The Time Machine

The Time Machine cemented author H.G. Wells as the father of modern science fiction. In it, the Time Traveller embarks on a staggering journey 800,000 years into the future, where he is propelled to the age of a slowly dying Earth. There he encounters the highly evolved Eloi, as well as the brutish Morlocks who lurk beneath in tunnels. The Time Machine offers a harrowing and penetrating look into a proposed future for mankind, and illuminates its roots in the present. This Essential Classics edition includes a new introduction by Professor Vivian Heller, Ph.D. in literature and modern studies from Yale University.


H.G. Wells was an English writer who pioneered the science fiction genre and wrote more than 100 books during his career. The Time Machine, his first novel, brought him instant fame. Wells is known also as a futurist, his works foretelling the advent of aircraft, tanks, space travel, and nuclear weapons.


Vivian Heller received her Ph.D. in English Literature and Modern Studies from Yale University. She is author of Joyce, Decadence, and Emancipation(University of Illinois Press) and of The City Beneath Us   (W.W. Norton & Company), a history of the building of the New York City subway system.  She is an associate at Columbia’s School of Professional Studies and is the writing tutor for the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. She is also a long-standing member of the non-fiction committee of the PEN Prison-Writing Committee, which awards prizes to inmates from across the country.


Essential Classics publishes the most crucial literary works throughout history, with a unique introduction to each, making them the perfect treasure for any reader’s shelf.