“There is no difference between Time and any of the three dimensions of Space except that our consciousness moves along it.”

The Time Traveller explains his theory that time is a navigable dimension and that it therefore should be possible to travel across time just as a person might travel across a landscape. This theory forms the basis for his invention of a machine in which he plans to travel through time. The theory sounds scientifically plausible, encouraging readers to suspend judgment and go along with an unlikely, if intriguing, story line.

“[T]he little machine suddenly swung round, became indistinct, was seen as a ghost for a second perhaps, as an eddy of faintly glittering brass and ivory; and it was gone—vanished!”

This is the first amazing event in the story. It serves as a preview of astonishing things to come. It is also a description of how an object might appear from the outside as it vanishes into the past or future. The details of the event add a sense of realism and plausibility, hallmarks of science fiction writing.

“He was in an amazing plight. His coat was dusty and dirty, and smeared with green down the sleeves; his hair disordered, and as it seemed to me greyer—either with dust and dirt or because its colour had faded. His face was ghastly pale; his chin had a brown cut on it—a cut half-healed; his expression was haggard and drawn, as by intense suffering. For a moment he hesitated in the doorway, as if he had been dazzled by the light. Then he came into the room. He walked with just such a limp as I have seen in footsore tramps. We stared at him in silence […].”

The Time Traveller appears before his group of companions as though he has just escaped from an extraordinary experience. Each of the details of his dishevelment portends an event within a story of great adventure. It is a grand entrance, and it inspires bewilderment and curiosity, both in the minds of the Traveller’s guests and in the minds of readers. The author displays a knack for keeping his