Saturday, July 9, 2011

The Time Machine - H.G. Wells

Date Started: June 30
Date Finished: July 6

One-Word Summary: Scien-terrific 

It's hard to read a classic when you've seen at least one movie version. You keep referencing the movie and waiting for plot points to arrive that (surprise!) were never in the book to begin with! I had never read The Time Machine but I tend to love 19th Century literature so I was excited to take this one on. But reader beware: this is not like the movie (at least the most recent one from 2002).

I will start with this: I am a really well-read person so it is rare that I encounter a book that has me turning to the dictionary with any frequency. The Time Machine did that; I'm not sure if that's because the writing used a lot of words that have gone out of regular use or because of the scientific nature of the story but there you have it -- prepare to look some stuff up.

The story itself was great of course; it's a classic for a reason. Obviously there is the whole deep question of where mankind's advancements will ultimately lead us -- as the gap between the "haves" and "have nots" grows will we end up as two separate races like the Morlocks and Eloi? It's also really interesting reading a vision of the future from someone writing in 1895 and wondering what H.G. Wells would think of things like ipads, cell phones and all of the other conveniences we now have at our fingertips.

The bleak vision of the solar system essentially dying out is really depressing. Thankfully we get only a glimpse of that future before the Time Traveler returns to his time to regale his friends with his tale before traveling into the great beyond in his machine.  I didn't love the ending - in particular the fact that we're left not knowing where the Time Traveler went after leaving his time for good. But that's probably just a personal preference - I tend to like endings that are neatly tied together. Would I recommend this as a read? Of course.

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