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The Chronic Argonauts

 

 
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The Chronic Argonauts
 
 
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"The Chronic Argonauts" is a short story
Short story

The short story refers to a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, usually in narrative format. This format or medium tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels or books....
 written by H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells

Herbert George Wells , known by his pen name H. G. Wells, was an England author, best known for his work in the science fiction genre. Wells and Jules Verne are each sometimes referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction"....
. First published by the Royal College of Science in 1888
1888 in literature

The year 1888 in literature involved some significant new books....
, it predates Wells's famous novel The Time Machine
The Time Machine

The Time Machine is a novella by H. G. Wells, first published in 1895 and later directly adapted into at least two feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions, and a large number of comic book adaptations....
. It is the first well-developed use of a machine constructed to travel through time (a "time machine") in science fiction.

Plot summary
This brief story begins with a third-person account of the arrival of a mysterious inventor to the peaceful Welsh
Wales

native_name = Cymru|conventional_long_name = Wales|common_name = Wales|image_flag = Flag of Wales 2.svg|national_motto = ...
 town of Llyddwdd.






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"The Chronic Argonauts" is a short story
Short story

The short story refers to a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, usually in narrative format. This format or medium tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels or books....
 written by H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells

Herbert George Wells , known by his pen name H. G. Wells, was an England author, best known for his work in the science fiction genre. Wells and Jules Verne are each sometimes referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction"....
. First published by the Royal College of Science in 1888
1888 in literature

The year 1888 in literature involved some significant new books....
, it predates Wells's famous novel The Time Machine
The Time Machine

The Time Machine is a novella by H. G. Wells, first published in 1895 and later directly adapted into at least two feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions, and a large number of comic book adaptations....
. It is the first well-developed use of a machine constructed to travel through time (a "time machine") in science fiction.

Plot summary


This brief story begins with a third-person account of the arrival of a mysterious inventor to the peaceful Welsh
Wales

native_name = Cymru|conventional_long_name = Wales|common_name = Wales|image_flag = Flag of Wales 2.svg|national_motto = ...
 town of Llyddwdd. Dr. Moses Nebogipfel takes up residence in a house sorely neglected after the deaths of its former inhabitants. The main bulk of the story concerns the apprehension of the simple rural folk who eventually storm the inventor's "devilish" workshop in an effort to repay supposed witchery. Nebogipfel escapes with one other person—the sympathetic Reverend Elijah Ulysses Cook—in what is later revealed to be a time machine
Time travel

Time travel is the concept of moving between different moments in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space, either sending objects backwards in time to a moment before the present, or sending objects forward from the present to the future without the need to experience the intervening period ....
.

The next part picks up with an unnamed "Author" character discovering the dazed Reverend Cook returned from unbelievable exploits after having been missing for three weeks. The remainder of the story is the Reverend's short retelling (again in the third-person) of the events that took place that night and the revelation that Nebogipfel is an "Anachronic
Anachronism

An anachronism is an error in chronology, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other....
 Man" whose genius drives him to seek out a time more suited to his abilities.

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