The Time Machine: (First Printing in 'The New Review' Vol XII. January to June 1895)

The true first printing of Wells' first novel, published in five parts in The New Review between January and May 1895. Contemporary half brown morocco leather binding with brown cloth boards. Spine with five raised bands and gilt title. Marbled page edges and endpapers. Slight rubbing to spine and corners of boards. Excellent solid binding. Foxing to leading and trailing blanks. Light foxing to title page and final page of text. Small stain to margin of pages 550 and 551 text is otherwise very clean throughout. Slight rippling to upper margin of a few pages. One lower page corner is folded and mis-cut. The text of The Time Machine is very clean and complete in 15 chapters plus epilogue. This work had a complex genesis. Wells first explored the concept of time travel in 'The Chronic Argonauts' published in his college magazine in 1888. He later attempted to suppress the work by buying up all back numbers and destroying them. In 1894 the story was completely rewritten and issued as a series of fictionalised essays in the National Observer newspaper. This series was abandoned however when W.E. Henley stood down as editor. A new draught was finally published in full when Henley took over as editor of The New Review. As Wells states in his introduction to the 1924 edition, there was a struggle between author and editor on the final text, Henley wanted to 'put a little writing into the tale'. As a result Wells added approximately 1000 words to the start of chapter XIII, 'The Further Vision'. This section (later referred to as 'The Grey Man') was removed from both the UK (Heinemann) and US (Holt) first book form editions, published in May 1895. The Grey Man section was copied via mimeograph and issued as a stapled booklet by an American fan in 1940, and only appeared again in a printed publication in 1958, in Satellite Science Fiction magazine. The complete New Review version of the text only appeared in print again in the 1960 Dover omnibus edition, 'Three Prophetic Novels of H.G. Wells'. The first printing of a true classic of the science fiction genre. Rare. Overall condition is Very Good. Size: 6.75 x 9.25 inches (17 x 23.5 cm).