What I have learned so far by reading the novel

Sadly, I haven't reached the real moral of the story, which means one of my predictions will be left unanswered for now. But I can say that I've learned a couple of things: one of them is that no matter how much you are knowledgeable of a subject, you will always need to surround yourself with people who specialize in other areas like The Time Traveler does, inviting a doctor, psychologist and journalist to discuss his newest invention, having different perspectives is crucial to any kind of topic you want to get into.

Also, you can see how much passion the Time Traveler expresses when he talks, and people don't realize it, but being so much into a topic, being that passionate about it is actually a really good endearing trait someone can have. It in fact attracts others towards you because it's both relatable and admirable, it reminds people that anything is possible if you put your mind into it.

Aside from that, I can kinda see the "real moral" being one that was present in most science fiction literature at the time, which is the fear of technology and science going too far, how our own hubris would be our demise.

Description of one character of the novel I am reading

I think the only character worth talking about this far into the book is the titular character, the Time Traveler. The author portrays this character as the now common "mad scientist" trope, a man extremely devoted to his studies and research, a scientist that passionately talks about his work and even a bit of an avid spokesperson, basically selling this insane idea to the people he invites over. The Time Traveler also has a sizable wealth that one can only assume comes from his inventions, yet it doesn't feel like that amount of money is changing how he is, as he doesn't sound pretentious, and is frankly okay with sharing with other people (although he clearly seems interested in intellectual people or people that could potentially help his research). Even though this "mad scientist" trope is usually associated with evil characters, you can see the Time Traveler has nothing but good intentions at heart.

How my predictions about the book are holding up now that I have read a few chapters

I have currently read three chapters of the novel (which are fairly short) and going back on my previous predictions, I have to say the book starts fairly strong, with the main character, just referred as "The Time Traveler", talking to a room of professionals in different fields about his theory of a fourth dimension which is the time itself, and the way he talks about this is actually very scientific and still relevant to this day, the reader can easily believe what this character says because it's something plausible and I think way more commonplace compared to back then.

As for time travel itself, it's clearly an outdated point of view, since our current views on it depend heavily on the many-worlds interpretation which was first talked about in 1952, so most media back then take a "single timeline" approach to how time works. So far, the Time Traveler has yet to explain the time machine itself, but it's fairly safe to assume it wouldn't have a plausible explanation, all that is said is how the machine itself looks, a saddle with two levers, one for traveling to the future and one to the past. I find this extremely interesting for several reasons: One, cars were something new back then, and their implementation as a main way of traveling didn't happen until at least 1910, so the author talking about a "saddle" is interesting since, well, horses were the only way of transportation on land other than trains. Second, there were no digital devices back then, so the only "input" this machine had were two levers without any other way of interacting with it, no way to specify a date or try to be accurate, it's literally a lever you have to push and hope for the best. 

(Also, there are several images of the time machine itself, which I'm pretty sure originated from the first film of it, having a chair and a round clock-like disk behind, but the book only mentions the saddle and levers)

As for the views of the future, I'm actually surprised the first thing the Time Traveler did was fast forward to several centuries into the future, stumbling upon buildings "with intricate parapets", odd sphinx-like marble statues and what I think is the evolution of the human race? Which Wells describes as "beautiful and graceful creatures, but indescribably frail". I have yet to read more about this future in the book, though.

The Time Machine and popular culture

H. G. Wells certainly didn't invent the concept of time travel with The Time Machine, but he sure did popularize it. 

Time travel is easily one of the most interesting things you can see on any book, movie or TV show because the possibilities are endless, even if the science behind it is inaccurate. Heck, my favorite movie of all time is Back To The Future, and even with the time travel aspect being extremely "dumbified" for the sake of keeping the plot simple, it still manages to be an excellent movie that keeps you on your toes from start to finish, and it explores a world where anything can happen.

Another hugely influential movie, Terminator, also has a time travel plot, mixed with an action blockbuster movie, while Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure tries to bring the concept to a more humorous side. You can do pretty much anything with time travel because it has so much potential.

My expectations about the Time Machine

So before I start reading, I want to go over my three main predictions about this book:

      1. It will be highly inaccurate compared to current views of time travel

I think this is a given considered this novel was published in 1895, back when the sciences didn't really care about hypothetical stuff like time travel or the "many-world interpretation", so I'm mostly expecting kind of a fairy tail approach to the whole time travel process, explained through emotions rather than logic, maybe magic or the whole "time machine" device will be left unexplained and the book will just focus on the adventures in different eras.

      2. The views or the future will be exaggerated

In case the characters in the novel go to the future, I think it is safe to assume it will play out as most pre-2000 fiction movies and shows, with the future being this technological utopia with flying cars and robots coexisting with humans. Which will be interesting since that was the 1900's idea of what the 2000's would look like, but this was written before 1900 altogether.

      3. The moral will be not to mess with time travel

As with most time travel stories, they almost always end up with the same "messing with time is dangerous" message. The "butterfly effect" in chaos theory actually existed before the writing of this book, but I doubt H. G. Wells had the foresight to apply its ideas to the novel. Even then, I can see the characters altering time and having to go back to revert the ill effects they caused.

Why I chose to read The Time Machine

Time travel has always been an interesting topic for me, and pretty much everyone, otherwise we wouldn't have so many shows and movies with time travel as its main plot. The idea of going back in time to prevent some sort of event, or even going to the future to see what awaits us is, I think we can all agree, an universal dream of the human race ever since the concept of time travel was created, and H. G. Wells' Time Machine is pretty much the reason why it is so popular in the first place.