I’d read Jules Verne before (Journey to the Center of the Earth esp), but you think I’d have read the other author who founded the field of science fiction as well. but I’d never read The Time Machine, or The Island of Dr. Moreau, or The Invisible Man. good gravy, what have I been up to all these years?!
ok. I’d seen the movie. even the recent movie that by Wells’ descendant that scandalized everyone. but I’d never read the book.
it’s not the same (shock!) as the movie; of course I knew that, but I didn’t realize how much they added in the movies. I didn’t realize they’d added the clothes shop bit with the changing manequin. and I hadn’t thought about it, but of course they added the part where the stopped during a World War (can’t remember which movie, but the old one I guess)- the book was written long before the World Wars.
in the book, he doesn’t stop at all before he reaches the land of the Eloi & Murdocks.
I didn’t realize they’d cut out part of the ending, either. he actually goes further into time and sees the ultimate fate of the planet, in the book.
and Weena’s fate is a bit different, as well.
his prose is intriguing and engaging. here are a couple quotes to show you what I mean, and I’ll leave you with an urging to read the book:
(1) ”...there was that luxurious after-dinner atmosphere when thought runs gracefully free of the trammels of precision.”
(78) “Looking at these stars suddenly dwarfed my own troubles and all the gravities of terrestrial life. I thought of their unfathomable distance, and the slow inevitable drift of their movements out of the unknown past into an unknown future.”
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