The Time Machine for English learners: level, words and how to read it
H. G. Wells’s 1895 novella invented the time machine as we know it. It is short and exciting, but its Victorian scientific style is a real workout. Here is how difficult it is and how to read it in the original.
- Author
- H. G. Wells
- Published
- 1895
- Level
- B2
- Words
- 32,686
- Chapters
- 12
- Reading time
- ≈ 4 h
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What the book is about
A Victorian inventor, known only as the Time Traveller, explains to his dinner guests that time is simply a fourth dimension. A week later he stumbles into the same dining room, dusty and limping, and tells them where he has been: the year 802,701.
There he found the Eloi, small, gentle, childlike people living in idle comfort among ruined palaces, and the Morlocks, pale creatures who live underground and come out only at night. When his machine disappears, he has to understand this world to get home. Later he travels even further, to the dying Earth under a huge red sun.
Themes
- Social class. The Eloi and the Morlocks can be read as the distant future of Victorian upper and working classes.
- Evolution. Wells asks what comfort and inequality would do to humans over hundreds of thousands of years.
- Progress and its risks. Technology and a perfect easy life do not necessarily make people better.
- Time travel. The book that started a genre, still surprisingly fresh.
How hard is The Time Machine to read in English?
Most of this book is made of everyday English. The 2,000 most common words cover 82.7% of it, so a learner who knows only those meets about 17 new words in every hundred. At 5,000 known words that drops to around 10, and at 10,000 to about 6.
Reading without help feels easy at about 98% familiar words (see our guide), which puts this book at C1 by vocabulary. You do not need to know every word in advance, though: with tap-to-translate it works from B2. On our list it sits between A Christmas Carol, which is a little easier, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which is a little harder.
What is hard: the first chapter is a scientific debate about dimensions, Victorian vocabulary with old meanings (presently means “soon”, fancied means “imagined”) and long descriptions of the future landscape. What helps: the book is very short, about four hours, the adventure moves fast once the journey begins, and the first-person narration keeps it personal.
Our take: C1 by vocabulary, but short and gripping. From B2 it is a great choice with tap-to-translate, especially for fans of science fiction.
Words to know before you start
Below are words that come up again and again in The Time Machine but are rare in modern English. Knowing them before you start saves a lot of tapping in the first chapters.
| Word | Meaning | Times in the book |
|---|---|---|
| presently | soon, after a short time (old use) | 28 |
| sphinx | a statue with a lion’s body and a human head | 23 |
| lever | a handle used to operate a machine | 17 |
| pedestal | the base a statue stands on | 11 |
| porcelain | fine white ceramic | 11 |
| camphor | a white substance that burns easily | 11 |
| blackness | complete darkness | 11 |
| fancied | imagined, thought (old use) | 9 |
| motionless | not moving | 7 |
| innumerable | too many to count | 4 |
How to read it in the original
- Do not get stuck in chapter 1. The theory of the fourth dimension is the hardest part; the story itself is much easier.
- Know the old meanings. Presently (soon) and fancied (imagined) appear often; translating them in their modern sense will confuse you.
- Picture the world. Wells describes the future in detail; imagining it scene by scene helps you follow.
- Read it in two evenings. About 33,000 words: the journey and the return fit nicely into two sittings.
The first line
The Time Traveller (for so it will be convenient to speak of him) was expounding a recondite matter to us.
H. G. Wells, The Time Machineconvenienteasy, practicaladjective
Tap a highlighted word
The hero never gets a name, only a title. And the very first sentence uses a rare word, recondite (obscure, hard to understand): a hint of the scientific tone of the opening chapter.
Frequently asked questions
Is The Time Machine hard to read in English?
Its vocabulary is around C1, and the first chapter is a scientific discussion. But the book has only about 33,000 words and a fast adventure plot, so with tap-to-translate it is enjoyable from B2.
What English level do I need for The Time Machine?
From B2, if you translate unknown words with a tap. Reading without any help needs about C1. If it feels too hard, start with A Christmas Carol, which is a little easier.
