Iconic British Fiction: ‘The Time Machine’ (1895) by H.G.Wells
The Novella and Film Adaptations of 1960 and 2002
“So, in the end, above ground you must have the Haves, pursuing pleasure and comfort and beauty, and below ground the Have-nots, the Workers getting continually adapted to the conditions of their labour. Once they were there, they would no doubt have to pay rent, and not a little of it, for the ventilation of their caverns; and if they refused, they would starve or be suffocated for arrears. Such of them as were so constituted as to be miserable and rebellious would die; and, in the end, the balance being permanent, the survivors would become as well adapted to the conditions of underground life, and as happy in their way, as the Upper-world people were to theirs.”
― H.G. Wells, The Time Machine
Herbert George Wells (1866–1946) began work on what would eventually evolve into The Time Machine nearly eight years before its publication in 1895. The original story was called The Chronic Argonauts (1888) and became the first English language narrative to use an inventor-built machine to travel in time.
It had been serialised in three parts in The Science Schools Journal (Wells was the founder and editor) in 1888 when Wells was just 22. After two drafts using similar concepts (now lost) and a bulk of new…
