Book review

The future of mankind is not at all admirable, I guess, for anyone who finished Wells' "The Time Machine". The sympathetic account of the Eloi world is an poignant allegory pessimistically indicating the tradegy of our future. The Morlocks, however, even bear more appalling symbols in the story where these descedants of human species eventually destroy the civilisation created by mankind. Unlike Jules Verne's novels, Wells' cynical tone permeates from cover to cover. "Fin de siecle" was a prevelant theme in late Victorian writings, people began to smell the uneasiness though often implicitly, and writers like Wells inquired "will our future be really better?" in that glorious time where natural sciences flourished much more prosperously than any time in history. Wells was catogorized by Woolf as "materialist" in tandom with other Edwardian novalists, for their over-emphasis on the depiction of external, ephemeral, treacherous matters. Wells was criticized mainly for his over-compact narration with equally detailed portrayal of almost every events, no matter major or minor, within the whole plot. It's true when you read this work, and definitely you will get blase when being confronted by a myriad of similar descriptions of the scenary. Fortunately the intriguing development of the story saved him from that blemish: when the boredom nealy falls down, a new event unfolds, then you get refreshed and move on. Despondantly though Wells sees the future, he flings to us a gleam of hope at the end. The bouquet Weena put into the Time Traveller's pocket leads to the conclusion of the entire story: "even when mind and strength had gone, gratitude and a mutual tenderness still lived on in the heart of man."