Synopsis

A man gathers his friends and tells them about his invention of a time machine. He relates his adventures as a time traveller. In this version, he travels to 12, 203 A.D.

History

First publication: National Observer version, serilized March to June 1894.

Wells wrote two drafts after The Chronic Argonauts which were not published and are lost. A friend of Wells told what Wells had told him about them. The first was continuing The Chronic Argonauts where it left off. The second abandoned the plot of Argonauts and tells a story closer to the final story. The main difference was the absence of the Moorlocks. Something like the Moorlocks were involved in the first draft of the Argonauts continuation. This National Observer version was serialized and left unfinished when the editor at the time left the magazine.

Review

This is almost like a summary of the novel. The best known aspects of the later novel are here, just not in a lot of detail. It moves along too quickly through the story. Plus this is a perfect example of “tell, don’t show” writing. The whole thing is a conversation among friends. It lacks the description and the powerful storyline of the version we know best.