The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

Herbert George Wells was born an English writer in Bromley, Kent, England in 1866. After he attended school his early years he was educated at Midhurst Grammar School and soon after he attended the School of Science in London. Once there he studied biology, which could be one reason why he started to write science fiction novels such as, “The Time Machine.” Around the time he wrote this work, there was a huge shift of technological breakthroughs that would have influenced his writing also. At that time, from his schooling at the School of Science in London, he would have been exposed to the works of Jules Verne, (20,000 Leagues under the sea), T. H. Huxley’s, (Theory of Biogenesis), and Charles Darwin’s, (The Descendant of Man) [Novel Guide]. These works would account for the large amount of description that the time traveler uses throughout the book. With H. G. Wells’ novella, “The Time Machine,” this book has been a huge influence over the science fiction society of the recent century. This book was a large stepping-stone for thousands of stories and films. The mood of this book is a serious one, but it is not all dark and gloomy, the Time Traveler often makes many jokes in order to lighten the setting of his situation and for his readers enjoyment. He offers realistic details of what is happening to entice the readers to get more into the story. In the novel the main character is nameless, and often powerless, which leads me to believe that the work is a scientific romance. This provides for the most important theme of “The Time Machine,” where H.G. Wells questions the assumption that most people held in the 19th century, (this still lives on to this day) that all of humankind will continue to advance, and that the evolutionary process in society and culture follow a circular pattern of events.

Throughout the book there is no