19th-century 19th-century-literature action advanced-society advanced-technology adventure alien alien-civilization alien-civilizations alien-world alien-worlds alienation allegory alternate-future alternate-futures alternate-history alternate-realities alternate-reality alternate-timeline alternate-timelines alternative-history apocalyptic british-literature capitalism cautionary cautionary-tale civilization class-divide class-division class-stratification class-struggle class-system classic classic-literature classics colonization critique critique-of-society cultural-critique dark destiny distant-future dystopia dystopian dystopian-fiction dystopian-future dystopian-society eloi english-literature entropy escapism evolution evolutionary-biology evolutionary-theory existential existentialism exploration exploration-of-time extraterrestrial-life fantasy fear-of-progress fear-of-the-future fear-of-the-unknown future future-civilization future-dystopia future-predictions future-societies future-society future-technology future-world futurism futuristic futuristic-society futuristic-technology futurology h.-g. h.-g.-wells h.g.-wells history human-civilization human-condition human-evolution human-nature human-progress human-society humanity humanitys-destiny imaginary-world imaginary-worlds imagination imaginative imaginative-storytelling industrial-revolution inequality innovation intellectual invention inventions isolation journey london loneliness machine machine-age machine-civilization machinery machines mankinds-decline moral-decay moral-dilemmas morality morlocks novel novella paradox parallel-universes pessimism philosophical philosophical-ponderings philosophical-themes philosophy post-apocalyptic progress prophecy protagonist questions-of-existence sci-fi science science-and-technology science-fantasy science-fiction scientific scientific-advancement scientific-discovery scientific-ethics scientific-experiment scientific-experiments scientific-exploration scientific-invention scientific-inventions scientific-progress scientific-romance scientific-speculation social-class social-commentary social-criticism social-critique social-darwinism social-disintegration social-hierarchy social-inequality societal-collapse societal-critique societal-decay societal-division society speculation speculative speculative-fiction speculative-future speculative-science speculative-technology steampunk subterranean-civilization survival suspense symbolism technological-advancement technological-advancements technological-exploration technological-innovation technological-progress technology thought-provoking thought-provoking. time-dilation time-machine time-manipulation time-paradox time-paradoxes time-travel time-traveler utopia utopia-and-dystopia utopian utopian-ideals utopian-society victorian victorian-england victorian-era victorian-literature victorian-science-fiction visionary warning wells wellsian worldbuilding wormhole