Customer Reviews

Bid Time Return

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I first read the paperback version of "Bid Time Return" in the mid to late 70's when I was sick in bed with a fever, which may have affected my delusion that this was an actual biography - not a novel. Mr. Matheson had me completely enthralled, and wanting to believe that this story had really happened. Disappointed to learn that this was merely fiction, my next goal was to perpetuate this wonderful dream by actually visiting Hotel Del Coronado, which I did - several times. Being there only added to the wonderful atmosphere established by the book. I was thrilled when I learned that it would be made into a movie, but disappointed when I actually saw it. The main problem was that it was set in Michigan, not Coronado Island. And though the hotel was beautiful, it was just not the same. After all, Hotel del Coronado was obviously well loved and researched by Mr. Matheson and was perhaps a distant third in importance after the two main characters, Richard and Elise. Also the movie was set roughly 10 years after the novel's time period. I did love the musical score, but felt Mahler's compositions should have been included, as detailed in the book. After this book, I wanted to learn all I could about Richard Matheson, and later bought "What Dreams May Come", and liked it too, but nothing could match "Bid Time Return". I never read "The Shrinking Man", but understand that in this case the movie did live up to the book. (I remember seeing that and being deeply impressed by it back in the '50's when I was a teenager.) While searching the internet, I see there are many fans of "Somewhere in Time" and can't help but wonder how many of them read the original book. I'm interested in reading "Memories of Elise", as I would naturally want to know what happened to her after Richard disappeared before her eyes. (He touched on it when he saw her as an old woman at a small party when he was in college.) But again, since it was patterned after the movie, and not the book, I'm not sure what my response would be. I agree with Mr. Matheson, there couldn't ever be a sequel, as much as his readers would long to keep the story going somehow.

It's 1971, and 36 year-old Richard Collier, dying of a brain tumor, decides to spend his final days traveling the country. On the flip of a coin, he travels toward San Diego, and happens upon an old hotel. There he finds the captivating photograph of a young actress, Elise McKenna, who performed at the hotel in 1896. "... the most gloriously lovely face I have ever seen in my life. I've fallen in love with her." He decides to research everything he can about her, and the more he learns, the more deeply he falls in love with her, and the more deeply convinced he is that; he has been to her time, and that he has had a relationship with her. The 1980 movie, Somewhere In Time, starring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, and Christopher Plummer, was based upon this 1975 novel by Richard Matheson. Though the dates and locations have been changed in the screenplay, also written by Matheson, the movie pretty much follows the book. The novel's pulls on the heartstrings, however, is even more intense, and the ending to the novel is much more tragic. For those who like romantic tragedy, this could possibly be the greatest ever written.

Warning: spoilers below

This is a very good fantasy novel by Richard Matheson. A young man named Richard Collier is suffering from a brain tumor. He decides that he is going to go travelling and flips a penny to decide north or south. The ends up going to San Diego and stays at a historical hotel. While there, he finds a picture of a late 19th century actress named Elisa McKenna and is stunned by her beauty. Becoming obsessed with her, and falling in love with her, he researches her life and becomes convinced that he has known her before, thanks to a remarkable series of coincidences. He also deduces that this is the woman that he saw when one of his plays was being delivered, who was eyeing him from he audience and then went home and died.

Studying books on time, notably J. B. Priestly's Man and Time, he wills himself back to November, 1896 when Elisa McKenna was at the hotel. Once there, he wills himself into her life and becomes her lover. Her mother does not approve, but the real villain of the story is McKenna`s manager, Will Robinson, who tries to have Collier forcibly removed in one memorable scene. Tied up for the evening, and fearing that he has lost her, Collier descends into depression when it turns out that she has stayed overnight while the company has moved on. There starts the most moving part of this book. They make love after hours of talking and upon waking in the middle of the night, Collier decides to burn his notes of the period. He steps outside and Robinson confronts him with ideas of murder. Collier pushes him and retreats back into the bedroom. There, he discovers a lump in his 1896 suit and discovers it to be a 1971 penny. The shock is immediate and the process irreversible: he flips back into into 1971. He declines quickly and dies.

The novel is presented as Collier's brother found it, with an introduction and afterward by him. This is a tremendously well-written book. Its only flaw, if it has one, is that Robinson is not fully fleshed out as a villain and Collier's confrontation with him at the end of the book could have been more memorable. Nevertheless, this is first class story-telling with a marvellous structure.

A terminally ill man falls in love with a famous turn of the century actress. The only trouble is that they are separated by a span of about seventy five years. What is a man to do? Why travel back in time, of course.

That is just what Richard Collier does in order to be with the beautiful Elise McKenna, the woman of his dreams. Or does he? Does he really travel back in time, or is it merely the delusion of a desperately ill man who seeks to find meaning for his existence? Does his tenuous hold on life in the present mirror his equally tenuous hold on life at the turn of the century? Is his death ultimately the only way for these unrequited lovers to be united, at last?

This is a beautifully poignant love story in which the longing the protaganists have for each other is palpable. A bittersweet sadness permeates the pages of this book, as Robert and Elise pass through life, each a shadow on the consciousness of the other. One only hopes that they find in the hereafter, what they were denied in this life.

This wonderfully imaginative and inventive book draws the reader into its fantastical web. A veritable page turner, it is a classic story of a love which will not be denied. Read the book, and then see the movie, "Somewhere in Time" with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. You will not be disappointed.

I wrote a previous review on Bid Time Return. The story really touched me, but what impacted me even more was visiting the actual site depicted as the backdrop for Matheson's book, the Hotel Del Coronado in Coronado, California. Realizing the movie version of this fantastic story (Somewhere In Time) was filmed in a different location, I recently took the opportunity to visit the real site of the novel, Hotel Del Coronado.
If you ever get the chance to visit this location, do it! It is really something to walk the halls and gaze at what was described in the book. It really helps you identify and sense the depth of the story. There's even a gift shop there, in the lower level of the hotel called, Est. 1888. I found that they have copies of Bid Time Return and also a very interesting book too about the filming of the movie, Somewhere in Time Story.
For someone who loves the movie and wants to visit the real thing, the Hotel Del Coronado and the Est. 1888 are both an excellent place to find more of the experience of this timeless story of love.

I cannot shake off the impression that to some extent Matheson himself is the man in the hotel room, convincing himself that he can touch the past. Perhaps it was a by-product of an overwrought imagination coupled with a visit to San Diego. Or did he create a well-rounded, complete work of fiction? Disguised as a speedily chronicled delusion? This is one of a number of novels written along similar lines. Some of them are more thoroughly researched and detailed than this novel, but do not have the same emotional core. At times melodramatic, the novel nevertheless creates a touching love story. This is achieved by a disarmingly complex story structure: Richard Collier becomes willingly enmeshed in a web of inescapable fate. He must go back to Elise McKenna; it is written... In many ways the book is superior to the film, but in the screenplay the structure of the story is rearranged slightly. The pocket watch is moved and creates one of the finest paradoxes in time travel fiction. This simple alteration also serves to greatly intensify the character of Elise McKenna in a single stroke without the need for lengthy prose. I was surprised that I had to order this book on the Internet: an almost overlooked book, echoing the photograph of the young and vibrant Elise McKenna, forgotten, slowly fading away in a hotel museum, waiting patiently... I took a trip to California last year. I 'happened' to go to San Diego. I also happened to visit the Hotel Del Coronado: so curiously and specifically identified by Matheson. Why not invent a hotel along similar lines? I went to set my mind at rest. I went to fail in my attempt to find the portrait of Elise McKenna, or whatever her name may be. The 'Hall of History' was closed for refurbishment. I can be grateful for the fact that my faint delusion remains intact. I have since been told that the photograph is there...

Imagine a perfectly haunting and heartbreaking blend of time travel and timeless romance. This is what you will have the pleasure of reading if you chance a copy of Bid Time Return" by Richard Matheson. This book later released in hardback as "Somewhere In Time" is exquisetly crafted and unique both as science fiction and as a genuine and tragic romance. A dying playright sets out to spend the last of his days on the road. A Chance flip of a coin leads him to a hotel where in the lobby he falls painfully in love with a picture of a beautiful actress who had performed there nearly a century earlier. His love for her growing inexplicably stronger eventually becomes obsession and through a series of subtle and haunting events he crosses the boundary of time itself to meet her and fall deeply in love. Do not expect a trite or trivial love story nor the use of the conventional time travel formula. This book takes a unique approach at the concept of time travel and love offering the idea that physically spanning time is not someting to be achieved through the use of advanced technology or the power of superior races. Rather that the strengh of the mind coupled with the power of true love can span any boundry including time itself to be connsumated. Written in first person perspective "Bid Time Return" will leave the reader with a lingering sense of wonder and sadness. Like waking from a dream of beauty and bliss or watching the last days of summer drift away. The reader will feel a sense of longing for the love they never had for years to come.

This book is a lot better than I expected it to be. It chronicals the last months of a man with a terminal tumor who falls in love with a beautiful silent movie actress. The problem is, the actress happens to be dead. By reading several books and listening to Mahlers 9th symphony, he manages to travel back in time to be with her. In doing this, he also manages to temporarily escape the horrible reality of his own impending death. But, like most books, the ending is not as happy as one would like.

I just love the book. It is a fantasy that will haunt you because we all know that everyone always dream of finding that special someone in time. But this book goes beyond time itself, Richard Matheson wrote such a touching and beautiful story that ever since I saw the movie and I just had to read this book. I just got done reading this book and the setting is a little different from the movie but the story is still there in more details. I would recommend this book to anyone, because to me it is one of the best book I've ever read before. :)

Without rehashing what others have said, I thought "Somewhere in Time" was much more successful, one of the few times when a movie is much better than the book it was based on. Among many other things, my main problem was Richard Collier's characterization in the book: he comes across as a pathetic wimp--it is difficult to fathom why Elise would have been interested in him. Also, the screenplay certainly doesn't suffer from the omission of Richard's cancer as a plot element--there is a plausible explanation for his escape to Michigan (writer's block), and it makes his death all the more poignant because it is only of a broken heart, not a tumor.