An Invention
The Time Machine An Invention
Heinemann, 1895.
First UK edition, first issue in oatmeal grey cloth lettered in purple, top and foredges uncut (i.e. Curry's A state). Sixteen undated pages of adverts at the rear headed The Manxman. A very good copy indeed, with some tanning to spine and some dustiness to the covers, though less than is usually seen. Internally clean.
In 1888 Wells had written a series of articles concerning time travel entitled "The Chronic Argonauts" for The Science Schools Journal, a magazine that he had founded whilst a student. Some six years later he revised them for the National Observer, and then rewrote them as the serial "The Time Traveler's Story" for the The New Review. The editor of both journals, W.E. Henley, then persuaded Heinemann to publish the whole story as a book. So it was that Wells came to write The Time Machine, not only his first novel but also a pioneering highlight of the science fiction genre.
"And if you want to know what impresses me it is to see how you contrive to give over humanity into the clutches of the Impossible and yet manage to keep it down (or up) to its humanity, to its flesh, blood, sorrow, folly. THAT is achievement!" (Joseph Conrad)
Stock ID: 46479
£5,000.00
