The Time Machine
Complete textAn inventor explains time as a dimension to skeptical dinner guests, then returns with an account of a journey into the distant future. His encounters with unfamiliar human societies disturb the expectations he brings from his own world and complicate the meaning of progress.
Continue readingAbout The Time Machine
The framing conversation places extraordinary testimony within a familiar social setting, leaving room for doubt as well as wonder. The traveler's explanations change as new observations undermine his first assumptions. Read the future landscape as something he interprets under pressure, especially where outward beauty encourages a premature account of how its inhabitants live.
Reading focus
Follow the traveler's revised hypotheses as new evidence challenges his first impressions of the future society.
This reading edition contains 32,469 words in 17 original sections. Read the text online with adjustable type and three colour themes, or keep a printable PDF.
Author: HG Wells. Language: English. Reading edition: 28 October 2026.
Opening excerpt
The Time Traveller (for so it will be convenient to speak of him) was expounding a recondite matter to us. His grey eyes shone and twinkled, and his usually pale face was flushed and animated. The fire burnt brightly, and the soft radiance of the incandescent lights in the lilies of silver caught the bubbles that flashed and passed in our glasses. Our chairs, being his patents, embraced and caressed us rather than submitted to be sat upon, and there was that luxurious after-dinner atmosphere, when thought runs gracefully free of the trammels of precision. And he put it to us in this way—marking the points with a lean forefinger—as we sat and lazily admired his earnestness over this new…
Contents
All sections- I. Introduction8 min
- II. The Machine7 min
- III. The Time Traveller Returns10 min
- IV. Time Travelling10 min
- V. In the Golden Age8 min
- VI. The Sunset of Mankind11 min
- VII. A Sudden Shock11 min
- VIII. Explanation20 min
- IX. The Morlocks10 min
- X. When Night Came12 min
- XI. The Palace of Green Porcelain12 min
- XII. In the Darkness13 min
- XIII. The Trap of the White Sphinx5 min
- XIV. The Further Vision9 min
- XV. The Time Traveller’s Return3 min
- XVI. After the Story7 min
- Epilogue2 min
Reading & download help
Is this the complete The Time Machine?
This edition contains the complete English literary text, with 17 sections and 32,469 words. This reading edition preserves the checked English text and its section order. No study notes have been added.
Which PDF should I choose?
A4 is designed for 210 × 297 mm paper; US Letter for 8.5 × 11 inch paper. Both contain the same complete text, selectable text and section bookmarks.
Can I read without signing up?
Yes. Online reading and both PDFs are free. Reading settings and progress stay on this device.