The Time Machine

by H. G. Wells

Release: January to May 1895
Format: Novel
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

In which H. G. Wells’s third foray into time travel finalizes the story of our favorite unnamed Traveller and his machine, all in the form that we know and love.

The two earlier forays were The Chronic Argonaut (which was abandoned after three installments in his school magazine) and seven fictionalized National Observer essays (which sketched out the Traveller and his machine, including a glimpse of the future and proto-Morlocks). The story of The Time Machine itself had three 1895 iterations:

[list][*]A five-part serial in the January through May issues of New Review, The serial contains mostly the story as we know it, but with an alternate chunk in the introduction where the Traveller discusses free will, predestination, and a Laplacian determinism of the universe.

In addition, material from Chapter XIII of the serial (just over a thousand words beginning partway through the first paragraph of page 577 and continuing to page 579, line 29) were omitted from later editions. This section was written for the serial after a back-and-forth written struggle between Wells and New Review editor William Henley. The material had a separate mimeographed publication by fan and Futurian Robert W. Lowndes in 1940 as “The Final Men” and has since had multiple publications elsewhere with varying titles such as “The Gray Man.”[/*]

[*]The US edition: The Time Machine: An Invention, by H. G. Wells (erroneously credited as H. S. Wells in the first release), Henry Holt [publisher], May 1895. This edition may have been completed before the serial, as it varies from the serial more so than the UK edition. It does not contain the extra material in the first chapter or “The Final Men” (although it does have a few additional sentences at that point of Chapter XIII).[/*]

[*]The UK edition: The Time Machine: An Invention,by H. G. Wells, William Heinemann [publisher], May 1895. This edition is a close match to the serial, with the exception of chapter breaks, the extra material in the first chapter, and “The Final Men” (omitted from what is now Chapter XIV).[/*]
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— Michael Main

I drew a breath, set my teeth, gripped the starting lever with both hands, and went off with a thud.

DEBUT

The Time Machine, serialized in New Review, (five parts, January to May 1895).

VARIANTS

4 English variants

DERIVATIVE WORKS

The Time Machine by Robert Barr, [director unknown], (BBC Television, UK, 25 January 1949).
The Time Machine by David Duncan, directed by George Pal, (at limited movie theaters, Rome, 25 May 1960).
The Time Machine by Wallace Bennett, directed by Henning Schellerup, (NBC-TV, USA, 5 November 1978).
The Time Machine by John Logan, directed by Simon Wells, (premiered at an unknown movie theater, Los Angeles, 4 March 2002).

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Travel Methods

Wellsian Time Machines

Themes

Time Travel Sickness, Injuries, and Mixed-Up Body Parts: “I have already told you of the sickness and confusion that comes with time traveling.”

Groupings

INDEXER NOTES (SPOILERS!)

Erroneous Title—An erroneously cited title of The Time Traveler’s Story or The Time Traveller’s Story for the New Review serial (1895) is probably a consequence of author’s notes that first appeared in the 1895 editions of the books, as follows: 
 
In The Time Machine by H. S. Wells [sic], Henry Holt [publisher], <samp>May 1895</samp>: The Time Traveler’s Story and a part of the introductory conversation appeared as a serial in the New Review. Several descriptive passages in the story had previously appeared in dialogue form in the National Observer, and the explanatioin of the “principles” of Time Traveling given in this book is inserted from the latter paper. I desire to make the usual acknowledgments. H. S. W. [sic] (Taken from a slightly later edition scanned at the <a href='https%3A%2F%2Fbabel.hathitrust.org%2Fcgi%2Fpt%3Fid%3Ddul1.ark%3A%2F13960%2Ft98637h6g%26view%3D1up%26seq%3D9'>Hathi Trust</a>. 
 
In The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, William Heinemann [publisher], <samp>May 1895</samp>: NOTE.—The substance of the first chapter of this story and of several paragraphs from the context appeared in the ‘National Observer’ in 1894. The “Time Traveller’s Story” appeared, almost as it stands here, in the pages of the ‘New Review.’ The Author desires to make the customary acknowledgments. (From <a href='https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikisource.org%2Fwiki%2FPage%3AThe_Time_Machine_%28H._G._Wells%2C_William_Heinemann%2C_1895%29.djvu%2F8'>Wikisoure</a>.)