The Time Machine - Book Review
Originally published December 2017Hey! It's been a while since the last time I wrote a book review, but that doesn't mean I haven't been reading. I swear! I actually had a total of 5 fiction books open at a time over the past few months and The Time Machine, by HG Wells, happened to be the first one I finished that I felt like talking about. A full 120+ years since it was originally released, how well does Well's classic hold up to my scrutiny?
While Wells may have been limited to the amount of scientific knowledge available at the time, it's clear he was a genius ahead of his time, just from reading The Time Machine. This is partially due to the fact that the scientific theories Wells plays with don't seem too far-fetched for their era, and partially due to the fact that the themes he uses are familiar and grounded. It also has a few other surprises up its sleeve as well for those who have never read it or watched any of the film adaptations.
Pros
Some dark and ominous moments that fell straight out of a Lovecraft tale of horror
Familiar tones and themes help bridge the gap in time
Language is easy to read and not overly flamboyant
Chapter XI
Cons
There are moments where the action taking place is difficult to follow
You have to suspend your disbelief about how the time machine would work
Plot & Thoughts
Much like Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire, a majority of the story of The Time Machine is told to a character from another character within the story, namely, the Time Traveler, as he's known. The narrator describes him as an obsessive and eccentric fellow upon first meeting him at his dinner party. During the party, he introduces his guests to his machine and tells them of the journey he will embark upon with it. Some days later, the same guests return to his home for another party to find he isn't there, until he suddenly appears in the home, malnourished and haggard, whereupon he begins telling them of his odyssey through time.
The decision to tell the story this way, by introducing us to the Time Traveler first and having it be through the very slightly filtered view of a dinner guest, helps immensely at adding weight to the whole tale. It allows us to get a preview into the Time Traveler's personality and it allows us to be as skeptical as his guests while still being entranced by his story. It also allowed Wells to focus mostly on details about the futuristic world that the Time Traveler would care about, instead of having to focus on describing a world with the more distant perspective of an omnipotent narrator. It's a technique that effectively put me in the room as he described his adventure and captivated me. It's similar to how Mary Shelly sets up the tale of Frankenstein with a third party listening to the confession of the guilty doctor.
What is the tale? The Time Traveler merely sat upon his machine and flung himself forward hundreds of thousands of years into the future, far beyond the peak of human civilization to a period in which mankind has evolved and become a new, unfamiliar species (or two). While here, the Time Traveler experiences the wonders of an unfamiliar world and theorizes as to how it became this way, interacting with the local inhabitants along the way. The whole time he's there, there are little clues as to how this new world works, as well as clues to something a bit more sinister lurking beneath the surface. Things get more ominous when he suddenly realizes that he can't get home and sets out to remedy the problem.
The best parts of The Time Machine come when he has to deal with the dark elements of the story. The Time Traveler encounters a number of threats throughout his journey which match the Lovecraft/Poe methods of long, drawn-out tension until a specific moment of climactic horror occurs. There are various descriptions of these terrible things that are intentionally vague, which helps sell the horror that lurks beneath the surface of the story. When Chapter XI rolled around and I was able to imagine the ultimate horrors the Time Traveler faces in a world that is wholly alien and disturbingly grotesque, I had to read it a second time because of how creepy and cool it was.
I'm not sure if it's because I've learned how to read gooder in the past few years, or if my literary tastes have changed over the past decade, but I've found a strong affinity for the classic literature from the 19th and 20th century in a way I've never had before. That being said, take my opinion of Well's style with a grain of salt, but I think The Time Machine is an easy read. It manages to blend creative and vivid prose with a steady pace. Considering the nature of the story, Wells could have made The Time Machine a lot longer and stretched out the last few chapters, but wisely chose to end it before it became dull.
TL;DR (Conclusion)
Despite being from an era of literature where authors still had a tendency to take forever to get to the point in their writing, HG Wells keeps the language straightforward and easy to read. There are plenty of specific moments and images from his story that clearly stand out in my mind with a surprising amount of drama and suspense. The Time Machine is a classic for a reason and was a pleasant surprise for my first time reading it.
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