The Time Machine

The story is told in the first person. The writer and a group of friends (Filby, the medical man and the psychologist) are at the Time Traveller s house one evening. The Time Traveller explains to them his theory of time, that if a man can go up and down in space, he can also backwards and forwards in time. He shows them a model of his Time Machine and when the psychologist touches ist handle it disappears. The friends are astonished but think it is a trick. The Time Traveller shows them his full-size Time Machine and tells them he means to have a journey in it when it is finished. The next Thursday the friends, together with an editor and a journalist, meet again at the Time Traveller s house. He has left a note that he may be late so they start to have dinner without him. Suddenly he appears; he is in a fearful state, covered with dust and pale and tired. After washing and changing, he joins his friends at the dinner-table. He eats hungrily and then tells the following story: That same morning he had tried out the Time Machine. He travelled forward in time to the year 802, 700. The first thing he saw was a large white sphinx-like figure standing on a bronze base. Then he made first contact with the people of the future. They were pretty and childlike, the men and women were alike, all dressed in soft, rich garments. They carried chains of flowers and put them round his neck. Then they took him into a huge building where fruit was heaped on tables and they signed him to eat. The Time Traveller found out that they were fruit-eaters because domestic animals had died out completely. He began to learn their language and found it was very simple. The little people were like children and soon got tired of his questions. He went out to explore and found he was near the river Thames. There were no small houses, all the great buildings were in a ruinous condition. He realized that this time was the sunset of mankind. Mankind was in a state of decay. The work of civilisation had gone on until it had reached ist highest point. Nature had been conquered. Under the new conditions of perfect comfort and perfect safety restless energy had become weakness. Men use their energy in art or in love and then in the end come idleness and decay. The Time Traveller thought that in this simple explanation he had understood the whole secret of these charming people but it was wrong!

When he came back to the white sphinx he saw the Time Machine had gone. He was mad with despair and ran into the building where the little people were sleeping and shouted at them but they could not understand. The next day he found marks on the ground which showed that the machine must have been dragged into the hollow base of the sphinx. As there were no handles or keyholes he tries to force the door open with a stone and the little people run away horrified. When he stopped, the people were friendly again. The climate was much hotter than in the present time; from every hill he ...