from Todd:

Like Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, H. G. Wells' The Time Machine has so inspired the popular imagination over the centuries that it has accrued quite a number of fanciful trappings that do not belong to the original novel. It is definitely a work that contributes intense iconography in the steampunk world, but people need to understand and appreciate it on its own original terms. It is a Victorian novel, and it is a science fiction novel. But it is not an adventure novel in the pulp sense of the idea, nor even in the romantic sense of say, Stevenson's Treasure Island. One discovers upon reading it that, though it moves along with plenty of energy and progression of plot, the story relates more to a philosophical inquiry into the nature, destiny and fate of humankind, than a swashbuckling adventure through time. It has almost a mythic quality in its bare but striking elements, and it possesses symbolic qualities that create powerful suggestions for thought. The novel has a cautionary perspective in its trans­temporal point­of­view, which makes it quite remarkable when one realizes it was written at the confident peak of the British Empire. It has a firm claim on steampunk's ancestry, however, because Wells wrote this to examine the possible long­term trends that might follow a society that divorces itself from Nature and relies on technology to determine its course. Wells understood the two­way street of technological advancement: humankind cannot remain in command of the transformative effects of technology, not only upon the world but upon humankind itself. Ultimately, Wells sees technology as a force that will divide people because of its massive power to enslave and its insidious ability to create an intellectually and spiritually­crippling dependence, in terms of the easement of hardship (and challenges) it brings to the socially better­placed. And yet, ironically, Wells celebrates technology in terms of the time machine itself and the exploratory gusto of the character who invented it, which together definitely represent a different feeling: we have not yet reached the point where it will unravel what it is to be human and humane. It still stands to enhance human achievement. ( )

Not an adventure story at all. Just a philosophical ramble. ( )

Still a fun story. I listened to the Simon Vance recording this time and it was lovely. ( )

The distinction of classes and an ubermensch that goes beyond all classes all throughout and not limited to the restraints of time/ they are perennial ( )

Great book. Wells had a great imagination for so long ago. ( )