The Time Machine – H.G. Wells

"I have lived two days in the future..."

A Victorian scientist invents a machine that allows him to travel through the fourth dimension. He journeys to the year 802,701 AD, where he finds humanity has evolved into two distinct species: the gentle, childlike Eloi who live above ground, and the savage, ape-like Morlocks who live in darkness and feed on the Eloi.

Wells's novella popularized the concept of time travel. Beyond the science fiction, it is a biting social allegory about the class division of his own time, predicting a future where the separation between the idle rich and the working poor becomes a biological divergence.