– Notes and Quotes –
H.G. Wells (1896-1946)
The Time Machine (1895), The Invisible Man (1897)
H.G. Wells (1896-1946), The Time Machine (1895)
H.G. Wells (1896-1946), The Invisible Man (1897)
The Time Machine (1895)
“A man couldn’t cover himself with dust by rolling in a paradox, could he?” (17).
“Hettie Potter” (18). ???
“‘. . . speaking in soft cooing notes to each other.’” (30).
“Fruit . . . was all their diet . . . . strict vegetarians.” (33). (How can they be vegetarians when all their diet was fruit?)
“A queer thing I discovered about my little hosts, and that was their lack of interest.” (35).
“As I walked I was watchful for every impression that could possibly help to explain of ruinous splendor in which I found the world – for ruinous it was.” (36).
“Nature . . . is shy and slow in out clumsy hands.” (39).
“That is the drift of the current in spite of the eddies.” (39).
“The whole world will be intelligent, educated, and co-operating; things will move faster and faster towards the subjugation of Nature.” (39).
“Physical courage and the love of battle . . . . are no great help – may even be hindrances – to a civilized man.” (41).
“‘I had got to such a low estimate of her kind that I did not expect any gratitude from her.’” (54). (Weena)
“‘She was fearless enough in the daylight, and she had the oddest confidence in me . . .’” (55).
“‘. . . I saw a solitary white, ape-like creature running rather quickly up the hill . . .’” (56).
Gant Allen’s notion: “‘If each generation die and leave ghosts, he argued, the world at last will get overcrowded with them.’” (57).
“‘. . . the planets must ultimately fall back one by one into the parent body.’” (57-8).
“‘. . . Man had not remained one species, but had differentiated into two distinct animals . . .’” (59).
“‘. . . flinging flowers . . .’” (60).
Haves, Have-nots (63).
Eloi, Morlocks (64).
Kodak (70).
“‘You know that great pause that comes upon things before the dusk?’” (76).
“‘. . . the human intellect . . . . had committed suicide.’” (101).
The Invisible Man (1897)
“‘A door onbust is always open to bustin’, but ye can’t onbust a door once you’ve busted en.” (34).
“Go to the devil!” (35).
“. . . a beard of bristling eccentricity.” (46).
“. . . owdacious ugly . . . . a gentleman on tramp sees such a thundering lot of his boots.” (47).
“‘I’m an invisible man.’” (50).
“Great and strange ideas transcending experience often have less effect on men and women than smaller, more tangible considerations.” (53).
“‘I can’t imagine what possess people. One might think we were in the thirteenth century.’” (78).
“Who’s letting off revolvers . . . . What are the asses at now?” (84).
“[The glass of whiskey] came to rest poised twenty inches above the front edge of the seat of the chair.” (89). (Comment on continuity: Wells was an English author, therefore the measurement may have been in metric centimeters rather than inches dependent on which system was in use at the time, 1897.)
“‘. . . lower the refractive index of a substance . . .’” (100).
“Visibility depends on the action of the visible bodies on light. Either a body absorbs light, or it reflects or refracts it, or does all these things.” (100).
“‘. . . a provincial professor, always prying. ‘When are you going to publish this work of yours?’ was his everlasting question.” (103-4).
“She came in purring, – the poor beast was starving, – and I gave her some . . . [milk/drugs/opium]” (106).
“miaowled” (107). (like meow)
“Tapetum” (107).
“. . . felt for and stroked the beast, which was insensible . . .” (108).
“‘Strychnine is a grand tonic . . .’” “It’s the devil, . . . . It’s the palaeolithic in a bottle.’” (110).
“Omnium” (122).
“. . . you don’t know what rage is! To have worked for years, to have planned and plotted, and then to get some fumbling purblind idiot messing across your course. ” (139-40).
“. . . me – the Terror! . . . . the Epoch of the Invisible Man.” (153).
“. . . six feet off . . .” (158).