The Time Machine: The First Travel Through Time

We all know what time travel is, and I’m sure most of us have at least seen Back To The Future, Terminator, or Doctor Who, but even fewer of us know the founding father of time travel. 

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, published in 1895, was the first book on time travel. It’s roughly 100 pages and takes around two hours to read. The Time Machine is a classic Science Fiction novel that is a must read for anyone who loves the Sci-fi genre. 

But is it worthy of that status? Let’s jump into our time machine, travel back to 1895 and find out.

Fast Forward Into The Unknown

The Time Machine follows a scientist—known as The Time Traveller throughout the story—who creates a machine that allows him to travel through time. He uses this machine to go thousands of years into the future where he discovers a new civilization that has replaced his modern world. 

The new human species that he discovers in this civilization are unrecognizable to the kinds of humans from The Time Traveller’s time. These creatures speak in a language that isn't from The Time Traveller’s time frame. 

The civilization of new human species is separated into two groups. There are the tiny and gentle ones called Eloi that live above ground. Then, there are the cavemen-like Morlocks that live underground. The Morlocks hunt and eat the Eloi, which shows The Time Traveller how much humankind has changed. 

During his time there, The Time Traveller gets to know the new civilization and the Eloi, but he also gets to know the Morlocks and encounters them on multiple horrifying occasions. 

The Time Machine explores class hierarchy and is an account from The Time Traveller after all the events in the story have already happened. The Time Machine is a short read, but a very interesting one and is a great early example of time travel in fiction. 

Who Needs The DeLorean?

My favorite part of The Time Machine is how the story unfolds. It starts in a university where The Time Traveller is discussing his new machine amongst a whole bunch of other people in the science world. In this discussion, a lot of people don't believe that he has created something that works and so they dismiss him. The Time Traveler goes on his adventure that night and he returns to tell the tale to the others the next morning. 

I found this style of telling the story very effective in what H.G. Wells was trying to accomplish. It kept me interested throughout the book, and engaged in a genre that I typically don't read or find interesting. 

I also love the depth and details about the civilization that The Time Traveller encounters. The architecture and the characters themselves are well constructed and detailed well enough that the reader is able to create their own image in their mind. It's also interesting that thousands of years into the future there are still remnants from the time frame that The Time Traveller’s from, and he gets to explore some of those places. 

As a horror fan, the way the Morlocks are introduced is one of my favorite parts of the whole novel. The Time Traveler’s very first interaction with the more violent creatures is incredibly creepy and has you unsettled to your core. As you're reading it's kind of like this twinge of horror you don't expect from a science fiction classic novel from 1895. 

Are We There Yet?

The pacing of the novel is definitely engaging and keeps you interested the whole time. The length helps with that as well because I feel if it was any longer, I would have grown bored at some point. However, even with how short it is, the book  even finds time to slow down—sometimes a little bit too much—but it's really only like five pages of slowness until it starts picking up again and you find yourself just as engaged as you were about ten pages ago. 

I wish the main character got to do more. He really only gets to explore and have a few weird interactions with this new civilization before suddenly, he's back in his own time and retelling his story. I found myself longing that he had explored more and interacted more with the two civilizations.

As a character, there's not a whole lot to The Time Traveller, besides the unknown reason that he wants to alter the timeline to make sure humanity survives, which could be as simple as a motivation that he's just one of the morons that live on Earth. So I wish he was explored and given a little more depth as a character. 

Time’s Up

Overall The Time Machine is a solid, short novel that is very clearly outdated and a little slow in some parts, but it is a classic and paved the way for other time travel pieces. I opened this glimpse into the past for two main reasons; I’m a writing major and I think reading classics is something we should all do, and I had a friend quite literally beg me to. Personally, I’m not a Science Fiction person but this book may have just changed my mind just a little bit.

I would recommend settling down for an evening and traveling a thousand years into the future for a few hours to experience the first ever time travel. 

My Rating