The Time Machine Audiobook By H. G. Wells cover art

The Time Machine

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

The Time Machine

By: H. G. Wells
Narrated by: Scott Brick
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $10.31

Buy for $10.31

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel
"I drew a breath, set my teeth, gripped the starting lever with both hands, and went off with a thud." The time traveler is on his way to a different world -- his world, but 800,000 years in the future. He returns and recounts his journey to his friends at a dinner party.

In the future, humans called the Eloi live in simple luxury. They have become beautiful but meek, living on their safe, comfortable planet. The generations that have passed without challenge or adversity have dulled their minds. Underground machinery, built millennia ago, feeds and clothes these innocent creatures, and still functions perfectly. But who runs the machinery, and why are the Eloi afraid of the night?

©2002 Tantor Media, Inc. Science Fiction Steampunk Fiction Scary Time Travel

Critic reviews

"H.G. Wells's novel The Time Machine is the greatest of all works of pure science fiction." (National Review)
Poetic Prose • Engaging Writing • Excellent Narration • Classic Science Fiction • Solid Pacing • Vivid Imagery
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
Great classic for all. The ending leaves you wanting more. I wish there was another book.

Great classic!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Brilliant writing of course, plus great narration by Scott Brick. Strips away the hollywood version (which I also enjoy) with more imagination.

Classic Sci Fi

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Having read this many many years ago, it still grabs you. The performance was spectacular and the story never gets old.

Still captures and entertains.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Very good and short but strange and at times hard to follow. Worth the listen

Good but strange.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I’ve heard this gentleman read before and he’s the best. Perfect! I’d recommend to everyone.

Amazing read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This was my first Wells book... and I was a little disappointed. The narrator is excellent, but I found the story to be weaker than expected. The main character is flat and underdeveloped, and I felt very un-invested throughout. If you're looking for rich storytelling, vivid imagery and multi-dimensional characters from a classic novel, Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" or "Around the World in 80 Days" are (in my opinion) much more excellent books.

If you are a Wells fan, PLEASE don’t let me discourage you from reading this book! "The Time Machine" is an entertaining story and offers great commentary on what might be the result of man's continued pursuit of comfort and ease. However, if you want to experience this story without taking the time to read it, just rent the Guy Pearce movie. It’s not necessarily better, but at least it’s shorter.

Eh.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I read this as a middle-schooler and a lot of it stuck with me, as it's quite well-dramatized and engaging (and short).

If you're interested in time travel fiction, this is less like Back to the Future (inconsistent story) and 12 Monkeys (consistent story) and more like A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. That is, the time travel aspect isn't there to explore time loops, paradoxes, branching timelines, butterfly effect, or whatever, and is more just the premise to set the fantasy in motion. The most we really get regarding the science of time travel itself is at the beginning, where there's some discussion of time as a fourth dimension with the three dimensions of space (and Wells is writing pre-Minkowski) which really engaged me as a kid-- and there's a bit on how one can occupy a place and travel through it in time without "hitting" anything that also tries to occupy that space (this discussion is muddled).

The story is about a man who travels into the future 800,000 years (so no changing the past here) with a time machine, and gets stuck, needing to recover the machine after some person (?) steals it. It reads to me more like a horror story than science fiction, and I was struck a bit by certain resemblances to Jordan Peele's Us. The exploitation of workers through unchecked captialism leads to an evolutionary forking of the human race into the Eloi, who speak a rudimentary language and are wholly unintellectual and un-inquisitive, who spend their days frolicking and f***ing above ground, and the Morlocks, a subterranean race of flesh-hungry monsters. It's full of horror tropes-- last match goes out as the door swings shut behind you, sealing you in darkness with malicious hands pawing about you-- that sort of thing-- as the time traveler barely escapes the Morlocks in several encounters, until he is ultimately able to escape and tell the tale.

Wells has a real talent for poetic-but-not-overstuffed prose, and the drama/ mystery/ horror keeps the short novella clicking along at a solid pace. The narrator of this particular audiobook is pretty good, but a bit over-dramatic in my opinion (the length of this guy's vowels adds like 15 minutes to the performance). If you're looking for sci-fi, this one is more like Alien (i.e. monsters in the dark) than Primer (i.e. complex time travel story), if that makes sense.

Well-written Horror/ Sci-Fi (Spoilers)

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Where does The Time Machine rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

high middle

What did you like best about this story?

I liked little Weena

Which scene was your favorite?

when Weena slept beside him all cozy

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

WHEN WEENA ...SPOILER ALERT

Any additional comments?

it was a very exciting story but could have gone so much further !

great but too short

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The voice was just right. The actor has range and delivered the performance of my favorite book in just the tone, pace and sincerity I wanted. I appreciate the attention and respect to this masterpiece. I could NOT have asked for anything more.

What stood out was the versatility of voice and respect to the subject matter.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
"Nature does not tax intelligence until instinct and habit are exhausted."

The first chapter proffers a simple explanation of time travel and a brilliant discussion between dinner guests to clarify all questions. From thence starts a thought provoking experience that is fact? Fantasy? Hallucination? Mr. Wells cleverly describes situation in detail (I love this aspect of Victorian fiction) but artfully leaves much up to the reader to ponder and muse. I recommend on a cozy afternoon with some tea.

Thought provoking and creative

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews