Talk:The Time Machine (Heinemann text)

Latest comment: 14 years ago by Hypnosifl in topic The Grey Man

The Grey Man edit

In H.G. Wells's original version of The Time Machine for the New Review, he included a section involving kangaroo-like devolved humans and giant caterpillar-like monsters in the extremely far future, but this was cut from the book publication (this is discussed in the wikipedia article about the book.) This missing chapter seems to be entirely unavailable on the internet, so I've typed it up from a book (The Definitive Time Machine, edited by Harry Geduld.) This portion would of course be in the public domain, along with the rest of the book. The problem is that I don't know where to put it -- I think that it should be available on Wikisource, especially as it is not to be found elsewhere; but it should not just be inserted into the Time Machine, since the version without this passage is the common and canonical one. I'm new to Wikisource -- can someone tell me what to do? Kundor 02:56, 23 January 2006 (UTC)Reply

[text moved to The Grey Man.]

I agree it should be referenced in WikiSource, especially since as you claim, it's not available anywhere else online. My suggestion would be to simply insert it where it belongs at the end of Chapter 11, but put that section in a template (do we have a "non-canon" template?), or at the very least;

...normal version...


this section was not included in the final publication of the book

"I have already told you of the sickness and confusion that comes with time travelling. And this time I was not seated properly in the saddle, but sideways and in an unstable fashion.

...continue on with normal version...

Sherurcij 10:05, 23 January 2006 (UTC)Reply
I ended up giving it its own article, The Grey Man, and putting it under "See Also" here. Kundor 16:10, 28 January 2006 (UTC)Reply
If anyone's interested, the complete text of the serialized version from The New Review (some history here) can now be found on google books: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5. Apart from the "Gray Man" episode in part 5, there are some other major differences from the version in wikibooks, especially in part 1 where the beginning is different and there's a lot more discussion of the metaphysics of time travel. Hypnosifl (talk) 05:02, 11 February 2010 (UTC)Reply

Missing chapter? edit

As mentioned in the Wikipedia article for this work, the Great Illustrated Classics version of 'The Time Machine' has an entire chapter not found in other editions. Should this be included in the Wikisource etext, or at least linked to as with "The Grey Man"? I haven't actually been able to find whether it was included in the original manuscript - it doesn't seem likely - and the book is listed as being 'adapted by Shirley Bogart', but it certainly rings true. I do have this edition of the book lying around somewhere, so I would be willing to type up the text of that chapter if it should go up here... --Foghawk 16:16, 4 May 2008 (UTC)Reply

Hi, Foghawk. Do you happen to know who Shirley Bogart is? The thing is, if we want to add a text adapted by them, we must make sure their copyright has expired. Normally, this means their adaption must have been first published in 1922 or earlier.--GrafZahl (talk) 13:23, 5 May 2008 (UTC)Reply

Year category edit

Please add this to Category:1895 works. Thanks. --Spangineerwp (háblame) 06:15, 13 August 2006 (UTC)Reply

Done (belatedly). // [admin] Pathoschild (talk/map) 17:58, 26 September 2006 (UTC)Reply


Suggested text correction: edit

... wasting my time in the academic examination ...
should read
... wasting my time in this academic examination ...
(Chapter 8) see for example the Signet Classics edition searchable at Amazon. unsigned comment by Anais9000 (talk) 17:20, 1 October 2006.

The current phrase seems to the more common, according to Google searches of the two phrases; the current version obtains 345 results, while the suggested version obtains 44. Google Books uses the current version as well; see The Time Machine, page 52 (phrase highlighted). // [admin] Pathoschild (talk/map) 01:46, 2 October 2006 (UTC)Reply


Response: The following print versions use the reading "this academic examination":

William Heinemann, first British edition (29 May 1895)
Dolphin Books Edition (1961)
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame (1971)
Tor Books; Reissue edition (December 1995)
Signet Classics (October 1, 2002)
Pocket (June 29, 2004)

These are just the copies I have on my shelves, or searchable at Amazon.

A completely different version printed in 1902 has "my" instead of either "the" or "this".
http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC51304478&id=vRvkpbM2cnsC&pg=RA8-PA181&dq=wells+%22time+machine%22&as_brr=1

But no printed book I'm aware of -- except those such as the Kessenger edition you cite (2004) and Prestwick House (2006) -- use the reading "the academic examination". They are of course both reprints of the very Gutenberg etext we're discussing. (This is demonstrated in the exact same paragraph by the British single quote usage and the interpolated footnote, complete with square brackets and all cap "--ED.")


<< The current phrase seems to the more common, according to Google searches of the two phrases; the current version obtains 345 results, while the suggested version obtains 44 >>

Doesn't this just prove how easy is it to propagate etext errors?

book edit

is it the real book or just parts of it pasted in the article?

book2 edit

because i really want to know if i'm reading the book or parts pasted from it

As this is a featured text, it has been checked to be complete. It is also protected from modification so it has no vandalism either. If you notice anything that doesnt look right, make a comment here and an administrator will follow up. John Vandenberg 02:16, 29 October 2007 (UTC)Reply

Not to be really nit-picky, but the text posted here as the "Heinemann text" is actually the 1924 Atlantic edition text or some derivative thereof -- though these editions are based on the Heinemann text. The original 1895 Heinemann version had 16 titled chapters and an epilogue, which Wells reorganized in 1924 for the Atlantic edition into 12 untitled chapters and an epilogue.