The Time Machine: An Invention

1895 Wells, H[erbert] G[eorge] (1866-1946). The Time Machine: An Invention [subtitle later dropped]. London: William Heinemann. Rpt. in The Works of H.G. Wells Atlantic Edition. Volume I The Time Machine The Wonderful Visit and Other Stories (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1924), 1-118. Except for later critical editions, The Atlantic Edition is generally considered the best text of Wells’s works. Also rpt. in Amazing Stories 2.2 (May 1927): 148-78; in Famous Fantastic Mysteries 11.6 (August 1950): 10-53; in Two Complete Science-Adventure Books 1.4 (Winter 1951): 2-44; in Three Prophetic Novels of H.G. Wells. Ed. E.F. Bleiler (New York: Dover Publications, 1960), 263-335 [Follows the 1895 Heinemann ed. except for including an episode from the National Review serial left out of book versions (325-27); as The Definitive Time Machine: A Critical Edition of H.G. Wells’s Scientific Romance With Introduction and Notes by Harry M. Geduld. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987; Ed. Michael Moorcock. London: Everyman, 1993; Rev. Centennial ed. ed. John Lawton. London: Everyman, 1995; as The Time Machine: An Invention. A Critical Text of the 1895 London First Edition, with an Introduction and Appendices. Ed. Leon Stover. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1996; Ed. Nicholas Ruddick. Peterborough, ON, Canada: Broadview Press, 2001; Ed. Patrick Parrinder. London: Penguin Books, 2005, with an “Introduction” by Marina Warner (xiii-xxviii), a “Note on the Text” by Patrick Parrinder (xxxi-xxxiv), and “Notes” by Steven McLean (97-104); and in London: Gollancz, 2010, with an “Introduction” by Gwyneth Jones (vii-xi). Illustrated by Ale + Ale [Alessandro Lecis and Alessandra Panzeri]. Beverly, MA: Rockport Publishers/Quarto Group, 2019. See also, “The Missing Pages from the Immortal Science Fiction Novel by H.G. Wells. The Time Machine XIII. The Further Vision.” Satellite Science Fiction 2.6 (August 1958): 98-109]; Collectors Edition. Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1964 illus. Joe Mugnaini and with an “Introduction” (v-xi) by George Zebrowski; the title page says that the introduction is by Brian W. Aldiss, but it is signed by Zebrowski. Differing text in New York: Henry Holt, 1895 [by three weeks, this is technically the first edition]. The Time Machine began life as “The Chronic Argonauts.” Science Schools Journal 2.11 - 13 (April - June 1888): 312-20, 336-41, 367-71. Serialized versions that differed from each other and from the first book version appeared as a series without a common title in the National Observer as follows: “Time Travelling: Possibility or Paradox?” 11.278 (March 17, 1894): 446-47; “The Time Machine.” 11.279 (March 24, 1894): 472-73; “A.D. 12,203: A Glimpse of the Future.” 11.280 (March 31, 1894): 499-500; “The Refinement of Humanity.” 11.283 (April 21, 1894): 581-82; “The Sunset of Mankind.” 11.284 (April 28, 1894): 606-08; “In the Underworld.” 12.287 (May 19, 1894): 14-15; and “The Time Traveller Returns.” 12.292 (June 23, 1894): 145-47; and as “The Time Machine.” New Review 12.68 - 72 (January - May 1895): 98-112, 207, 221, 329-43, 453-72, 577-88. Much of The National Observer version and some of the New Review version can be found in H.G. Wells: Early Writings in Science and Science Fiction. Ed. Robert M. Philmus and David Y. Hughes (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975), 57-104. Film directed by George Pal (1960). The novel was adapted as a play directed by Gayle Cornelison that was first performed January 28, 1981, in San Jose, CA, and it was adapted as a musical by Saba Moor and Bob Verne and first performed December 31, 1986, in Los Angeles, CA. A radio adaptation was broadcast on BBC Radio 3, February 22, 2009. L, Merril, PSt

Gradual development of two classes, the Eloi and the Morlocks, who are the final stages of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, respectively. An authorized sequel is 1995 Barnes. There are many unauthorized sequels.