The Time Machine is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, published in 1895. It is generally credited with the popularisation of the concept of time travel by using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposefully and selectively. The term "time machine," coined by Wells, is now universally used to refer to such a vehicle. This work is an early example of the Dying Earth subgenre. The Time Machine has since been adapted into two feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions, and a large number of comic book adaptations. It has also indirectly inspired many...

Written by H. G. Wells at the height of the cycling craze of 1890-1905, when practical and comfortable bicycles first became widely and cheaply available and before the rise of the automobile. The advent of the bicycle stirred sudden and profound changes in the social life of England. Even the working class could travel substantial distances, quickly and cheaply, and the very idea of travelling for pleasure became a possibility for thousands of people for the first time. This new freedom affected many. It began to weaken the rigid English class structure and it gave an especially powerful...

THE WAR OF THE WORLDS has captivated readers ever since H.G. Wells first alerted us that, ." . . intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes . . ." Orson Welles directed and starred in a radio version in 1938 said to have caused a national panic. It was also adapted into celebrated film versions by George Pal (1953) and Steven Spielberg (2005). This volume features an introduction and commentary by science fiction writer Dave Creek, along with his short story sequel, "The Adventure of the Martian Cylinder," in which H.G. Wells meets Sherlock Holmes

The story of William Porphyry Benham is the story of a man who was led into adventure by an idea. It was an idea that took possession of his imagination quite early in life, it grew with him and changed with him, it interwove at last completely with his being. His story is its story.

The protagonist of The History of Mr. Polly is an antihero inspired by H.G. Wells' early experiences in the drapery trade: Alfred Polly, born circa 1870, a timid and directionless young man living in Edwardian England, who despite his own bumbling achieves a sort of contented serenity with little help from those around him. Mr. Polly's most striking characteristic is his "innate sense of epithet," which leads him to coin hilarious expressions like "the Shoveacious Cult" for "sunny young men of an abounding and elbowing energy," and "dejected angelosity" for the ornaments of Canterbury...

The novel follows the conflict between Ellen Sawbridge a tall, sensitive, graceful woman with her inherently domineering husband Sir Isaac Harman, a self-made man who has grown rich as the proprietor of International Bread and Cake Stores and Staminal Bread. Sir Isaac being .

Featuring two protagonists, Marjorie Pope, the oldest daughter of a carriage manufacturer whose business has been ruined by the advent of the automobile, and R.A.G. Trafford, a physicist specializing in crystallography whom she marries against the wishes of her family at the age of 21. The novel traces the history of their relationship, which begins when an early airplane Trafford is piloting crashes into the garden of a house Marjorie's family is renting for the summer. . .