Hello avid readers,
It's been a while since I last wrote my last book review. I had time to resume my reading habits over the Easter holidays, and this time I read another classic: The Time Machine, by H. G. Wells.
Can you imagine travelling forwards and backwards in time? There would be numerous advantages. Imagine getting to know the futuristic society, new gadgets, new possibilities,... This is what the main character of the story , the Time Traveller, thought. He conceived time as another dimension and, in the same way one can move in time, one can also move in space.He invented an artifact to travel backwards and forwards in time and told about his breakthrough to a bunch of scientists and other people. After his fellow companions laughed at his idea, not believing in him, he decides to test his machine and travel forward in time and so he does and he ends up in year 802,701. Nothing is quite as he expected. Instead of experiencing a world of endless technological breakthroughs, he ends up in a world inhabited by childlike creatures who seem to be quite happy. In this world, at first, there seem to be no problems, and no wars. In fact, everything is full of fruits and flowers.
However, the Time Traveller will soon discover that this world is not what it looks like. Soon after his arrival, his time machine mysteriously disappears. While trying to explore this new world and find his machine again, the time traveller makes a shocking discovery. This dystopian society consists of two different classes: the Eloi, considered wealthy aristocrats, and the Morlocks, ape-like creatures that live in the underworld in the darkness. They will come out in the dark and feed on the Eloi.
The time traveller will live many adventures fighting the Morlocks while trying to get his machine back. On the way, he will befriend one Eloi girl. After learning about the intricacies of this dystopian world, he manages to use the time machine again and travel even further into the future, where humans no longer exist, and the only inhabitants are some crab-like animals and big insects. When he manages to get back in time to his own era, he tells the story to the group of scientist. No one believes in him, so he promises to use the machine again and bring evidence. However, he will never come back...
The book tackles some of today's problems. The world in the future is not so different from today's world. In that world, society is divided between the upper classes, who have a comfortable life, and the lower classes, who must work hard under difficult circumstances to keep living. Although millions of years have gone by, the essence of the world has practically remained the same. Human violence is also another topic explored in the book. Even though wars have apparently been suppressed, the Morlocks keep fighting and killing the Eloi, human beings keep destroying one another. The working classes are, as a matter of act, reveling against the upper classes. The Eloi's peaceful life can only be granted by the miserable conditions of the Morlocks. As H.G. Wells puts it, history is condemned to repeat itself.
Although H.G. Wells's story is riveting, I sometimes feel that the plot does not unfold the way it should. In my humble opinion, this futuristic world offers a great deal of possibilities and scenarios that H.G. Wells has not explored. This book is not the typical futuristic dystopia and many more details should have been added to make the story a bit deeper and more plausible.
Well, if you are into reading, have a look at my entries on different books: Christmas short stories; my review on William Golding's The Lord of the Flies, my analysis of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, my post on Dickens's Oliver Twist, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain and my entry about Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea; Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo.
However, the Time Traveller will soon discover that this world is not what it looks like. Soon after his arrival, his time machine mysteriously disappears. While trying to explore this new world and find his machine again, the time traveller makes a shocking discovery. This dystopian society consists of two different classes: the Eloi, considered wealthy aristocrats, and the Morlocks, ape-like creatures that live in the underworld in the darkness. They will come out in the dark and feed on the Eloi.
The book tackles some of today's problems. The world in the future is not so different from today's world. In that world, society is divided between the upper classes, who have a comfortable life, and the lower classes, who must work hard under difficult circumstances to keep living. Although millions of years have gone by, the essence of the world has practically remained the same. Human violence is also another topic explored in the book. Even though wars have apparently been suppressed, the Morlocks keep fighting and killing the Eloi, human beings keep destroying one another. The working classes are, as a matter of act, reveling against the upper classes. The Eloi's peaceful life can only be granted by the miserable conditions of the Morlocks. As H.G. Wells puts it, history is condemned to repeat itself.
Although H.G. Wells's story is riveting, I sometimes feel that the plot does not unfold the way it should. In my humble opinion, this futuristic world offers a great deal of possibilities and scenarios that H.G. Wells has not explored. This book is not the typical futuristic dystopia and many more details should have been added to make the story a bit deeper and more plausible.
Well, if you are into reading, have a look at my entries on different books: Christmas short stories; my review on William Golding's The Lord of the Flies, my analysis of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, my post on Dickens's Oliver Twist, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain and my entry about Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea; Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo.
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