The reason for the existence of the Eloi, there in the far future, those creatures living out their silly lives in a sunny, Eden-like paradise. Many of the philosophical devices were lost on me in 1946. There are the characters - the editor, the psychologist, the narrator, the silent man (who drank a lot), and Filby, "an argumentative person with red hair." There is the novelistic device of guests, gathered around the dinner table of Time Traveller, waiting to hear his unbelievable story: all upper class stuff (thus made more believable) with the champagne, and "the lilies of silver" that "caught the bubbles that flashed and passed in our glasses." Many of the references and techniques of narration that were meaningless back in 1946 now come into focus. Moreau," and "The Time Machine." Broadview has just put out this annotated version of "The Time Machine" and I picked it up, fearful that the magic might have fled but after the first page, I was hooked, yet again. I would lie in my bed of an evening - this was long before television - and read and reread "The Invisible Man," "The War of the Worlds," "The Island of Dr. Before, books were something they crammed down my throat in school, but Wells was a writer who knew how to capture the imagination of the young, and he took me over for a year or so. It quickly became a turning point for me. When I was thirteen or so, I picked up H.
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