5.41k reviews for:

The Time Machine

H.G. Wells, H.G. Wells

3.62 AVERAGE

informative inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

An archetypal satire rich with symbolism. It features a story set in the future, related in the present by the time traveler, and narrated in the past tense by the journalist. In just 90 pages mankind, once thought to be masters of the world, have been reduced to a fleeting and impermanent phenomenon in the face of nature.

Really appreciated it’s brevity while still having some interesting ideas to chew on

Un texte majeur de la science-fiction !
J'ai eu du mal au début à rentrer dans l'histoire et à accrocher à l'écriture. Mais au bout de quelques pages, je l'ai littéralement dévoré !
Il faut lire ce livre ! La plume de l'auteur est sublime !
Très immersive, agréable et bien construite. Un classique qui ne fait pas dans la lourdeur et la difficulté.
adventurous dark reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: N/A
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

4.5⭐
the thing that attracted me to this book was the incredible plot I've ever seen like it's a classic book that I LOVED it sm

The time machine by H.G. Wells - เค้าบอกว่าเป็นการเดินทางข้ามเวลาที่เป็นแรงบันดาลใจให้กับอีกหลายเรื่อง เลยอยากลองอ่าน มันๆเพลินๆ ไปกับแนวคิดการเปลี่ยนแปลงของโลก พัฒนาจนสูงสุดจนวกกลับสู่ความเสื่อมถอยทางปัญญาและจิตใจ ทุกอย่างอาจดับสูญด้วยน้ำมือมนุษย์ สิ่งนี้ไม่เกินจริง

แต่อย่างที่นักแปลได้วิจารณ์ไว้ท้ายเล่มว่าการเขียนของเวลส์จะเน้นในเรื่องชนชั้นสังคมมากกว่ามิติทางวิทยาศาสตร์ และเรื่องก็ร้อยกว่าปีมาแล้ว มันเลยไม่เข้มข้นกับทฤษฎี(ที่ในเรื่องก็น้อยนิด)มากขนาดนั้น เทียบกับว่าหลังจากยุคเค้าก็มีงานแนวนี้ที่น่าสนอยู่อีกมาก แต่ก็สนุกในการร่วมวงนั่งฟัง
adventurous dark reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark mysterious reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

“I tried to preserve myself from the horror that was all about me. I even tried to think of the philosophical transactions that I had once heard of. I tried to revert to the ideas that I had held before I went into the future. But I saw that I was hopelessly affected by the strange horrors of that world.”
 
H.G. Wells’s "The Time Machine" is a curious little book, fascinating, flawed, and, on rereading, much more enjoyable than I remembered. I first read it as part of a college course on 19th-century British literature. At the time, I liked it well enough but wasn’t exactly blown away. Now, with a bit more distance (and a lot more exposure to the countless stories that followed in its footsteps), I can better appreciate what it’s doing and what it started.

It’s technically the first time travel story, which oddly makes it feel unoriginal. Nearly every idea it presents has been recycled so many times that they now seem like well-worn tropes. But Wells got there first, and that deserves recognition. What the novella lacks in plot tightness or emotional depth, it makes up for in ambition. It’s a compelling time capsule of older perceptions of science, progress, and the social imagination of the late 19th century.

The story itself is a bit of a mess, riddled with heavy-handed analogies and philosophical asides—but the world Wells creates is deeply unsettling. In fact, it’s arguably the most frightening of all his imagined futures. The idea that a utopian society could evolve into a passive, physically diminished people (the Eloi), only to be hunted by their subterranean, cannibalistic cousins (the Morlocks), is chilling. Wells’s vision isn’t just dystopian, it’s evolutionary horror.

What makes "The Time Machine" stand out is that it’s the first time Wells seems willing to let morality override strict rationality. His future isn’t a triumph of scientific reason, but a nightmare born from it. That choice gives the book an emotional and ethical edge it might otherwise lack.
 
In the end, it’s not a perfect novel, and maybe not even a great one—but it’s an interesting, fun, and eerily prophetic read. For all its rough edges, it still resonates, and that’s more than can be said for many “better” books.