The Time Machine and The Invisible Man (Signet classics) (Paperback)

by H.G. Wells (Author), John Calvin Batchelor (Introduction) "THE TIME TRAVELLER (for so it will be convenient to speak of him) was expounding a recondite matter to us..." (more)
Key Phrases: time traveller, man with the black beard, invisible man, Time Machine, Medical Man, Doctor Kemp (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
In the first of these two science fiction stories a scientist invents a machine that transports him into the future. In the second story a man watches his body slowly become invisible.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From Alfred Mac Adam’s Introduction to The Time Machine and The Invisible Man

The Time Machine (1895) and The Invisible Man (1897) are now more than a century old. Yet they endure as literary texts, radio plays, and movies, because they appeal directly to two of our deepest desires: immortality and omnipotence. The time machine would allow us to escape death and gain knowledge of the fate of the earth, while invisibility would enable us to go and come as we please, under the noses of friends and enemies. At the same time, both fictions show us the dangers of fulfilled wishes: The Time Traveller discovers the future of humanity is not bright but hideously dark, while the Invisible Man drowns in the madness brought about by his own experimentation.



Of course, what Herbert George Wells (1866–1946) wanted to express in these fantasies and what generations of readers have made of them are two radically different things. Erroneously labeled “science fiction,” and tricked out in their film versions with all kinds of fanciful devices with flashing lights and ominous buzzers Wells never mentions, they are really tales that enact the author’s theories and speculations about human society, human nature, and natural history in allegorical fashion. That is, the “science” in Wells’s fictions is nothing more than stage machinery. But, ironically, it is the machinery that has come to dominate our collective imagination.



There is nothing unique in this. Think of Gulliver’s Travels (whose long-forgotten original title is Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World), a book that Wells read as a boy and reread throughout his life. In 1726 Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) satirized English political parties, religious quarrels, theories of world government, and science, but his work was so grounded in eighteenth-century British culture that today’s readers need extensive preparation to fathom it. The story of Lemuel Gulliver’s visits to lands populated by giants or intelligent horses has, however, become a staple of children’s literature. The same applies to Robinson Crusoe (1719), by Daniel Defoe (1660–1731). Only scholars see the relationship between Crusoe’s shipwreck and Defoe’s ideas on the fate of the middle classes during the Restoration, when Charles II returned to England in 1660. Defoe’s message and all his political intentions have been lost, but his story endures as a wonderful demonstration of self-reliance. In the literature of the United States, we have the example of Herman Melville (1819–1891) and his Moby-Dick (1851): Most readers learn about the ambiguous struggle between good and evil embedded in the work long after they’ve read a novel about nineteenth-century whaling and the strange characters engaged in that dangerous work.



Much the same has taken place with Wells’s Time Machine and The Invisible Man. Wells cloaked his ideas about the future of society and the role of science in the world so well that readers simply do not see those issues and instead read his short novels as examples of a kind of fiction based on the simplest of propositions: “What if it were possible to travel through time by means of a machine?” or “What if it were possible to make oneself invisible?” In a world—one we share with Wells despite the fact that more than a hundred years separates the moment he published these two works from our own age—when scientists seem to make discoveries every day, it requires no great leap of imagination, no “willing suspension of disbelief,” to accept the basic premise of each text.



This is what differentiates Wells from Jules Verne (1828–1905), author of Voyage to the Center of the Earth (1864) and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873). Wells, in a 1934 preface to a collection of his early fictions comments on why they are not comparable to Verne’s writings:

These tales have been compared with the work of Jules Verne and there was a disposition on the part of literary journalists at one time to call me the English Jules Verne. As a matter of fact there is no literary resemblance whatever between the anticipatory inventions of the great Frenchman and these fantasies. His work dealt almost always with actual possibilities of invention and discovery, and he made some remarkable forecasts. . . . But these stories of mine . . . do not pretend to deal with possible things; they are exercises of the imagination in a quite different field. They belong to a class of writing which includes the Golden Ass of Apuleius, the True Histories of Lucian, Peter Schlemil, and the story of Frankenstein. . . . They are all fantasies; they do not aim to project a serious possibility; they aim indeed only at the same amount of conviction as one gets in a good gripping dream (The Complete Science Fiction Treasury of H. G. Wells).

Wells links himself to a tradition, but at the same time he misleads the reader. It is true, as he says in the same preface, that “The invention is nothing in itself,” by which he means that the applied science of Verne is of no interest in his kind of tale. It is also the reason why rediscoveries of Verne, especially films, are always set in the past: His projections became fact very quickly. By the same token, this explains why Wells’s inventions and their ramifications will always be modern.

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Signet Classics (December 4, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451522389
• ISBN-13: 978-0451522382
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,032,498 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Timeless (no pun intended), January 24, 2001

By	buddyhead (Taxachusetts) - See all my reviews

These stories have not lost a step in the 100+ years since they were written, and they capture the imagination as well as anything since captured on film or in print. The invisible man is a great villain- evil enough to disdain, complex and tortured enough to make you wonder if you should pity him as well. The Time Machine is brilliant all the way through, from its inception in the study of the Time Traveler's home to the end, when he travels millions of years in the future to scurry back to his machine at sight of a huge amorphous form in the distance. Wells' depiction of the distant future seems no less accurate- and is no less exciting- than any since described anywhere.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic tales from a pioneer of american Science-Fiction., January 29, 1997

By A Customer

H. G. Wells is one of the earliest pioneers of Science-Fiction writings. In this book, two of his most classic stories are told. It makes one wonder how a man of the late 1800's could come up with ingenius ideas as time travel and invisibility. The Time Machine and The Invisible Man portray the imaginary strengths of H.G. Wells

The Time Machine is a story told by a time traveller to a group of local dignitaries. He tells about his trip to the year 802,701 A.D. and how the world has degressed slowly technologically and how humans evolve to two seperate species. One species is peaceful and kind earth-dwelling vegetarians, while the other species are nocturnal cave dwellers who happen to be cannibals. The time machine is stolen from the time traveller and he must find it to get back to his own world.

The Invisible Man accounts of a personal story of a man who comes upon the means to become invisible. After becoming invisible, he finds out that living in the world was going to be different. Read about how he finds shelter, clothing, and food. The Invisible Man goes into a mad-panic and starts murdering innocent people. Now the townspeople must fight back--if they can find him

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This edition is comical; avoid., February 15, 2008

By	Douglas J. Paulsen - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Time Machine and The Invisible Man (Barnes & Noble Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

1 star for the edition, 5 stars for the stories = 3 stars.

Imagine that you are the typical Barnes and Noble customer. You like to walk in, grab a coffee, roam around for awhile, and look for good books and good deals. You wander up to the Barnes and Noble Classics section, and spot `The Time Machine' and `The Invisible Man', both by H.G. Wells, in one book for 5 bucks. "I've always wanted to read H.G. Wells," you think to yourself. You pay for it and head to a chair with your still warm coffee to sit down and do a little fun science fiction reading. As with all Barnes and Noble Classics, this one has an introduction by some supposed literary expert, so you start with that. This one is written by Alfred Adam, a comparative literature professor.

Soon you learn from Mr. Adam that his book is not science fiction, but instead is dark social commentary. Before you realize it, you're plunged into an analysis of Marxian thought tied up with Hegelian history and Well's own experiences in the late 19th century. Worse, before having even read either of the stories you know (for example, in The Time Machine) the central characters, the races of the future and how they relate to Well's view of the "loss of human consciousness," vital plot points no `introduction' should include, and an analysis of the ending! And the same occurs with his description of `The Invisible Man.' For example; on the last page of the introduction is an exact description of what happens to the invisible man at the end of the story. Before you even get to the stories, you find yourself already depressed at what Mr. Adams takes as Well's vision of the world, as well as having read plot spoilers and the endings to each story. Somehow un-fazed, you drive on.

So you begin to read the story. However, before you even get past the first sentence you begin to encounter bizarre footnotes. The same person who already ruined the stories for you has followed you into the stories themselves! And for whatever reason (my guess is that he is a little elitist), he seems to feel the need to translate words he doesn't think you'd understand. Vastly difficult words like `unhinged' and `saddle,' which he helpfully tells you mean `upset' and `bicycle seat.' You can't help but chuckle to yourself as you read these footnotes, yet you find yourself irritated at the fact that you were interrupted in order to find out the meaning of the verb `to dress' (`put on an evening dress, or tuxedo, for dinner.')

But the fun doesn't end there. There are endnotes as well! These mostly lack the comical nature of the footnotes (mostly; note 7 of chapter 1 of `The Time Machine' informs you that when the narrator spoke, and describes the sentence with "said I", that this is the narrator speaking and is therefore an objective viewpoint.)

You do manage to make it through `The Time Machine," as it is fairly short, though not without struggle. You fight off the urge to go put the book you bought back on the shelf, or better yet in the garbage, or better yet to go put all the remaining copies in the `humor' section. Instead, you cut your losses and walk out the door. As you do, you think to yourself, "Well, this edition took all the joy out of reading what should be an enjoyable story..."

In all seriousness, do not buy this edition. Yes, you get two H.G. Wells' stories in a compact book for $5, but there are much better editions out there for not much more. Or read it online. When I read older `classics,' I already have a good idea of what the book will be like, or about. Then I just want a cheap edition in which to read it. I very much enjoyed both `The Time Machine' and `The Invisible Man.' But the edition should allow me to read the stories without distraction, and the intro should be a little background on the author and the period in which it was written. This introduction was completely misplaced, and the footnotes were comical. Avoid this book; buy a different edition.