Wells was interested in the implications of evolutionary theory on the future of human beings at the biological, sociological, and cultural levels, and The Time Machine, short and readable, draws on many of the social and scientific debates of the time. The Broadview edition of this science fiction classic includes extensive materials on Wells’s scientific and political influences.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Introduction H. G. Wells: A Brief Chronology A Note on the Text The Time Machine: An Invention Appendix A. The Evolutionary Context: Biology Charles Darwin, from The Origin of Species (1859, 1872) E. Ray Lankester, from Degeneration (1880) Thomas H. Huxley, from “The Struggle for Existence in Human Society” (1888) H. G. Wells, from “Zoological Retrogression” (1891) H. G. Wells, from Text-Book of Biology (1893) Thomas H. Huxley, from “Evolution and Ethics” (1893) H. G. Wells, “On Extinction” (1893) H. G. Wells, from “The Man of the Year Million” (1893) H. G. Wells, from “The Extinction of Man” (1894) Appendix B. The Evolutionary Context: Society Thomas Carlyle, from Past and Present (1843) Karl Marx, from various writings (1844-64) Frederick Engels, from The Condition of the Working-Class (1845) Benjamin Disraeli, from Sybil (1845) Herbert Spencer, from Social Statics (1851) Herbert Spencer, from First Principles (1862) Jules Verne, from The Child of the Cavern (1877) Henry George, from Progress and Poverty (1880) Edward Bellamy, from Looking Backward (1888) Thomas H. Huxley, from “The Struggle for Existence in Human Society” (1888) William Morris, from News from Nowhere (1890) Benjamin Kidd, from Social Evolution (1894) Appendix C. The Evolutionary Context: Culture Winwood Reade, from The Martyrdom of Man (1872, 1875) Friedrich Nietzsche, from The Joyful Wisdom (1882, 1886) H. G. Wells, from “The Rediscovery of the Unique” (1891) Max Nordau, from Degeneration (1892, 1895) Appendix D. The Spatiotemporal Context: The Fourth Dimension Edwin A. Abbott, from Flatland (1884) C. H. Hinton, from “What Is the Fourth Dimension?” (1884) “S,” “Four-Dimensional Space” (1885) E. A. Hamilton Gordon, from “The Fourth Dimension” (1887) Oscar Wilde, from “The Canterville Ghost” (1887) William James, from The Principles of Psychology (1890) Simon Newcomb, from “Modern Mathematical Thought” (1894) Appendix E. The Spatiotemporal Context: Solar Death and the End of the World Jonathan Swift, from Gulliver’s Travels (1726) William Thomson, from “On the Age of the Sun’s Heat” (1862) Balfour Stewart, from The Conservation of Energy (1874) Balfour Stewart & Peter Guthrie Tait, from The Unseen Universe (1875) George Howard Darwin, from “The Determination of the Secular Effects of Tidal Friction by a Graphical Method” (1879) George Howard Darwin, from “On the Precession of a Viscous Spheroid” (1879) H. G. Wells, from “The ‘Cyclic’ Delusion” (1894) Camille Flammarion, from Omega (1894) Appendix F. Extracts from Wells’s Correspondence Appendix G. Wells on The Time Machine H. G. Wells, from “Popularising Science” (1894) H. G. Wells, from “Preface,” Works of H. G. Wells, Vol. 1 (1924) H. G. Wells, from “Preface,” The Time Machine: An Invention (1931) H. G. Wells, from “Preface,” Seven Famous Novels (1934) H. G. Wells, from Experiment in Autobiography (1934) H. G. Wells, from “Fiction About the Future” (1938) Appendix H. Reviews of The Time Machine From Review of Reviews [London] (March 1895) From Review of Reviews [New York] (June 1895) New York Times (23 June 1895) Spectator (13 July 1895) Literary World (13 July 1895) Nature (18 July 1895) From Saturday Review (20 July 1895) Daily Chronicle (27 July 1895) Israel Zangwill, from Pall Mall Magazine (September 1895) From Review of Reviews [New York] (October 1895) Appendix I. Contemporary Portraits of Wells From Bookman (August 1895) “Picaroon,” from Chap-Book [Chicago] (1896) Selected Annotated Bibliography Works Cited