Enrique Gaspar
translated by Yolanda Molina-Gavilán and Andrea L. Bell

Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Time Ship's Place in the History of Science Fiction
In Which It Is Proved That FORWARD Is Not the Byword of Progress
A Lecture within Everyone's Reach
Theory of Time: How It Is Made, How It Is Unmade
Which Deals with Family Affairs
Cupid and Mars
The Vehicle as School of Morality
Away!
Retroactive Effects
The Gradual Reduction and Ultimate Elimination of the Army
In Which a Seemingly Insignificant Yet Greatly Important Incident Takes Place
A Bit of Tiresome, Though Necessary, Erudition
Forty-eight Hours in the Celestial Empire
Nineteenth-century Europe Meets Third-century China
An Unexpected Guest
The Resurrection of the Dead before Judgment Day
Where All Is Explained and All Is Entangled
Bread and Circuses
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
Shipwrecked in the Sky
The Best One; Not Because It's Better but Because It's Last
Notes
Bibliography

H. G. Wells wasn't the only nineteenth-century writer to dream of a time machine. The Spanish playwright Enrique Gaspar published El anacronópete-"He who flies against time"-eight years before Wells's influential work appeared. The novel begins at the 1878 Paris Exposition, where Dr. Don Sindulfo unveils his new invention-which looks like a giant sailing vessel. Soon the doctor embarks on a voyage back in time, accompanied by a motley crew of French prostitutes and Spanish soldiers. The purpose of his expedition is to track down the imprisoned wife of a third-century Chinese emperor, believed to possess the secret to immortality. A classic tale of obsession, high adventure, and star-crossed love, The Time Ship includes intricately drawn illustrations from the original 1887 edition, and a critical introduction that argues persuasively for The Time Ship's historical importance to science fiction and world literature.