The Time Machine (Enriched Clas – H.G. Wells

When the Time Traveller courageously stepped out of his machine for the first time, he found himself in the year 802,700 — and everything has changed. In another, more utopian age, creatures seemed to dwell together in perfect harmony. The Time Traveller thought he could study these marvelous beings — unearth their secret and then retum to his own time — until he discovered that his invention, his only avenue of escape, had been stolen.

　　H.G. Well’s famous novel of one man’s astonishing journey beyond the conventional limits of the imagination first appeared in 1895. It won him immediate recognition, and has been regarded ever since as one of the great masterpieces in the literature of science fiction.

赫·乔·韦尔斯（H.G. Wells, 1866-1946），英国小说家，社会这家、历史学家。他先在伦敦皇家学院师从赫胥黎学习生物学，后于1888年毕业于伦敦大学。1895年出版的科幻小说《时间机器》使他一举成名。该书以奇特的情节和夸张的手法，讽刺资本主义社会的丑恶现象。其后他又发表了一系列的科幻小说，包括著名的《国际战争》《神食》《首先登上月球的人们》等，预言了科学对人类产生重要作用的同时也给人类带来了可怕的灾难，使人们意识到20世纪技术世界的希望一危险同在。1920年发表的100万字的巨著《世界史纲：生物和人类的简明史》，奠定了他作为历史学家的地位。从30年代开始，他积极投身政治，见过罗斯福和斯大林。因此，他生前被认为是有创造性的艺术家，对未来的预言家和积极的社会改革家。