing could not have been better. And the ending was certainly appropriate for the world that he describes. If the story were written today, the species division would be based on eugenics.