I grew up fascinated by the 1960 adaptation of H.G. Well's The Time Machine, with it's cheesy effects but interesting plot about a victorian era scientist who travels into the future. I was surprised by two things when I read the original book: 1. the movie (note: the 1960 version not the abomination-that-shall-not-be named made in 2002) followed the book rather closely and 2. The book really isn't very long.
Written in 1895, the plot follows the unnamed Time Traveller, an eccentric London scientist, as he recounts to his skeptical dinner guests how he constructed a machine that is capable of traveling in the fourth dimension - time. Traveling thousands of years into the future, the Time Traveller encounters a humanity that has been divided into two deformed mutations of what it once was. One ilk living in ignorant luxury above ground, being raised as human cattle for the more primitive but powerful subterranean Morlocks. His time machine stolen by the Morlocks, he eventually escapes with not much more than his life, traveling even further (and foolishly in my opinion...what happens when you run out of time?) into the future to observe the sunset of life on earth...which apparently involves weird crab-like creatures and lots of moss.
Wells' groundbreaking novella provides thought-provoking speculations about the nature and future of mankind, along with a mildly entertaining adventure.
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