19th-century 19th-century-literature action advanced-technology adventure alien alien-civilization alien-civilizations alien-world alienation allegory alternate-future alternate-futures alternate-history alternate-realities alternate-reality alternate-timeline alternate-timelines alternative-history angels antichrist apocalyptic artificial-intelligence british-literature cautionary-tale civilization class-divide class-division class-struggle classic classic-literature classics colonization contemporary critique cultural-critique dark darwinism destiny distant-future dystopia dystopian dystopian-fiction dystopian-future dystopian-society eloi endoftheworld engineering english-literature entropy escapism evolution evolutionary-theory existentialism exploration exploration-of-time extraterrestrial-life fantasy fantasyfiction fear-of-progress fear-of-the-unknown fiction future future-predictions future-societies future-society future-technology future-world futurism futuristic futuristic-society futuristic-technology futurology general genetics h.-g. h.-g.-wells h.g.-wells historical-fiction history human-civilization human-condition human-evolution human-nature human-progress humanity humanitys-destiny humor humorous humorousfiction imaginary-world imaginary-worlds imagination imaginative industrial-revolution inequality innovation invention inventions isolation journey literary london loneliness loss-of-humanity machine machines moral-dilemmas morality morlocks mysterious mystery newyorktimesbestseller newyorktimesreviewed novel novella nyt:trade-fiction-paperback=2019-06-23 occultfiction paradox parallel-universes pessimism philosophical philosophical-ideas philosophical-themes philosophy post-apocalyptic progress prophecies prophecy protagonist robotics roman sci-fi science science-and-technology science-fantasy science-fiction scientific scientific-discovery scientific-ethics scientific-experimentation scientific-experiments scientific-exploration scientific-invention scientific-inventions scientific-progress scientific-romance scientific-speculation social-class social-classes social-commentary social-criticism social-critique social-darwinism social-hierarchy social-inequality social-justice societal-collapse societal-critique societal-decay society society-and-class sorcières space space-exploration speculation speculative-fiction speculative-future steampunk survival technological-advancement technological-advancements technological-advances technological-innovation technological-progress technology thought-provoking time-dilation time-distortion time-machine time-manipulation time-paradox time-paradoxes time-travel time-traveler utopia utopia-vs-dystopia utopian utopian-society victorian victorian-england victorian-era victorian-literature victorian-society visionary warning wells wellsian witches