IN 1895 the journalist, sociologist and historian HG Wells burst on to the literary scene with the publication of his first novel.

The Time Machine was a classic tale of a Victorian scientist who designs a time machine and uses it to travel 800,000 years into the future.

He finds an apparent Eden, where beautiful, fair-haired, gentle people live what seems an idyllic life. But lurking underground are their hideous cousins, the Morlocks; sun-starved, predatory creatures who prey on their fellow humans living above and who represent mankind's darker, alternative future.

It's a thrilling, beautifully written book which must have come as a shock to Victorian society. At a time when technological progress was proceeding full tilt, it served as a nightmarish warning that progress held risks as well as benefits. And it pioneered a new literary genre: science fiction.

Wells wrote five more science fiction classics, including The Island Of Doctor Moreau, which warns of the risks of biological experimentation, and The Invisible Man in which a brilliant scientist finds himself cast out from society by his own terrifying discovery.

Most famous of all was The War Of the Worlds, in which advanced Martians armed with giant killing machines take over Earth. "No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's" goes the famous opening paragraph. Wonderfully spooky.

Wells was a great storyteller and his books have proved remarkably prophetic.

All six books have been re-issued in smart matching paperbacks that are out in February at £5.99 each. What a welcome return for one of the great Victorian men of letters.

Updated: 09:13 Wednesday, February 25, 2004