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The Time Machine was published in 1895 and quickly established Wells not only as an able writer, but a thinker of unusual ideas. Wells is perhaps the original writer of science fiction (alongside Jules Verne) and this novel is characteristic of his use of technology, imagination, and clever plotting to make the unthinkable seem plausible to the ordinary reader.

First published in 1914, this romantic novel has remained influential over the years, both as a book and in films and a television series. The reader must recognize that Tarzan is a product of its age and contains outmoded imagery and simplistic depictions of other cultures and species: bloodthirsty natives, chatty chimps, roaring lions, stalking beasts. In some respects Tarzan is a caricature of itself and life in an African jungle.

This travel adventure novel by Jules Verne was published serially in 1872 and in book form in 1873 The lively and amusing narrative recounts the journey pursued by a sedentary London gentleman named Phileas Fogg and his valet, Passepartout, to win a wager with Fogg's fellow club members. Pursued by Fix, a private detective who believes Fogg to be a bank robber, the duo cross three continents and two oceans on trains, steamers, an elephant, and a sail-sledge.