Name: The Time Machine
Author: H. G. Wells

How you explore The Time Machine on Literah

The cast, the places, the objects, the plot, and the author’s own words — each one a card in a feed you scroll on your phone. One at a time, at your pace, in any order you like.

Built for your phone. Literah is designed for mobile, so your worlds travel with you. On a laptop it shows a QR code to carry the world to your phone.
A feed, not a wall of text. 14 characters, 11 places, 9 objects and 4 plot beats, each its own card with its own illustration.
The author’s own words. 26 passages of The Time Machine sit in the feed verbatim, exactly as H. G. Wells wrote them, each with a short reading of what it is doing. The map is ours; the prose is always the book’s.
The same scroll, a better world. The gesture you already give away to feeds, spent on H. G. Wells instead.

9:41

The Cast

The Time Traveller

Main

A dust-covered inventor stands in a dinner-room doorway, limping in torn socks as if the future has followed him home.

Locations

Richmond Drawing-Room / Smoking-Room

room

A warm room of cigars and clever doubt becomes the place where the future asks to be believed.

Passage

What if time is not separate from space, but the dimension trapping us?

Read →

The Author’s Pen

The Fourth Dimension

Filby became pensive. “Clearly,” the Time Traveller proceeded, “any real body must have extension in _four_ directions: it must have Length, Breadth, Thickness, and—Duration. But through a natural infirmity of the flesh, which I will explain to you in a moment, we incline to overlook this fact. There are really four dimensions, three which we call the three planes of Space, and a fourth, Time. There is, however, a tendency to draw an unreal distinction between the former three dimensions and the latter, because it happens that our consciousness moves intermittently in one direction along the latter from the beginning to the end of our lives.”

Reading

The Time Traveller is trying to knock down a distinction his guests take for granted: that space is one kind of thing and time another. His claim is that we only think time is different because of a quirk in how we experience it. We move along it steadily in one direction, from birth to death, unable to stop or turn back, and that steady drift fools us into treating it as separate from length and width. Filby, going quiet, is the audience standing in for the reader, sensing where this is headed.

World Index

The Plot

The Time Traveller demonstrates his theory - and vanishesThe year 802,701 - the Eloi are beautiful and helpless - the machine is goneThe Morlock trap - fire in the forest - Weena lost - the machine recoveredThe Time Traveller departs again - and never comes back

The Cast

The Time TravellerThe NarratorWeenaThe EloiThe MorlocksThe PsychologistThe Medical ManFilbyThe EditorThe Very Young ManThe Provincial MayorThe JournalistThe Silent ManMrs. Watchett

Locations

Richmond Drawing-Room / Smoking-RoomThe Dark ForestThe Eloi Great Halls / Surface RuinsThe Far-Future ShoreThe LaboratoryThe Lawn before the White SphinxThe Morlock UnderworldThe Palace of Green PorcelainThe RiverThe WellsThe White Sphinx

Objects of Note

MatchesThe Bronze Doors of the White SphinxThe Camera and KnapsackThe Iron Bar / MaceThe LeversThe Meat in the UnderworldThe Model Time MachineThe Time MachineWeena's Flowers

Core Concepts

Beauty conceals dependence, fear, and hungerClass division hardens into biological divisionDarkness carries the memory of hidden labor and fearExplanation is powerful, but the world keeps correcting itHumanity is not the measure of the universeKnowledge decays when no one can use or renew itProgress without moral growth becomes degenerationTenderness survives where civilization failsTime as a dimension turns thought into irreversible passage

The Author's Pen

The Model Time Machine VanishesThe Time Machine ItselfHis Haggard ReturnNo Interruptions Is It AgreedThe Sensations of Time TravellingThe White Marble FigureA Flow of DisappointmentThe Time Machine Was GoneRescue In The ShallowsThe Lesson of FearGhosts on the HillThe Industrial System PerfectedClambering Into The BlacknessThe Matchlight and the White CreaturesThe Old Order ReversedWeena Beside the CattleThe Ruined PalaceMatches Against the MorlocksThe Fire Coming After MeAlone Among the AshesThe End of the CattleTrapped With the Time MachineThe Red Motionless SunThe Flowers and the DreamThe Time Machine Had Gone

Plot point 01

The Time Traveller demonstrates his theory - and vanishes

A scientist shows his dinner guests a model that disappears into time - then a week later returns to the table injured, wild-eyed, and full of an impossible story.

Objects of Note

The Time Machine

The machine that carries its maker into the far future becomes the thing that strands him there.

The Cast

The Narrator

Main

A dinner guest watches the empty laboratory where a vanished man has left only doubt, flowers, and disturbed ordinary time.

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The Time Machine

H. G. Wells

The cast, locations, objects of note, core concepts, and selected passages in the Author’s Pen - at your own pace.

One of 128 classics in the Literah library

The Time Machine feed, as it appears in your mobile

The plot of The Time Machine

The story beat by beat, as Literah maps it.

The Time Traveller demonstrates his theory - and vanishes
The year 802,701 - the Eloi are beautiful and helpless - the machine is gone
The Morlock trap - fire in the forest - Weena lost - the machine recovered
The Time Traveller departs again - and never comes back

The author's pen in The Time Machine

The passages themselves, H. G. Wells's own words, as Literah maps it.

The Fourth Dimensionch. 1
The Model Time Machine Vanishesch. 2
The Time Machine Itselfch. 2
His Haggard Returnch. 3
No Interruptions Is It Agreedch. 3
The Sensations of Time Travellingch. 4
The White Marble Figurech. 4
A Flow of Disappointmentch. 5
The Time Machine Was Gonech. 7
Rescue In The Shallowsch. 8
The Lesson of Fearch. 8
Ghosts on the Hillch. 8
The Industrial System Perfectedch. 8
Clambering Into The Blacknessch. 9
The Matchlight and the White Creaturesch. 9
The Old Order Reversedch. 10
Weena Beside the Cattlech. 10
The Ruined Palacech. 11
Matches Against the Morlocksch. 11
The Fire Coming After Mech. 12

The characters of The Time Machine

Who is who, as Literah maps it.

The Time Travellermajor
The Narratormajor
Weenamajor
The Eloimajor
The Morlocksmajor
The Psychologistsupporting
The Medical Mansupporting
Filbysupporting
The Editorsupporting
The Very Young Manminor
The Provincial Mayorminor
The Journalistminor
The Silent Manminor
Mrs. Watchettminor

The locations in The Time Machine

Where it happens, as Literah maps it.

Richmond Drawing-Room / Smoking-Roomroom
The Laboratorylaboratory
The Lawn before the White Sphinxgarden
The White Sphinxmonument
The Eloi Great Halls / Surface Ruinsruined hall
The Riverriverbank
The Wellsshaft
The Morlock Underworldtunnels
The Palace of Green Porcelainmuseum
The Dark Forestforest
The Far-Future Shoreshore

The core concepts in The Time Machine

What the book keeps returning to, as Literah maps it.

Time as a dimension turns thought into irreversible passage
Progress without moral growth becomes degeneration
Class division hardens into biological division
Beauty conceals dependence, fear, and hunger
Knowledge decays when no one can use or renew it
Explanation is powerful, but the world keeps correcting it
Darkness carries the memory of hidden labor and fear
Tenderness survives where civilization fails
Humanity is not the measure of the universe

The objects of note in The Time Machine

The things that carry meaning, as Literah maps it.

The Time Machine
The Model Time Machine
The Levers
Matches
The Iron Bar / Mace
Weena's Flowers
The Bronze Doors of the White Sphinx
The Meat in the Underworld
The Camera and Knapsack

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How you explore The Time Machine on Literah

The plot of The Time Machine

The author's pen in The Time Machine

The characters of The Time Machine

The locations in The Time Machine

The core concepts in The Time Machine

The objects of note in The Time Machine

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