The Time Machine

H. G. Wells, 1895

A-level set text OCR A-level

An inventor's explanation of time travel becomes the frame for an extraordinary journey.

Read the book Contents

Length: 13 chapters
Reading time: About 2 hr 16 min
Words: 32,263

About the book

An after-dinner discussion begins with the possibility that time might be travelled through like space. The inventor's guests are curious but unconvinced, and their uncertainty establishes a frame in which an extraordinary account will have to compete with ordinary habits of belief.

Wells makes scientific speculation a social occasion before opening it into adventure. Questions and objections help readers follow the premise without settling everything in advance. The contrast between a comfortable gathering and the unknown possibilities beyond it gives the story room to examine how confidently people imagine the future.

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Early science fiction

This edition

Text from Standard Ebooks, who proofread and typeset it and dedicate their edition to the public domain. H. G. Wells died more than 70 years ago, so the work is out of copyright in the UK.