SOURCE: Lake, David J. “The White Sphinx and the Whitened Lemur: Images of Death in The Time Machine.” Science Fiction Studies 6, no. 1 (March 1979): 77-84.

In the following essay, Lake considers Wells's use of imagery in The Time Machine.

There is widespread agreement that The Time Machine is H. G. Wells' finest scientific romance; many critics would go further and call it the best of all his fictions. A sample remark is that of V. S. Pritchett in The Living Novel: “Without question The Time Machine is the best piece of writing. It will take its place among the great stories of our language. Like all excellent works it has meanings within its meaning. …”¹ Pritchett here indicates a main reason for The Time Machine's greatness: its richness of suggestion. Bernard Bergonzi, in one of the most detailed studies so far of the novel, has emphasized its mythic quality...