The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

It is a science fiction novel by H.G. Wells, published in 1895. It is one of his best-known works around the world and it was the first one he wrote. Here you can download a COPY of The Time Machine in PDF format.

Although it is a science fiction novel, Wells does not delve into the paradox of time, nor does he give technological details about the machine that the main character builds. And in this work, the priority is the moralizing element.

What cannot be denied is that H.G. Wells popularized the theme of time travel in a machine built by a scientist whose findings no one believes.

The Time Machine in PDF

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Summary of The Time Machine

At the end of the 19th century, a scientist builds a machine that incredibly allows him to physically travel through time. Despite the skepticism of his colleagues and friends, the man decides to undertake the adventure.

One day, his friends go to visit him at his house, but the scientist does not show his face for a long time. When he finally appears in the middle of the living room, they see him in a pitiful state.

The story he tells is implausible to them. He decided to see what the future of humanity was and went to the year 802,701, hoping to find a very advanced civilization.

Instead, he discovered a race of beings with no intelligence, no writing, no physical strength, totally devoted to pleasure and called the Eloi. These beings lived in fear of another group that lived underground, the Morlocks.

The Morlocks went out at night in search of the Eloi to hunt them. The traveler makes conjectures about this way of living, concluding that perhaps this is how humans ended up after solving their existential problems.

After touring this unrecognizable world, he returns to where his machine was, but cannot find it. He sees that the Morlocks have locked it in a pedestal where they had a statue.

When he goes to get it out of there, he realizes that it is a trap, but manages to escape with the machine. To try to see what happens next, he goes to a time when the world has been destroyed.

Completely terrified, he ran away again and returned to his home in the 19th century. His friends did not believe his story, but the man was determined to prove it to them, so he took a few tools, including a camera, and set off again.

Three years have passed since that moment and he has not returned, according to the narrator of the story.

FAQ about The Time Machine

What is the central theme of the Time Machine?

A scientist builds a machine that solves the problem of traveling through time, something not very credible for the people around him.

The man travels to the future where he discovers that humanity has devolved and is in a deplorable state.

What are the Eloi and Morlocks?

They are the beings that inhabit the world of the year 802,701. The Eloi are hedonistic, of little intelligence, and lack writing. It seems to the scientist that he is in a world of decadence.

In the subsoil, other beings inhabit, called Morlocks that are predators and the Eloi fear them.

What are Morlocks like?

Morlocks are very strange-looking beings, with long blond hair falling down their backs, red eyes, and white skin. They are predators, they like to hunt Eloi and feed on garbage.

What did the traveler look like through time?

The time-traveling scientist was a man who seemed reserved as if he would never tell everything he knew. He was quite intelligent, enough to convey humility.

Perhaps he kept a few secrets and although he was respectable, his friends did not believe in his greatest discovery.