SM Book Club- H.G. Wells The Time Machine

The Survival Monkey Book club will be reading H. G. Wells, The Time Machine.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0486284727/?tag=survivalmonke-20

The novel can be purchased on Amazon or there are free editions, see below:

Here is a link for the audio version for those that would like to listen:
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

Here is a link to different formats of downloads:
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

I am hoping that people will enjoy reading and discussing this book. It is a small book so hopefully we can start discussing in a week to 10 days. Enjoy!

 

Dibs on the Morlocks!!!! or at least Weena.....

 

I took a moment and read it again. It is such an elegant creation, both in its astounding imagination (for the time) and in the unstoppable inevitability with which the story progresses.

As Wells opens up with his discussion of Time as a dimension, one should remember that--at the time--he was talking the local equivalent of Quantum Mechanics, and very few of the lower classes would have been well-enough educated to even hope to keep up with him.

That the public embraced that part is proof that the rest of the story was (indeed!) well-written.

Wells was (I think) very detail-oriented,and that was the source of much of the realism in his writing. He had a talent for selecting details that forced conclusions that yielded even more realistic (though wholly imaginative) details. And the inevitable details summed up the inevitable course of the story.

I've seen both versions of the movie. It was interesting setting them off against one another even as I re-read the book. Wells talked a pretty good movie, and he didn't even have CGI.

My new Thought for the Day: "Nine out of ten Morlocks prefer Soylent Green!"

 

I haven't read this in years! I will start today; I downloaded the book as it was free, also picked up his 'War of the Worlds' as something was wrong with my copy.

 

Here is a free version of The Time traveler for kindle.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004XVQ73G/?tag=survivalmonke-20

 

Some background.

The book, was first published in 1895. - near the end of the classic "Victorian Era". As a 114 page book, it was also (first) published serially under The New Review mark. The Henry Holt and Company published the first book edition - possibly prepared from a different manuscript, on 7 May 1895. Heinemann published an English edition on 29 May. of that year. The confusion over manuscripts is owing to additional material published in the magazine - as requested by the editor. Current editions omit this early - and additional - text. (see below)

These two editions are different textually and are commonly referred to as the "Holt text" and "Heinemann text", respectively. Nearly all modern reprints reproduce the Heinemann text.

This was Well's first commercially published work. Wells had considered the notion of time travel before, this in a short story titled "The Chronic Argonauts" (1888). This work, published in his college newspaper, was the foundation for The Time Machine. It, however, paid nothing.

So, 144 pages presented in 12 Chapters and an Epilog - in other words, a novella.

As an author- I am appreciative of how successful this first book was and that the work grew to be known as the 'first' book of modern Science Fiction is no small honor.

As you read along, it is worth paying attention to Well's use the use of Point of View in the story telling - varies in the story, but as it is seamless, it helps to propel the story along.

Good reading!

 

I've seen different versions of the story in movieform many times. Don't know why I never read it. Excellent choice!

 

I am half way through reading it. I would like to watch the movie also.

 

To better understand Wells as an author - we should look at the society he lived in at the time. This would have an impact on his world view and thus, his writing. Questions for discussion at the end.

In 1895, The UK was still an Empire every sense of that word.

The Military - The Brits had just fished fighting or were in the early stages of several conflicts - world-wide. Here is a link that gies a play-by-play thru 1901, when the Queen passed away.
(British Army during the Victorian Era - Wikipedia)

The Merchant - The Brits were still active in China, this was the time just before the Boxer Rebellion (1900) and the Second Boer War) as well as North Africa. The Pound Sterling was the major trading currency of the day.. By Wells' day, things were changing. The East India company which had enabled Brittan to dominate world markets, was gone.

The East India company remained in existence in vestigial form, continuing to manage the tea trade on behalf of the British Government (and the supply of Saint Helena) until the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act 1873 came into effect, on 1 January 1874. This Act provided for the formal dissolution of the company on 1 June 1874, after a final dividend payment and the commutation or redemption of its stock.
Still the Brits ran India, Egypt, China and frankly, much of Europe. The Merchant might no longer be a Prince - but he was most certainly, well-to-do.

Ag business
This (1895) was a time of climate change as well. 1895 saw the lowest temps recorded and many today see 1895 as the end of the "little Ice Age' (1885 to 1895). This cold wave came on the heels of the Potato Famine. Brits imported massive amount of fertilizer from Chile and guano from the Pacific. Even at that, ag output trailed population growth by about 50% at the time.

Politics - not going to touch this one, but will only say the Rich got richer...

Transportation-
Steamships were common at the time and were used for commerce and passenger travel. British rail was well established and provided transport for both food and goods (and the Mail). For journeys over 5 miles or so, the railroad was about the only choice.

Communication -
When Queen Victoria pressed a button in the telegraph room in Buckingham Palace, on 22 June 1897, to send her Diamond Jubilee message – ‘Thank my beloved people. May God bless them’ – she was speaking to nearly a quarter of the population of the earth. Telegraph lines from England served nearly the whole of the Empire.

Other stuff-
Electricity.
By 1890 there were 1000 central stations in operation, homes and businesses had electric lights.

Medical state-of the Art -
Antiseptic surgical procedures based on the practical application of Pasteur's laboratory work were developed by Joseph Lister (1827-1912) using carbolic acid (phenol) from 1869 in Edinburgh and in 1877 in London. Aseptic procedures followed, involving sterilisation of whole environments. Successful outcomes, such as Edward VII's appendicitis operation on the eve of his scheduled coronation, helped pave the way for the 20th-century era of heroic surgery.

In 1895, at the end of the era, came Wilhelm Roentgen's discovery of X-rays, and in due course the photo of Roentgen's wife's hand became a potent sign of medical advance through scientific instruments. Overall the 19th century is notable more for systematic monitoring of disease aetiology than for curative treatment.
This may explain Wells views on the loss of Weena in the forest fire.

My next post will look at characters.

Q1 - Given the turmoil of the times, Wells seemed to have a fairly bucolic outlook as seen in this book. He was under 30 Y/O at the time - would this explain his outlook? Or, did he have an outlook that seemed to see nothing but improvements in the lot of Man as time moved forward?

The War of the World was serialize in 1897 and does speak to the violence of the times.

Q2 The Time Traveler is portrayed as an Inventor of some success. Contrasted with the Politician or Merchant, it would seem Wells placed a higher value on technical progress. Yes or No? .

 

@DKR Wow! Great write-up! I will refrain from answers to Q1 & Q2 until I refresh my memory of the book by rereading it. Unfortunately, I got busy the past few days but should have some time today.

 

Finished. Lovely prose that smacks one across the gob immediately putting wonderful images in your head instead of stars. It reminds one that the English language is quite beautiful and robust when it is known and used by a master of the craft. Anyway... A picture of utopia brought about by technology that had its hidden social and physical evils...possibly even reference to Communism (didn't I see the Traveler use this word?) or Socialism...

Q1 - "Given the turmoil of the times, Wells seemed to have a fairly bucolic outlook as seen in this book...Or, did he have an outlook that seemed to see nothing but improvements in the lot of Man as time moved forward?"
Well, his future world was definitely 'bucolic' as his words painted images of a pastoral countryside, bug free, filled with butterflies, where the Eloi's dance and ate sweet fruits all day but, it was only for a portion of the population, much like back in his own time. So, my answer would be he indeed saw that man would continue to improve himself however this did not include the entire population and indeed it proved their ruin where the have-nots literally ate the haves. It is possible that he was trying to make this point. One could make the argument that this has always been the case and, as such, the need for 'bread and circuses' in Caesar's time was as necessary as they are in our time.

Q2 "The Time Traveler is portrayed as an Inventor of some success. Contrasted with the Politician or Merchant, it would seem Wells placed a higher value on technical progress. Yes or No?"
Hmmm...difficult. But, I would have to say that I cannot remember anything that definitely showed this to be the case; however, one could possibly make a case that the Time Traveler was much more open minded given his grasp of untried theory of 4th dimension, his treatment of Weena and all the Eloi in general...

 

I am really enjoying the book. After reading DKR's history, I am beginning to think that the Eloi people and their manners are fashioned after the people of China. At first I thought Well's was a fortune teller, the blending of the sexes, quieter and soft spoken etc. the Time Traveler observed that, "these people of the future were alike."

Interesting line to ponder.
"What if in this interval the race had lost its manliness, and had developed into something inhumane, unsympathetic, and overwhelmingly powerful? "

 

" their manners are fashioned after the people of China."
Written before Communist China where - supposedly - all are equal. I would say, it was his vision of equality just as it was his vision of utopia but equality and utopia only for the upper-class.

"Interesting line to ponder.
"What if in this interval the race had lost its manliness, and had developed into something inhumane, unsympathetic, and overwhelmingly powerful? "

One could easily relate this to modern day for have we not lost some of our manliness compared to past generations? Have we not become unsympathetic and desensitized to mankind's suffering via movies, news and the mass and immediate never ending communications that shows an unending, reoccurring theme of world suffering? I certainly am. I frankly no longer care if a child is starving outside my country and I will not give money to that end because I trust not the so called 'Humanitarian' organizations which have proved themselves to be incompetent and self-serving. Overwhelmingly powerful? We can destroy cities, states, and countries in minutes so, yes. Yes, indeed an "interesting line to ponder."

 

The Time Traveler did use the word Communism but then seemed to dismiss it in chapter 4. He speculated Communism when he realized that there were no cottages/ single family homes. I bookmarked that page because he went on to observe how all the people, parents and children/ male & female all seems to be the same.

 

I reread it again and was shocked at how much of what I remembered was in the movies, but not in the book. I think that the main lesson I got out of the book was that neither the arts and philosophy or science and technology could exist by themselves and that concentration on either one was a dead end over the long run. The Morlocks needed the Eloi for food and the Eloi depended on the Morlocks for all of their manufactured goods. The population was decreasing and mankind was in its own way degenerating into two dwindling groups that was ever more specializing and ever less able to survive. Darwinism carried out to its expected end.
The book was written at the end of one period, the world of Empire, and the beginning of the next. WW1 destroyed the world that existed, mass deaths, destruction of the Empires, aircraft, automobiles, electronics, mass production, industrialization of mining, manufacturing, warfare and agriculture, and even Wells couldn't imagine the effect of Tesla and Einstein on the world.
Many of the weaknesses that we see in societal development, Communism in the USSR, Fascism in Italy, Nazism in Germany, the end of 1,000 year old empires in much of Europe, were not only happening a few years later, but at the time he was writing the Time Traveler, weren't even fully contemplated. Rather than the continuous chaos of over population, decreasing resources, continuous war that we now face, the world he lived saw Imperial Russia, The British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, the last of the Asiatic empires, as always existing and slow continuous change being the norm. No atomic bombs, no Bolshevik revolutions, no running out of resources, and a gradual build up to perfection, a golden age, and a gradual fading away to nothing.

 

Well, Communism as we know it didn't exist at the time, however...the seminal works of that movement were published in the late 1840s - tho it was some time before it really got legs.

The Socialist League was an early revolutionary socialist organisation in the United Kingdom. The organization began as a dissident offshoot of the Social Democratic Federation of Henry Hyndman at the end of 1884. Never an ideologically harmonious group, by the 1890s the group had turned from socialism to anarchism.
The group was finally disbanded in 1901.

Wells would have been familiar with many different stripes of communal thought.

 

Morlock sounds a lot like Moloch, which is the name of a Phoenician god associated with child sacrifice in the Bible. (yes, the Bible has some stuff. "Mors" is also a Latin root for "death".

How about a possible biblical root for Eloi. Eloi sounds a lot like Elohim, which is a Hebrew word for god.
Looking into the Gospel of Mark, Jesus speaks from the cross "Eloi Eloi lema sabachthani?": "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Yet, the Eloi are just so many cattle - hardly god-like. Is Wells saying something about the Brit "upper class' again?

 

Great thread. Thanks to all.

I'd like to propose a title for another Book Review. The book is The Lost Continent, by C. J. Cutliffe Hyne.

It's a Victorian classic, and a truly enjoyable read. I have the 1972 paperback, which is still available for as little as $1.99.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0345025024/?tag=survivalmonke-20

It's also available for free on Kindle to subscribers, with a blah cover.

I really like the "Cobra Cover", which I consider quite a fine piece of cover art.

 

The Time Traveler (or as I think of him - the Time Tourist)

Time Traveler designed his own chair, a chair which "embraced and caressed" the sitter
Pretty swank for a "scientist" it seems he is also a well-to-do inventor.

Another thing about the Time Traveler. He is not quite trusted by his friends.
All of his guests (again, showing TT is quite well-to-do) agree that he is very clever. As in "too clever to be believed" The English sometimes use the word "Clever" to mean smart ass as in - Arn't we being just too clever?

IOW - he's quite a joker. the opening chapter talks of a ghost stunt from Christmas of last year....

Is he a serious scientist or just a clever fellow? I would say that his Time Machine argues for Scientist....but one that eschews 'current wisdom' as 'everyone knows' time travel is impossible, right?

When I first went thru the story many years ago, I came to regard the TT as something of a fool, an idiot or worse. He invents a time machine - pretty neat. That he decides to go on holiday thru time with nothing more than what he would take on a trip to the news stand shows he is something of an idiot.

He takes no food, water, money (Brit coin was mostly silver at the time) or any kind of weapon - no knife..nothing. As if the future - something completely unknown to him, would be a paradise. That's my definition of an idiot - or a liberal.

I would have carried a knapsack or bag and canteen Oh, and an electric torch. I most certainly would have taken a .455 Webly. I would have worn boots suitable for walking and so on. As it was - he was forced to wander an abandoned 'museum' in an effort to find something, anything, with which to counter the Morlocks.

I'm left with the idea the TT was a cossetted fool, one lucky to escape with his life. On the start of his second trip to the future, he takes a knapsack and camera....

The story ends telling us that 3 years have past and still the TT has not returned.

Had he become dinner for the Morlocks?