Book SummaryThe Time Machine, by H.G. Wells

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The Time Machine

A Victorian scientist builds a machine that can travel through time. In the distant future he finds that, rather than advancing, human civilization has totally collapsed. The Time Machine, first published in 1895, is one of the earliest known science fiction stories. It popularized the concept of time travel and introduced the now-common phrase “time machine.” This literary classic has also gotten two movie adaptations (one from 1960 and the other from 2002) showing that H.G. Wells’s story still captures people’s imaginations over 100 years later.

Herbert George Wells, better known by his pen name H.G. Wells, was one of the most popular writers of the early 1900s. Though he’s best known today for his science fiction...

The Time Machine Summary Exposition: Time Is the Fourth Dimension

The Time Machine begins with the Time Traveller explaining to a group of his friends (including the narrator) that time travel is possible. This is because time is a dimension just like length, width, and height. Furthermore, people should be able to move through time just as they can move through the other three dimensions.

To prove this, the Time Traveller says that nothing could be only three-dimensional, because an object that exists for zero time doesn’t exist at all. He illustrates the point by comparing it to the fact that no object can truly be two-dimensional—anything that exists must have some height, even if it’s as thin as a sheet of paper. Therefore, all objects actually exist in four dimensions (length, width, height, and time).

(Shortform note: The Time Machine is fiction, but it’s true that physicists consider time to be the fourth dimension, although the reasoning is somewhat different than what Wells wrote. Time must be a dimension because, in order to fully explain where an object or an event is, you also have to specify when it’s...

The Time Machine Summary The World of 802701 A.D.

The Time Traveller’s story begins at 10 o’clock that morning (the day of the dinner party), when he finishes his preparations and makes his first journey through time. The Time Traveller goes as far into the future as he dares and lands in the year 802701 A.D.

(Shortform note: The Time Traveller goes approximately 800,000 years into the future. To give that number some context, if he’d gone that far into the past instead, he would have landed in the Paleolithic period

This section will examine the Time Traveller’s adventures in 802701 A.D. It starts by explaining how he meets the peaceful Eloi and begins exploring their world, then discusses his encounters with the dangerous Morlocks.

Meeting the Eloi

The Time...

The Time Machine Summary Escaping From 802701 A.D.

The Time Traveller continues to explore and finds several useful items. Inside the ruins of a museum, he breaks a large metal lever off of an old machine to use as a weapon. Then, in a library filled with decayed books, he finds a box of matches and a jar of camphor (a chemical compound that burns quickly and brightly).

(Shortform note: The ruined museum and library are further signs of civilization’s decay—they’re places associated with culture and education, which the Eloi and Morlocks apparently have no interest in. Only the Time Traveller, who possesses human knowledge and ingenuity, is able to recognize and use the things inside them.)

At this point the Time Traveller decides to go back to the garden, hoping that he can use the lever to break open the pedestal and get his machine back. However, the Morlocks pursue him and Weena, eventually surrounding them and trapping them in the woods. The Time Traveller builds a fire to keep the Morlocks away, and he and Weena fall asleep.

The Morlocks attack during the night despite the fire. The Time Traveller kills several of them with the broken lever, and the rest run away. He then realizes that the fire he started has spread...

The Time Machine Summary Conclusion: Returning to the Present

The Time Traveller lands his machine on the same date he’d started from, at about eight o’clock in the evening. He hears the sounds of the dinner party happening just outside his laboratory, so he greets his guests, cleans himself up, and joins them.

The Time Traveller tells the dinner guests about his journey through time and adds that he doesn’t expect them to believe him. So, as evidence of his travels, he places two strange white flowers—a gift from Weena—on the table. He also points out that the time machine is stained with dirt and grass, which would be impossible had it never left his laboratory.

The guests eventually leave, deep in discussion about what he told them. The narrator can’t sleep that night, and the next day he returns to the Time Traveller’s house uninvited. He finds the Time Traveller getting ready for another journey through time. The Time Traveller says he’ll be back in half an hour, and this time he’ll bring conclusive proof that his story was true.

The story ends with the narrator explaining that three years have passed since that day. The Time Traveller never returned, and the narrator now thinks that he never will. He...

Shortform Exercise: Analyze The Time Machine

Reflect on Wells’s key ideas and how he presents them. Are the themes of societal collapse and existential dread still relevant today? Does the Time Traveller’s story provide a valid solution?

What present-day trends, if any, seem to be leading toward the future that Wells’s Time Traveller saw? For instance, is the divide between the upper class and the working class as extreme or harmful as Wells makes it out to be? Does it seem as though humans are heading for societal collapse and extinction?