Scholarly Editions: H.G. Wells' The Time
Machine - Annotated with an Introduction
This annotated
edition of H. G. Wells' first and justly most famous novel, The
Time Machine, is meant to encourage the pursuits of scholars
who are either encountering Wells' influential classic for the
first time or are returning to it in order to delve more deeply
into its antecedents and influences.
In a story
that continues to have resonance for the modern reader, Wells
imagined his future world deeply divided along class lines which
had split the human species into two: the Morlocks, malign, underground
proletariats, and the Eloi, futile, beautiful aristocrats. His
Time Traveller slips from one age to another in what proves to
be both a parable about British society and debate about human
nature and the fragile flower that is "gratitude and a mutual
tenderness."
In the introduction
to the text, I also present a reading of the novel through the
lens of Marx, Darwin, and Freud, and outline its major themes
and concerns, including the importance of Weena, which former
scholarship has overlooked or ignored. In order to trace the antecedents
of the text, I include here an introduction to Herbert George
Wells and his work, as well as an annotated version of the rather
derivative Chronic Argonauts and the strikingly original
novel it became.
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