The Time Machine

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

My rating:


The Time Machine suffers from that particular problem of original and groundbreaking works: they later appear obvious and familiar. Still, with the exception of the middle parts of the novel, The Time Machine holds up. Wells uses time travel like a true science fiction writer: he posits a future which itself presupposes a theory of history (i.e. how does one arrive THERE). The future world also allows Wells to critique (cognitive estrangement as Darko Suvin would have it) his own society and its class structure. Only in moments does it slip into didacticism, which I understand Wells's later work suffers from. By it's final visionary pages, full of soaring intensity, we can see how Wells is considered by some the father of modern science fiction.



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