The Time Machine

A short, fast novel of ideas. The characters are sketches on purpose, but the Morlocks, the lost machine and the far-future beach carry it, and the Time Traveller is usefully wrong. The ending refuses to close. Four and a half out of five (draft). Read it if: you want a short classic that moves fast; you like novels built around one big idea about the future; you enjoy a story framed as a tale told after dinner. Skip it if: you want deep, rounded characters: most are labels; you dislike an open ending; you expect fast, modern action: the explaining is as long as the adventure.

Our ending explained covers the final chapters in full, with spoilers. The Time Machine ending explained: the escape, the far future, the proof, the second trip and the Epilogue. Does the Time Traveller come back? Full spoilers. The Time Machine Ending Explained →

The Time Machine summary by H. G. Wells, chapter by chapter, tracking the Time Traveller's three theories about the Eloi and the Morlocks, up to the ending. Full spoilers. The Time Machine Summary: Chapter by Chapter, Full Plot →

A Victorian inventor, known only as the Time Traveller, builds a machine and rides it to the year 802,701. There he meets the small, gentle Eloi, loses his machine, and has to work out what became of humanity. He tells the story to a dinner party, and a guest writes it down.

The Project Gutenberg text, ebook number 35, has 16 numbered chapters plus a short Epilogue. By our count the story is about 32,000 words, so it is a quick read compared with most classics.

The Time Traveller is the hero, and his name is never given. The storyteller who records his tale is also unnamed. In the far future he meets Weena, one of the Eloi, and the underground Morlocks. At the dinner table are Filby, the Psychologist, the Medical Man and others, most of whom are known by their jobs.

They are the two peoples the Time Traveller finds in the year 802,701. The Eloi live above ground: they are small, gentle, childlike and afraid of the dark. The Morlocks live below ground among machines and avoid the light. The book is spoiler-free about how they relate; our summary and ending pages cover it.

The Project Gutenberg edition, ebook number 35, is the text we used. Its header says it may be copied, given away or re-used at no cost under the Project Gutenberg License.