Who wrote 'The Time Machine'?

H. G. Wells wrote The Time Machine. Published in 1895, the science-fiction novel introduced an unnamed inventor who travels far into Earth’s future using a machine of his own design.

The book was Wells’s first major novel and helped establish time travel as a central science-fiction theme. The Time Traveller journeys to the year 802,701, where humanity has evolved into two separate groups: the gentle Eloi, who live above ground, and the subterranean Morlocks, who maintain the machinery beneath the surface.

Beyond its adventure plot, the novel explores class division, industrialization, evolution, and the possibility that social inequality could shape humanity’s biological future. The Eloi and Morlocks are often read as exaggerated descendants of Victorian England’s wealthy and working classes.

Readers sometimes confuse Wells with Jules Verne because both writers helped define early science fiction. Their approaches differ: Verne often emphasized plausible engineering and exploration, while Wells used speculative technology to examine society, politics, and human destiny. The author’s name is commonly written H. G. Wells, with periods and spaces.