The Time Machine

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For the 1960 movie adaptation, see Time Machine (1960 film). For the 2002 movie adaptation, see Time Machine (2002 film).

The Time Machine is a novel by H. G. Wells, first published in 1895, later made into two films of the same title. This novel is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposefully and selectively.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

1 The novel
2 Film versions
3 Sequels by other authors
4 External links

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The novel

Wells had considered the notion of time travel before, in an earlier (but less well-known) story titled The Chronic Argonauts. 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 pounds on its publication by Heinemann in 1895. The story was first published in serial form in the New Review through 1894 and 1895.

The novel's protagonist is an amateur inventor or scientist identified simply as The Time Traveller. Having demonstrated to friends using a miniature model that time is a fourth dimension, and that suitable apparatus can move back and forth in this fourth dimension, he completes the building of a larger machine capable of carrying himself. He then immediately sets off on a journey into the future.

The Time Traveller details the experience of time travel and the evolution of his surroundings as he moves through time. While travelling through time, his machine allows him to observe the changes of the outside world in fast motion. He observes the sun and moon traversing the sky and the changes to the buildings and landscape around him as he travels through time. His machine produces a sense of disorientation to its occupant, and a blurring or faintness of the surroundings outside the machine.

His journey takes him to the year A.D. 802,701 where he finds an apparently peaceful, pastoral, Daoist future, filled with happy, simple humans who call themselves the Eloi. The Eloi are about four feet tall, pink-skinned and frail-looking, with curly hair, small ears and mouths and large eyes. Males and females seem to be quite similar in build and appearance. They have high-pitched, soft voices and speak an unknown language. They appear to be quite unintelligent and child-like and live without quarrels or conflict.

Soon after his arrival he rescues Weena, a female Eloi he finds drowning in a river. Much to his surprise she is grateful to him and insists on following him.

The Eloi live in a small community within a large and futuristic yet dilapidated building, doing no work and eating a fructarian (or as Wells put it, "frugivorous") diet. The land around London has become a sort of untended garden filled with unusual fruiting and flowering plants, with futuristic, yet dilapidated buildings and other structures dotted around, seemingly of no purpose and disused. There is no evidence of the implementation of agriculture or technology, both of which the Eloi seem incapable of.

The Time Traveller is greeted with curiosity and without fear by the Eloi, who seem only vaguely surprised and curious by his appearance and lose interest rapidly. He disables the time machine and follows them to their commune and consumes a meal of fruit while trying to communicate with them. This proves somewhat ineffectual, as their unknown language and low intelligence hinders the Time Traveller from gaining any useful information. With a slight sense of disdain for his hosts' lack of curiosity and attention to him, the Time Traveller decides to explore the local area.

As he explores this landscape, the Time Traveller comments on the factors that have resulted in the Eloi's physical condition and society. He supposes that the lack of intelligence and vitality of the Eloi are the logical result of humankind's past struggle to transform and subjugate nature through technology, politics, art and creativity. With the realisation of this goal, the Eloi had devolved.

With no further need for technology and agriculture and innovations to improve life, they became unimaginative and incurious about the world. With no work to do, they became physically weak and small in stature. Males, generally being breadwinners and workers in former times, have particularly degenerated in physique, explaining the lack of dimorphism between the sexes. The Time Traveller supposes that preventive medicine has been achieved, as he saw no sign of disease amongst his hosts. With no work to do and no hardships to overcome, society became non-hierarchical and non-cooperative, with no defined leaders or social classes.

The fact that there was no hardship or inequalities in societies meant there was no war and crime. Art and sophisticated culture, often driven by problems and aspirations or a catalyst for solutions and new developments, had waned, as no problems existed and there were no conceivable improvements for humanity. He accounted for their relatively small numbers as being due to the implementation of some form of birth control to eliminate the problems of overpopulation. The abandoned structures around him would suggest that prior to these achievements, the population had been larger and more productive, toiling to find the solution that would make the new utopia a reality.

As the sun sets, the Time Traveller muses on where he will sleep. Retracing his steps back to the building where he had eaten with the Eloi, he suddenly realises that the time machine is missing. He panics and desperately searches for the vehicle. At first, he suspects that the Eloi have moved it to their shelter. He doubts the Eloi would be capable or inclined to do this, but nonetheless rushes back to the shelter and demands to know where his machine is. The Eloi are confused and a little frightened by this. Realising the Eloi don't understand him and he is damaging his position with them, he continues his search in desperation during the night before relenting and falling into an uneasy sleep.

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The Utopian existence of the Eloi turns out to be deceptive. The Traveller soon discovers that the class structure of his own time has in fact persisted, and the human race has diverged into two branches. The wealthy, leisure classes appear to have evolved into the ineffectual, not very bright Eloi he has already seen; but the downtrodden working classes have evolved into the bestial Morlocks, cannibal hominids resembling albino apes, who toil underground maintaining the machinery that keep the Eloi – their flocks – docile and plentiful. Both species, having adapted to their routines, are of distinctly sub-human intelligence.

After some adventures and the eventual death of Weena at the hands of the Morlocks, the narrator manages to get to his machine, reactivate it as the Morlocks battle him for it, and escape them. He then travels into the far future, 35 million years from his own time.

There he sees the last few living things on a dying Earth, the rotation of which has ceased with the site of London viewing a baleful, red sun stuck at the setting position. In his trip forward, he had seen the red sun flare up brightly twice, as if Mercury and then Venus had fallen into it.

Feeling giddy and nauseous about the return journey before him, he nevertheless boards his machine and puts it into reverse, slumping in his seat for some time while returning to his time to tell his story to his friends, who are disbelieving, except for Filby. Then, taking a small knapsack and a camera, he attempts to time travel again and never chooses, or is able, to return.

The story reflects Wells' political views; he was a committed socialist, and the narrator reasons that the state he sees is the outcome of capitalist class structures. The novel may also have influenced the Thea von Harbou novel and subsequent movie Metropolis. He probably did not see it as an accurate portrayal of the future.

The Time Machine is in the public domain in the United States, Canada, and Australia, but does not enter the public domain in the European Union until January 1, 2017 (1946 death of author + 70 years + end of calendar year).

The text of the novel is available here.

An extract from the 11th chapter of the serial published in The New Review (May, 1895) was not included in the book version, as it was thought too violent. This portion of the story was published elsewhere as The Grey Man.

The Grey Man begins with the Traveller waking up in his Time Machine after escaping the Morlocks. He finds himself in the distant future of an Earth that is unrecognizable, seeing kangaroo-like hopping creatures (with some vaguely humanoid features) being attacked and eaten by a giant centipede that comes out of the ground.

The Great Illustrated Classics version of The Time Machine includes a whole chapter not found in the original novel, in which the Time Traveller blunders into a highly-advanced future society where time travel is illegal. The time machine is confiscated and the Traveller is arrested, but he eventually escapes after one of the future men attempts to steal the time machine.

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Film versions

George Pál (who also made a famous 1953 "modernized" version of Wells' The War of the Worlds) filmed The Time Machine in 1960. This is more of an adventure tale than the book was; The Time Traveller witnesses war's horrors first-hand in 1940 & 1966; also the division of mankind results from mutations induced by nuclear war during the twentieth century. In 802, 701 AD, the Eloi learn & speak broken English. Rod Taylor (The Birds) starred, along with Yvette Mimieux as Weena, Alan Young as his closest friend David Filby (and, in 1917 & 1966, his son James Filby), Sebastian Cabot as Dr Hillyer, Whit Bissell as Walter Kemp and Doris Lloyd as his housekeeper Mrs Watchett. The Time Traveller had the first name of George. Interestingly, the plate on the Time Machine is inscribed ' Manufactured by H. George Wells '. In the end, the Time Traveller leaves for a second journey, but Filby & Mrs Watchett note that he had taken three books. ' Which three books would you have taken ? ' Filby inquires to Mrs Watchett, adding ' . . he has all the time in the world '.

Thirty-three years later, a combination sequel/documentary short, Time Machine: The Journey Back (1993 film), directed by Clyde Lucas, was produced. In the first part, Michael J. Fox went behind the scenes of the movie & time travelling in general. In the second half, written by original screenwriter David Duncan, the movie's original actors Rod Taylor, Alan Young & Whit Bissell reprised their roles. The Time Traveller returns to his laboratory in 1916, finding Filby there, and encourages his friend to join him in the far future (It is featured on the DVD of the 1960 film).

A low-quality TV version was made in 1978, with very unconvincing time-lapse images of building walls being de-constructed, and inexplicable geographic shifting from Los Angeles to Plymouth, Mass., and inland California. John Beck starred as Neil Perry, with Whit Bissell (from the original 1960 movie and also from the 1966 television series "The Time Tunnel") appearing as one of Perry's superiors. However, the race names Eloi and Morlocks, and the character Weena, were reused, though set only a few thousand years in the future.

The film was remade in 2002, starring Guy Pearce as the Time Traveller, named Alexander Hartdegen, Mark Addy as his friend David Filby, Sienna Guillory as Alex' ill-fated fiance Emma, Phyllida Law as Mrs Watchett and Jeremy Irons as the uber-Morlock. Playing a quick cameo from the ' 60 film was Alan Young as a shopkeeper (Nice touch: a photo of the young adult Wells is on the wall of Alex' home, near the front door). The Time Machine itself, used the very basic layout as in the Pal movie, but was more massive & displayed brass construction, along with quartz/glass (In Wells' original novel, the Time Traveller mentioned his ' scientific papers on optics '). It was directed by Wells' great-grandson Simon Wells, with an even more revised plot that incorporated the ideas of paradoxes and changing the past, before the Time Traveller moves on to 2030, 2037, to 802,701 for the main plot, & briefly to 635 million AD. It garnered mixed reviews & earned $56M before VHS/DVD sales. In both movies the Eloi were given language abilities and a love affair between a female Eloi, now named Mara, played by Samantha Mumba. The Morlocks are much more fierce and agile, and the Time Traveller is part of the plot.

The earlier film is noted for its then-novel use of time lapse photographic effects to show the world around the Time Traveller changing at breakneck speed as he travels through time.

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Sequels by other authors

Wells' novel has become one of the cornerstones of science-fiction literature. As a result, it has spawned many offspring. Books expanding on Wells' story include:

The Return of the Time Machine by Egon Friedell, printed in 1972, from the 1946 German version. Not a sequel, it is a separate story, where the author relates himself as a character in search of the Time Traveller, in different eras.
The Hertford Manuscript by Richard Cowper, first published in 1976. It features a "manuscript" which reports the Time Traveller's activities after the end of the original novel. According to his "manuscript" the Time Traveller disappeared because his Time Machine had been damaged by the Morlocks without him knowing it. He only found out when it stopped operating during his next attempted time travel. He found himself on August 27, 1665, in London during the outbreak of the Great Plague of London. The rest of the novel is devoted to his efforts to repair the Time Machine and leave this time period before getting infected with the disease. He also has an encounter with Robert Hooke. He eventually dies of the disease on September 20, 1665. The story gives a list of subsequent owners of the manuscript till 1976. It also gives the name of the Time Traveller as Robert James Pensley, born to James and Martha Pensley in 1850 and disappearing without trace on June 18, 1894.
Morlock Night by K.W. Jeter, first published in 1979. It is an odd steampunk novel in which the Morlocks, having studied the Traveller's machine, duplicate it and invade Victorian London.
The Space Machine by Christopher Priest, first published in 1976. Because of the movement of planets, stars and galaxies, for a time machine to stay in one spot on Earth as it travels through time, it must also follow the Earth's trajectory through space. In Priest's book, the hero damages the Time Machine, and arrives on Mars, just before the start of the invasion described in The War of the Worlds. H.G. Wells himself appears as a minor character.
The Time Ships, by Stephen Baxter, first published in 1995. This sequel was officially authorised by the Wells estate to mark the centenary of the original's publication. In its wide-ranging narrative, the Traveller's desire to return and rescue Weena is thwarted by the fact that he has changed history (by telling his tale to his friends, one of whom published the account). With a Morlock (in the new history, the Morlocks are intelligent and cultured) he travels through the multiverse as increasingly complicated timelines unravel around him, eventually meeting mankind's far future descendants, whose ambition is to travel into the multiverse of multiverses. Like much of Baxter's work, this is definitely hard science fiction; it also includes many nods to the prehistory of Wells's story in the names of characters and chapters.
The Man Who Loved Morlocks and The Trouble With Weena are two different sequels, the former a novel and the latter a short story, by David J. Lake. Each of them concerns the Time Traveller's return to the future. In the former, he discovers that he cannot enter any period in time he has already visited, forcing him to travel in to the further future, where he finds love with a woman whose race evolved from Morlock stock. In the latter, he is accompanied by Wells, and succeeds in rescuing Weena and bringing her back to the 1890s, where her political ideas cause a peaceful revolution.
In Michael Moorcock's 'Dancers at the End of Time' series, the Time Traveller is a major character, although his role mainly consists of being shocked by the decadence of the inhabitants of the End of Time.
The Time Traveller makes a brief appearance in Allan and the Sundered Veil, a back-up story appearing in the first volume of Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, where he saves Allan Quatermain, John Carter and Randolph Carter from a horde of Morlocks.
The superhero known as 'The Rook' (who appeared in various comics from Warren Publishing) is the grandson of the original Time Traveller.
Philip José Farmer speculated that The Time Traveller was a member of the Wold Newton family. He is said to have been the great-uncle of Doc Savage.
In the movie Gremlins, the Time Traveller's machine (the one from the 1960 movie) is briefly glimpsed at an inventor's convention.
Burt Libe wrote two sequels: Beyond the Time Machine and Tangles in Time, telling of the Time Traveller finally settling down with Weena in the 33rd century. They have a few children, the youngest of whom is the main character in the second book.

Just to entangle reality and fiction further, H. G. Wells also appears as a character, aboard his own time machine in the 1979 film Time After Time and the 1990s television series Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. He also briefly travels in time with the Doctor in the Doctor Who serial Timelash, the events of which are said to inspire him to write The Time Machine. In Ronald Wright's novel A Scientific Romance, a lonely museum curator on the eve of the millennium discovers a letter written by Wells shortly before his death, foretelling the imminent return of the Time Machine. The curator finds the machine, then uses it to travel into a post-apocalyptic future.