WELLS, H.G.

The Time Machine: An Invention.

"The most important foundation stone of British scientific romance and the science fiction genre in general": First edition, first issue of The Time Machine; inscribed by H.G. Wells

London: William Heinemann, 1895.

$25,000.00

Out of Stock Item Number: RRB-149515

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First English edition, first issue, author's presentation copy of Wells’ groundbreaking “scientific romance” generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel. Octavo, original publisher's oatmeal cloth with titles and sphinx device to the front panel in purple, half-title with advertisements on verso, 16-page publisher's catalogue (headed "Manxman") at rear. Signed by the author on the front free endpaper, "With the author's compliments." In very good condition. A very rare presentation copy.

In 1894 Wells "began writing what he called 'single sitting stories' using his special knowledge of science, culminating in the publication of his novella The Time Machine in 1895… It was an immediate success" (Gunn, From Gilgamesh to Wells, 337). Its earliest readers grasped its significance: as one contemporary review states, "So far as our knowledge goes [Wells] has produced that rarity which Solomon declared to be not merely rare but non-existent—a 'new thing under the sun'" (Bergonzi, 41). Important not only for establishing Wells as a popular author but also for making a "crucial breakthrough in narrative technology, providing science fiction with one of its most significant facilitating devices" (Clute & Nicholls, 1227), "it is the most important foundation stone of British scientific romance and the science fiction genre in general" (Anatomy of Wonder II-1232). Indeed, "once it was published it modified and changed English and American fiction forever… Wells had produced a significant and seminal work… a masterful marriage of the fictive art and theoretical science" (Smith, 46, 50). It has been adapted into three feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions.