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The Time Machine
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The Time Machine
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The Time Machine
Audiobook (abridged)3 hours

The Time Machine

Written by H G Wells

Narrated by Brian Cox

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

Penguin Classics presents H. G. Wells' The Time Machine, adapted for audio and now available as a digital download as part of the Penguin English Library series. Read by the actor Brian Cox.

'Great shapes like big machines rose out of the dimness, and cast grotesque black shadows, in which dim spectral Morlocks sheltered from the glare'

Chilling, prophetic and hugely influential, The Time Machine sees a Victorian scientist propel himself into the year 802,701 AD, where he is delighted to find that suffering has been replaced by beauty and contentment in the form of the Eloi, an elfin species descended from man. But he soon realises that they are simply remnants of a once-great culture - now weak and living in terror of the sinister Morlocks lurking in the deep tunnels, who threaten his very return home.

H. G. Wells defined much of modern science fiction with this 1895 tale of time travel, which questions humanity, society, and our place on Earth.


Part of a series of vintage recordings taken from the Penguin Archives. Affordable, collectable, quality productions - perfect for on-the-go listening.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 31, 2012
ISBN9780718198398
Author

H G Wells

H.G. Wells is considered by many to be the father of science fiction. He was the author of numerous classics such as The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The War of the Worlds, and many more. 

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Reviews for The Time Machine

Rating: 3.840909090909091 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I have seen the movie (with Rod Taylor), so I was familiar with the basic plot... I probably would have given a higher rating if I'd read the book first.

    It was interesting to me that most of the characters didn't have names, but were referred to by their occupation (the Doctor, the Journalist, etc.).
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Characters: The Time Traveller The NarratorWeena Setting: In a fantasy land in the future. Theme: Little things in present times can change the future. Genre: fantasy, science fiction. Summary: This story is about a time traveller who creates a device that helps him travels into the future. In the land the he travels to, the land is a bit more barbaric and the species of beings has changed. He eventually makes friends with one of the beings and develops a relationship with her. The story continues with him interacting with the species. Audience: Young adults and people who are interested science fiction Curriculum ties: learning about different genres and writing styles. Personal response: Time travelling as always been an interesting concept for me. I remember when I watched “Back to the Future” and how it made me really think about going into the future. This book elaborates going into the future in a more different kind of way. For the book to be written that long ago and for them to write about how the human race changes into a different species really creates an analytical part to the book. The writing of the book is very detailed and concise. While reading it, the reader can really imagine how the future may possibly change to the way it was in the book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I enjoyed this a lot more than The Invisible Man. It's easy to read, and interesting, and innovative for its time. I really liked the descriptions of the ruins and of the fallen human race -- of Weena, mostly. It would be hard not to feel sympathetic towards her character, despite there not being much to it. I especially liked the ending, actually -- the idea of the flowers symbolising the things that still remained in the human race.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Like the other H.G. Wells novels I have reread recently, this one surprised me by being darker and less romantic than I remembered. Much filmed, "The Time Machine" has no love story, in fact. Nor much action. What it has is an expansive, if dark, vision of the future.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Read from November 18 to 22, 2011As a casual reader of science fiction, I figured it was time to read one of the first major (though only a novella) works in the genre. And I have to say, I didn't hate it...but I didn't LOVE it. While the Time Traveller's adventure was interesting and I enjoyed reading ideas that I've seen built into other books I've read, it just didn't grab me. What surprised me most though was how modern it felt. There were passages that startled me with how true they still are...ideas about nature, class, and technology.While I didn't love it, I'm glad I read it. :)
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I'm giving this a three mainly because of its place in literary history. As a story, I didn't like any of the characters' personalities or the social commentary imbedded in the Time Traveller's descriptions. It's still a great plot and an interesting read, though.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    a good fictional novel i have read many years ago......
    human race has evolved into two species, the leisured classes and the working class ...
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I've watched many movie and tv adaptations of HG Wells Time Machine, but reading it is a totally diferent experience.

    Some will call it science fiction, others social criticism but I find it to be an adventure; and what a beautifully told adventure it is.
    The time traveler telling its journey into the unknown future is filled with wonderful details and very interesting ideas of mankind evolutions and legacies.

    A classic that is great to read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Wells is truly the master of science fiction. He takes us to a strange and mystifying world that alludes to the baseness of human nature.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The Narrate does a good job with his recount of what happen to him, during his time travel experience. The tale he tells is almost to outrageous to believe. H G wells did a nice job for the time period in which the book was written.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    As much time travel as futurist dystopia – 800 000 years from now! – this is one of the first "real" sf novels & it reads as fluidly & thoughtfully as ever.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Although H G Well was not the first novelist to explore the paradox of time travel (Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court had been published nine years earlier) it was the among the first to be centred on the mechanics of time travel and the invention of a time machine. It was certainly the most popular of the time travel books and has been seen as launching a new sub genre of Science fiction, not bad for an author, who had published War of the Worlds in the same year. The Time Machine does not have the same emotional impact as War of the Worlds, its canvas is smaller in both form and subject matter. It is more of a short story or novella and the only person in mortal danger is the Time Traveller himself. Well’s Time traveller goes into the future and so there is an immediate suspense and expectation as to what he will find. This is a deep vein of fiction writing that is still being mined today and Wells does not let his readers down with the world that he creates. 802,701.is the year the time machine first lands and an initially idyllic land is soon shown to be a world that is rapidly plunging into decay:The Time traveller meets the Eloi a small race of people who seem not to have a care in the world as the land supplies all their needs, but they soon prove to be vacuous in the extreme and when the Time travellers Time machined is captured by the Morlocks who live underground a battle for survival begins. Wells’s adventure story is colourful and fast paced as he lays a template for many such stories that will follow his into publication, however there is more to this novel than a straight forward adventure story. Wells ruminates on how the two races had come into being and what pointers there were in Victorian England as why this should be so:“Again, the exclusive tendency of richer people - due no doubt to the increasing refinement of their education and the widening gulf between them and the rude violence of the poor - …So in the end above ground you must have the Haves and below ground the Have-nots, the workers getting continually adapted to the conditions of their labour…“So, as I see it, the Upper-world man had drifted towards his feeble prettiness and the Underworld to mere mechanical industry”As in War of the Worlds, Wells’s depiction of Victorian England is beautifully done. At the start of the story we are introduced to the Time Traveller: a gentleman scientist and his dinner guests: professional gentlemen and journalists who will need to be convinced of the efficacy of the Time Machine. Wells brings these scenes to life and the experiment holds our attention, until the real story kicks off.There is much to enjoy here and although the bare bones of this story have served to fuel so many novels since it was published in1898, this one still holds up. Wells’s writing is very good, the novella is nicely balanced and so I would rate it as a 4 star read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    After settling in with The Time Machine, I soon realized I didn’t really remember much about this book. Or, at least my memories were fuzzy. I decided about half way through that I had a very big dislike of the Time Traveller. He was arrogant, uncaring, and prejudice. I get the arrogance, he wouldn’t have invented time travel without it, but the rest I could have done without.We begin with a lecture of sorts where the Time Traveller shows his guests a small device that he claims can travel in time. He also claims to have built a larger functioning device that he plans to use to travel in time. Which he apparently does, meeting with two vastly different groups of humans --- the Eloi and the Morlocks. The Eloi are a group of people so simple that he can’t believe this is what has become of the human race. In this same time, he also comes in contact with the Morlocks; a species that lives underground in dark tunnels. He does his best to categorize the humans he’s met but is disgusted when he figures out the relationship between the Eloi and Morlocks. When he’s able to escape and travels to his own place in time, he regales his contemporaries with stories of his travels.There are so many fascinating aspects to this story. Time travel! But, Wells drove me crazy with his ideas of the human race. The pervasive idea that the Time Traveller was so much smarter, better shall we say, than the people he encountered was repulsive. It ruined this book for me. I can dislike a character and still enjoy a book but not in this case. I tried to become fascinated by the time travel but I was too far gone to get any enjoyment out of it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Time Machine by H.G. Wells was my latest read. It's part of the 1001 Books list, of course. It's a short little thing - I started and finished it before getting through the other book I'm working on. Like my last read, I was surprised by how little I actually knew about this book. I knew essentially nothing beyond what the title gives you.There's not much to it, really - the Time Traveler shows his assembled dinner guests a model of his time machine, and demonstrates it traveling through time (or at least disappearing). He shows them the real thing in his laboratory, and his guests are skeptical. At their next dinner party, the Time Traveler appears late and disheveled. When he gathers himself enough to join them for dinner, he tells them of his adventures in the future. The majority of the book is the Time Traveler telling his tale of visiting the year 802,701. Partway through the story, I realized that I'd heard of the Eloi and the Morlocks before - these are the two directions that man seems to have evolved by this time. I was surprised by what a grim view of the future Wells put forth here. Taken in context, of course, it's a reaction to evolution as a continual engine for improvement. He extrapolates the contemporary class structure out to its eventual extremes. The Eloi are gentle, but weak, half-witted and fearful, while the Morlocks are threatening, ugly and also imbecilic (Wells was pretty sure time would evolve the intelligence right out of all of us, apparently). Recommended for anyone interested in early science fiction, quick and easy-to-read classics, or dystopian fiction. A quote: "Still, however helpless the little people in the presence of their mysterious Fear, I was differently constituted. I cam out of this age of ours, this ripe prime of the human race, when Fear does not paralyse and mystery has lost its terrors."
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I had a blast reading this book. The writing style may seem a bit dated, from the perspective of today's young reader ( I doubt that I can get my son to read HG Wells ), but I quite loved the book. Apart from a feeling of nostalgia about writing styles long gone by, I think that HGW was a pioneer of early science fiction. I quite like the way that he used the, then new, postulate that time was the fourth dimension, to draw out a whole story about time travel. this is a subject that fascinated all of us since we were kids.He brought out a whole new world of imagery, and a whole new world. His description of this world, and the people of that world was fascinating. A sad love story, and the hero who does not feel at home in his own world anymore... This is the stuff of great story telling...
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The story is the account of an unidentified narrator relaying what was told to him by The Time Traveller. After having created a machine to travel forward in time, the Traveller returns to tell his friends of the society he encountered.Man has evolved into two species. The Eloi, described as beautiful, playful, small people, live above ground in what appears to be a utopian society. The Morlocks are an albino, half-man, half-ape species that lives underground. Over his time with the Eloi, the Traveller develops the theory that the Eloi are the noble, ruling class. All goods are made by the Morlocks and the Eloi simply fill their days with play and eating. The Traveller later learns the ugly truth that the Eloi are actually the bred food source for the Morlocks.This was a super-quick read. However, Wells managed to pack in a lot of detail into a small space. He was very descriptive with an economy of words. The relationship of the two races makes an interesting social commentary about the working class and elites. I'm not familiar with politics of the late 1800s, but it's definitely something for consideration today.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Time Machine was, at one point, one of the prototypes used to full-on construct a budding literary genre: science-fiction. It still holds up pretty well and only suffers from a few noticeable pacing errors and human-centric. However, for an over 100 year old science fiction piece, it still has a charming kind of pseudo-futuristic allure to it. The proto-steampunk setting almost inadvertently dodges any assumed technological outdatedness. The book has been adapted into several different forms, most notably two feature films, one made in 1960 and a lesser-known adaptation from 2002. Sadly, they both aren't as true to the story as one might hope. One a slightly comical note I'd like to mention that for someone like myself who has a mild case of kabourophobia, the brief scene towards the end involving giant crabs nearly made me mess myself.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Wells' prototypical tale of time travel catches the imagination more than might be expected from a book of its era. It begins slowly, with our narrator gathering a group of friends to whom to tell his story, but soon gains momentum once he arrives in the far future and encounters the childlike Eloi and the more sinister Morlocks. The narrator philosophizes about how these races may have come about, which is also a commentary on current society and the dangers of lifestyles and societal choices that foster comfort and complacency among the wealthy and push the lower income classes literally underground. Further adventures of the time traveller will not be forthcoming, and that's unfortunate, because I would like to have heard more from him.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
     First off, I have to say that I enjoyed this book more than Wells' other book The Invisible Man. Unlike in that book, this one began by identifying the inventor of the time machine as a time traveler right off the bat instead of playing around with the revelation of an idea that’s contained within the title (as in, Oh, what do you think is up with this guy? He’s kind of weird and covered in bandages. He couldn’t by any chance be invisible, could he?) It also began by explaining the scientific theory behind the time machine, speaking of time as the fourth dimension and so on. I thought that the explanation of the underlying theory was one of the most interesting parts of [The Invisible Man], and the fact that this book began with something very similar ensured that it began on a good note. I also thought that it was a smart move on the author’s part to have his character travel exclusively into the future. He did mention the possibilities that existed if one travelled into the past, but usually in literature (and in theory) travelling into the past exposes one to all sorts of possible dangers and paradoxes: If you change even some small aspect of the past, is the present you return to affected in some major way? What happens if you go back in time and accidentally cause the death of one of your ancestors? etc. Travelling into the future can affect only events that haven’t happened yet, and thus vastly simplifies things. Travelling into the future also provided an opportunity for the author to engage in utopia and dystopia-type speculation. Yeah, that’s right, it’s both! At least, that’s my interpretation. I actually have no idea what all the literary experts out there classify it as. What I do know is that Wells takes some time to subtly take a dig at all the other utopia fiction of his time period: “This, I must warn you, was my theory at the time,” he says after explaining how the creatures of the time, the eloi and the morlocks, came to be. “I had no convenient cicerone in the pattern of the Utopian books.” Personally, I do think that the book was more interesting with the time traveler attempting to figure things out on his own instead of having another character explain everything to him. For one thing, it makes his final determination even more chilling. One thing that must be mentioned is that, because the story was told from the perspective of a character who is not the time traveler, the reader knows that the time traveller will make it back to his own time because he is telling the story after having already arrived there. That being said, I didn’t seem to mind, perhaps because there are further events after the time traveler tells his initial story. I thought this ending portion was one of the best parts of the book; I love the concluding lines especially.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was originally published in 1895, and, pardon the pun, it stands the test of time. Although the writing style is one you will recognize if you have read anything by say, Henry Rider Haggard or Edgar Rice Burroughs, the first person narration of the story still is adequate enough to pull you in and gives it the feel of an adventure being told to you orally. The first two chapters set up the story that is to be told by the Time Traveler, a scientist who has built a time machine capable of traveling into the future and back again. By chapter three, the Time Traveler is relating his tale of traveling a great distance into the future and finding that humanity has become two distinct species - one, the Eloi dwell above ground and are happy if not overly intelligent beings. The other species, the Morlocks, dwells below ground and represent a sinister working class. Excited by his success in time travel, the Traveler leaves behind his time machine to explore the new world before him only to find upon his return that his machine is nowhere in sight. Suspecting foul play, the Traveler realizes that it is very likely that he will have to venture into the underground world in order to retrieve his invention and travel back home.This story is cleverly told, but fell just a bit flat for me. I loved the vision that Wells shared in his futuristic tale, but wanted the Time Traveler to be smarter. Still, often people who are gifted in one area are lacking in another. I wanted a man who was intelligent enough to build a machine capable of traveling into the future to also be capable of forward thinking. He should realize that if he intends to travel into the future, he should pack provisions and think through some contingency plans before actually taking off. However, I could also see the mad scientist type who got caught up in the linear thought progression of time travel without stopping to think about practical matters. I think this book was perhaps supposed to be more of a study in societal development than a sci-fi tale, but it provides both and is worth the time it takes to explore it. I loved the museums that the Time Traveler encounters and was impressed by Wells ability to tell a story that can still stand up today, more than a century after he wrote it. "And you cannot move at all in Time, you cannot get away from the present moment.""My dear sir, that is just where you are wrong. That is just where the whole world has gone wrong. We are always getting away from the present moment. Our mental existences, which are immaterial and have no dimensions, are passing along the Time-Dimension with a uniform velocity from the cradle to the grave. Just as we should travel down if we began our existence fifty miles above the earth's surface."
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Many years ago, I had read The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. I had totally forgotten what was written on those pages. As I began reading it again for a book club, I found myself lost in a classic that too many people never read.A man creates a time machine in which he travels very far into the future. The discoveries he encounters bring about a mixture of amazement, sadness, and horror. Mankind has become two distinct races with one living above earth in finery and sunshine and the other living below ground in a mutated form afraid of all light. The problem lies in the fact that the creatures living underground steal his time machine. In order to get back, he will have to venture into the dark unknown.Reading this story can be rather slow at times as the style of writing is vastly different than what we get today from contemporary writers. At times, the dialogue rambles along. In fact, most of the book is dialogue as the Time Traveler describes his experience to his dinner guests. This might be a turn off to younger readers who expect more modern writing.I had never looked at this story as a thriller or horror book but reading it again I could see it as such. There were times when I felt my skin crawl as the narrator described his encounter with the underground race.The ebook I read was a public domain copy and was free. With it came many editing issues but for just reading the classical piece it was not too bad.If you need to read this book for school, check out this free version though there are some out there that include study guides and other commentary. If you just have never read it, give it a try. It is not an extremely long book but it will take concentration as the style is so different than most are used to.Note: This book was free and obtained by myself. No one gave me the book with any expectation of a positive review.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Loved the story; quite different from the usual scifi stories with all sorts of fancy machinery and space travel and stuff, the future in this story is not so advanced at all.Do wonder where the time-traveller went though...
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I liked The Time Machine. I think it is a perfect classic sci-fi read, especially for those new to the genre, or those who want to know how the genre began. The existentialist themes in the book were probably very important during the time the book was written, but it does leave a desire for more description of the new world and the technology. However, the read is short, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to fly through some sci-fi.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This work was published in 1895 and has been considered science fiction genre even though Wells would not have agreed. It has been an inspiration of many works of fiction and the authors coining of the concept of a time machine and the concept of time travel was also a contribution to literature and movies. H.G. Wells was interested in social reform. This book was really about social reform. The author did not believe in a utopia where things would be perfect and in this book, the time traveler visits a time in the future where man has become two races and has destroyed all sense of a human race. This book would also be a dystopian work. H.G. Wells has written many works. So far, I’ve read The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Time Machine and Tono-Bongay. There is strong themes of socialism, social evolution and science is Well’s books. I most enjoyed Tono-Bongay. The Time Machine is hard to connect to. The characters don’t really have names but generally are identified by their occupations such as the psychologist, the medical man, the editor. Mr. Well’s works are noted for their racism, which was not unusual for this time.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Of course I’ve seen the movies, but this is the first time I’ve read the book. The first scene was hard to get through, very technical and complicated, but hugely warranted as it gave the story substance and credibility. Not that I understood any of it.When the travelling started, however, it became much easier to read … and, hence, more enjoyable.And it is a great story.I’ve always been interested in time travel and parallel travel, so this story fed that obsession well. It was interesting to note that a writer from our past could feed ideas to the reader and somehow close the gap, before going on to show us a future that was well thought out.I enjoyed the romantic side of the story, and the cannibalistic side as well. I found it interesting to see that Wells has predicted the Earth colliding with the sun. And I found the ending of the story left me pondering what I would do if I were in the main character’s shoes. After such a narrow escape, would I go on another adventure?I think it would be impossible not to.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Simply amazing, and very intense. I only put it down once, when it all started to overflow in my brain and I had to let it settle (plus it was two in the morning). It's the kind of book that can really impact your emotions, if that makes any sense. It made me feel lonely and awestruck and I'm finding it hard to stop thinking about it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great time travel classic. I have read it three times.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    OMG, most unorganized time traveler ever! I nearly had a coronary when I got to the part where he casually mentions that he can't walk very fast because he's wearing an old pair of shoes that are falling apart, it didn't occur to him to put on a decent pair of shoes before setting off on an adventure in the future. Who DOES that?Aside from the time traveler's unfailing irresponsibility, I enjoyed this quick read and can see why it's so firmly ensconced in the foundation of science fiction.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Summary: His Victorian colleagues don't believe he's constructed a time machine, but the Time Traveller returns with a tale to tell, of his journey to the year 802,701. There (Then?) he found that humankind had evolved into two distinct races: the childlike Eloi, who live a life of leisure, free of worry, sickness, or care; and the Morlocks, who are more mechanically inclined but dwell exclusively underground. The Morlocks steal his time machine immediately after he arrives, and in his attempts to get it back, he discovers that the life of the Eloi is not as idyllic as it might seem.Review: As much as I love the genre of science fiction as a whole, The Time Machine is one of my first forays into its origins. I was already fairly well-versed in its plot from having read the fantastic The Map of Time earlier this summer, but I was surprised to find that the main point of the book was not the technology or its consequences, but rather a statement of Wells's beliefs about the effects of class division on the human condition. Of course, the social politics are wrapped up in a fantastical adventure story, but they're not buried particularly deep. I also didn't find the message to be particularly complex, or even particularly plausible.But, setting aside the underlying theme, Wells certainly manages to tell a good story. His vision of the Eloi's world is fascinating, and I spent a lot of time thinking about how things got from here to there. (I particularly loved the scene in the ruined museum.) Once the protagonist leaves the time of the Eloi, he goes even farther into the future, and Wells's vision of a desolate Earth under a dying sun is nightmarishly vivid. It's a very short book - barely long enough to qualify as a novella, really - and part of me wishes it were longer, with a more complex plot. The prose, while not as dense as I was expecting, did take some getting used to, but overall it was definitely worth the read. 3.5 out of 5 stars.Recommendation: It probably should be read by every sci-fi fan, particularly those interested in time travel stories, as a basis of where the genre started; it's quick enough and with an interesting enough story to win over even the more ardent avoiders of the classics.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Basically, Wells is posing the question of What will man be like in the distant future? His answer is quite unlike any kind of scenario that modern readers, schooled on Star Wars, Star Trek, and the like, would come up with. He gives birth to a simple and tragic society made up of the Eloi and the Morlocks. In contrasting these two groups, he offers a critique of sorts of men in his own time. Clearly, he is worried about the gap between the rich and the poor widening in his own world and is warning his readers of the dangers posed by such a growing rift. It is most interesting to see how the Time Traveler's views of the future change over the course of his stay there. At first, he basically thinks that the Morlocks, stuck underground, have been forced to do all the work of man while the Eloi on the surface play and dance around in perpetual leisure. Later, he realizes that the truth is more complicated than that. The whole book seems to be a warning against scientific omniscience and communal living. The future human society that the Time Traveler finds is supposedly ideal--free of disease, wars, discrimination, intensive labor, poverty, etc. However, the great works of man have been lost--architectural, scientific, philosophical, literary, etc.--and human beings have basically become children, each one dressing, looking, and acting the same.