In the summer of 1921, a disenchanted journalist escapes the rat race for a drive in the country. But Mr. Barnstaple’s trip exceeds his expectations when he and other motorists are swept 3, 000 years into the future. The inadvertent time travelers arrive in a world that corresponds exactly to Barnstaple’s ideals: a utopian state, free of crime, poverty, war, disease, and bigotry. Unfettered by the constraints of government and organized religion, the citizens lead rich, meaningful lives, passed in pursuit of their creative fancies. Barnstaple’s traveling companions, however, quickly contrive a scheme to remake the utopia in the image of their twentieth-century world.
A century after its initial publication, H. G. Wells’s novel offers an enduringly relevant look at an ideal society. Conceived in the aftermath of World War I, it reflects the failings of human nature but offers hope for the future, when men and women may live like gods.
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Book the First: The Irruption of the Earthlings
I. Mr. Barnstaple Takes a Holiday
II. The Wonderful Road
III. The Beautiful people
IV. The Shadow of Einstein Falls Across the Story but Passes Lightly by
V. The Governance and History of Utopia
VI. Some Earthly Criticisms
VII. The Bringing in of Lord Barralonga’s Party
VIII. Early Morning in Utopia
Book the Second: Quarantine Crag
I. The Epidemic
II. The Castle on the Crag
III. Mr. Barnstaple as a Traitor to Mankind
IV. The End of Quarantine Crag
Book the Third: A Neophyte in Utopia
I. The Peaceful Hills Beside the River
II. A Loiterer in a Living World
III. The Service of the Earthling
IV. The Return of the Earthling
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A pioneer of science fiction, H. G. Wells (1866–1946) wrote thrilling adventures about time travel, space exploration, alien invasion, and scientific experiments gone awry. His tales of obsession, revelation, and discovery remain compellingly readable and relevant.