The book's protagonist is a Victorian English scientist and gentleman inventor living in Richmond, Surrey, and identified by a narrator simply as the Time Traveller. The narrator recounts the Traveller's lecture to his weekly dinner guests that time is simply a fourth dimension and demonstrates a tabletop model machine for travelling through the fourth dimension. He reveals that he has built a machine capable of carrying a person through time, and returns at dinner the following week to recount a remarkable tale, becoming the new narrator.
The story reflects Wells's own socialist political views, his view on life and abundance, and the contemporary angst about industrial relations.
The story reflects Wells's own socialist political views, his view on life and abundance, and the contemporary angst about industrial relations.