Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Time Machine (Broadview Literary Texts) by H. G. Wells, Nicholas Ruddick, H.G Wells ISBN: 1-55111-305-8 Publisher: Broadview Press Pub. Date: February, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.24 (198 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A "TIMELESS" CLASSIC
Comment: Written by H.G Wells in late19th century London, the style, pace, and language used in the book are what you would expect from an English book of that time. Very old fashioned and complex- but beautiful and captivating. The Time Machine has become an undisputed classic, almost everyone has read it. A short book, it is only 123 short pages, but a powerful and moving one. Raising legitimate and puzzling questions about the future of the human race, and illustrating just how easily humans can be reduced to animalistic behavior make this book more than just a light hearted adventure story. The Time Machine makes you seriously think, and takes you on one hell of an adventure along the way.
Although it was written in England more than 100 years ago, it was far ahead of its time. Ironically, I believe this old, English book to be the quintessential modern American novel. Why? It's short, fast paced, action packed, highly enjoyable, and easily digestible. Sounds what Americans nowadays look for n books, music, and movies doesn't it? At the same time, it brings up serious questions about the fate of humanity and invokes powerful emotions. All books have some problems, and The Time Machine is no exception. Despite its flaws, it is a "timeless" classic.
Strong points of The Time Machine include lovely prose, ingenious plotting, perfect pacing and rhythm, thought provoking and meaningful questions, and a clearly expressed distaste (on the part of H.G. Wells) for theatrical devices, conformity and predictability that so often haunt most books (even those that have attained "classic" status). Wells does do a fantastic, and nearly unrivaled, (so far as I've read) job of describing emotions and feelings, particularly negative ones: "I felt hopelessly cut off from my own kind - a strange animal in an unknown world. I must have raved to and fro, screaming and crying upon god and fate."
Unfortunately, Wells falls short in some aspects just as much as he excels in others. The imagery and synesthesia is underdeveloped (one reason for the brevity of the book), the story is everything. Wells has great ideas and stories, but can't develop a character for his life. Mysterious (in a bad way) characters, most of which have no names, are given no physical descriptions, no information is given about their background, and no impression of their true temperament revealed. In fact, he can't really describe anything (characters, animals, buildings, scenery, etc) beyond vague measurements. That being said, this does not detract from the book at all. Some of the greatest Sci-Fi novels of all time (including everything by Asimov) all suffer from these problems. It's just the way Sci-Fi is written.
Characterization in the book was weak, so there is not much to say about the unnamed "Time Traveler." We know he is male, and we know he is a brilliant scientist that lives in the 19th century. No family history or background information is given, and we have no idea what he was doing before the story began, or what his life is really like. He has one objective: to find out what happens to the human race in the future.
Through the rest of the book we do learn a little more about him, and gradually we come to realize that he is a good deal more complicated than one might first assume. The beginning of the story sees his arrival in the future as a composed and intellectual man. From the point his time machine is stolen on, he goes through a transformation. Desperate and isolated in a strange new world, he becomes over-emotional, upset, frustrated, and seriously disturbed at finding the human race in its current state. As he learns more about his future society, his own humanity begins to slip away. Anger, hatred, vengeance, sadism, replace his previous feelings of helplessness. "I could hear the succulent giving of flesh and bone under my blows, and for a moment I was free. The strange exultation that so often seems to accompany hard fighting came upon me." This transformation happens in a matter of days. H.G. Wells is trying to show that given the right circumstances, how easily a supposedly "refined" and "civilized" can be reduced into a snarling beast. Or in the case of all humanity, simple and ignorant children.
"It is a law of nature we overlook, that intellectual versatility is the compensation for change, danger, and trouble. An animal perfectly in harmony with its environment is a perfect mechanism. Nature never appeals to intelligence where there is no change and no need of change. Only those animals partake of intelligence that have to meet a huge variety of needs and dangers."
Rating: 4
Summary: A Colorful and Imaginative Book
Comment: H.G. Wells' timeless novel, "The Time Machine," was a great book and well worth my TIME. You will wish some elements of this story were real so you could go back and read it again and again. This story is about a man who studys about the 4th dimension (time). He comes up with a remarkable idea and decides to build a time machine! With this machine, he is able to travel forwards or backwards in time. He travels way into the distant future, about 803 thousand years from now. He lands in a mystical place with gentle, little inhabitants called the "Eloi." They are human-like people that have evolved over time. On his journey, he is faced with many qualms and incorrigible situations. How does he deal with these problems? Does he make it back to his old time dimension? Read the book to find out...
I particularly enjoyed this book because it kept me wondering and on the edge of my seat. It also stretched my imagination so much, as if I were back in the third grade! H.G. Wells' vivid interpretations of the future were interesting and suspenseful; For those reasons, "I dub thee 4 stars."
Rating: 4
Summary: The Time Machine is one book you don't want to miss out on!
Comment: The Time Machine written by H.G.Wells is an all around great book. The way H.G.Wells describes the characters in this book is superb and it keeps you interested the whole time.
There were several aspects I liked about this book. One being the way he describes the characters. He describes them with such great detail from the way they look to the way they act. One group that he meets is called the Eloi. The Time Traveller describes them by saying, " Then I felt other soft little tentacles upon my back and shoulders. There was nothing in this alarming. Indeed, there was something in these pretty little people that inspired confidence, a graceful gentleness, a certain childlike ease. And besides they looked so frail that I could fancy myself flinging the whole dozen of them about like nine-pins. But I made a sudden motion to warn them when I saw their little pink hands feeling the Time Machine. And then I looked more nearly into their features, and I saw some futhur peculiarities in their Dresde-china type of prettiness. Their hair was uniformly curly, their ears were singularly minute, their mouths were small and bright red, and there eyes were large and mild." There is so much description in that quote and I just love it. It's so good that you can make a picture in your head of what they would of looked like.
A second aspect in the book that I liked was when the Time Traveller relizes his Time Machine had vanished. I really like this part in the book because without his Time Machine there's no way he can get back and it makes you wonder what happened to it and what is going to happen to him. I loved how it just left you wondering. The Time Traveller says " When I reached the lawn my worst fears were relized. Not a trace of the thing was to be seen. I felt faint and cold when I faced the empty space amoung the black tangle of bushes. I ran around it furiously, as if the thing might be hidden in a corner and then stopped abruptly, with my hand clutching my hair. Above me towered the sphinx, upon the bronze pedestal,white,shining,in the light of the rising moon." When you find out it's behind the bronze doors it makes it even more interesting because you say to yourself how did the Time Machine get back there and how is the Time Traveller going to get it back? It makes you wonder what kind of creature is behind that door and that is why that makes this part of the novel so good.
A third aspect I liked about the book is when the Time Traveller saved a Eloi named Weena from drowning in the river. I enjoyed the part when they became friends after Weena kept following the Time Traveller everywhere. The Time Traveller says, " She was exactly like a child. She wanted to be with me always. She tried to follow me everywhere." At first the Time Traveller trys to leave her but then relizes he liked having her around. So from then on they were friends and I thought that was a really sweet part in the book and I liked it a lot.
A fourth aspect I liked about the book was when he met the Morlocks. He described them as subterranean,ape-like vermin. He could tell by there smell and appearance that they were obviously carnivores but they had stolen his Time Machine and he wanted it back. He figured out that the Morlocks would eat the Eloi at night when they grew hungry and that is why the Eloi feared darkness. I liked learning about these creatures because they were different then anything I had ever heard or read about it. I thought they were cool characters even though they ate the Eloi.
There was a fifth aspect in the book that I didn't like. It was when the Time Traveller and Weena were making there way home in the dark and all of a sudden these Morlocks start to surround them. The Time Traveller lights a match to scare them away but evenually ignites a larger fire to slow them down. Soon enough the whole forest is on fire and the Time Traveller makes it out ok but Weena doesn't and she dies. The time Traveller is very upset by this because they had become such great friends. I thought this was a very sad moment in the book becuase Weena was such a nice and gentle character and then she gets killed by a fire. I didnt like how that happened and that is why this is one aspect in the book I didn't like.
Overall The Time Machine is a awesome book. Its one of those books that you pick up and you can't put it back down because it always keeps you wondering what is going to happen next. Anyone who hasn't read this should definitely read it because this is one book you don't want to miss out on!
 |
Title: The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells ISBN: 0812505158 Publisher: Aerie Pub. Date: 15 February, 1993 List Price(USD): $3.99 |
 |
Title: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne ISBN: 0812550927 Publisher: Tor Classics Pub. Date: 15 October, 1995 List Price(USD): $3.99 |
 |
Title: Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne ISBN: 0140022651 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1965 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
 |
Title: The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells ISBN: 0553214322 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 May, 1994 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
 |
Title: The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells ISBN: 0486270718 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 05 February, 1992 List Price(USD): $2.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
