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Somewhere In Time
Somewhere in Time is the powerful story of a love that transcends time and space, written by one of the Grand Masters of modern fantasy.
Matheson's classic novel tells the moving, romantic story of a modern man whose love for a woman he has never met draws him back in time to a luxury hotel in San Diego in 1896, where he finds his soul mate in the form of a celebrated actress of the previous century. Somewhere in Time won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and the 1980 movie version, starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, remains a cult classic whose fans continue to hold yearly conventions to this day.
Matheson's classic novel tells the moving, romantic story of a modern man whose love for a woman he has never met draws him back in time to a luxury hotel in San Diego in 1896, where he finds his soul mate in the form of a celebrated actress of the previous century. Somewhere in Time won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and the 1980 movie version, starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, remains a cult classic whose fans continue to hold yearly conventions to this day.
316 pages, Paperback
First published February 24, 1975
430 people are currently reading
14k people want to read
About the author
Richard Matheson
715books4,582followersBorn in Allendale, New Jersey to Norwegian immigrant parents, Matheson was raised in Brooklyn and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1943. He then entered the military and spent World War II as an infantry soldier. In 1949 he earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and moved to California in 1951. He married in 1952 and has four children, three of whom (, , and Ali Matheson) are writers of fiction and screenplays.
His first short story, "Born of Man and Woman," appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1950. The tale of a monstrous child chained in its parents' cellar, it was told in the first person as the creature's diary (in poignantly non-idiomatic English) and immediately made Matheson famous. Between 1950 and 1971, Matheson produced dozens of stories, frequently blending elements of the science fiction, horror and fantasy genres.
Several of his stories, like "Third from the Sun" (1950), "Deadline" (1959) and "Button, Button" (1970) are simple sketches with twist endings; others, like "Trespass" (1953), "Being" (1954) and "Mute" (1962) explore their characters' dilemmas over twenty or thirty pages. Some tales, such as "The Funeral" (1955) and "The Doll that Does Everything" (1954) incorporate zany satirical humour at the expense of genre clichés, and are written in an hysterically overblown prose very different from Matheson's usual pared-down style. Others, like "The Test" (1954) and "Steel" (1956), portray the moral and physical struggles of ordinary people, rather than the then nearly ubiquitous scientists and superheroes, in situations which are at once futuristic and everyday. Still others, such as "Mad House" (1953), "The Curious Child" (1954) and perhaps most famously, "Duel" (1971) are tales of paranoia, in which the everyday environment of the present day becomes inexplicably alien or threatening.
He wrote a number of episodes for the American TV series The Twilight Zone, including "Steel," mentioned above and the famous "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"; adapted the works of Edgar Allan Poe for Roger Corman and Dennis Wheatley's The Devil Rides Out for Hammer Films; and scripted Steven Spielberg's first feature, the TV movie Duel, from his own short story. He also contributed a number of scripts to the Warner Brothers western series "The Lawman" between 1958 and 1962. In 1973, Matheson earned an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his teleplay for The Night Stalker, one of two TV movies written by Matheson that preceded the series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Matheson also wrote the screenplay for Fanatic (US title: Die! Die! My Darling!) starring Talullah Bankhead and Stefanie Powers.
Novels include The Shrinking Man (filmed as The Incredible Shrinking Man, again from Matheson's own screenplay), and a science fiction vampire novel, I Am Legend, which has been filmed three times under the titles The Omega Man and The Last Man on Earth and once under the original title. Other Matheson novels turned into notable films include What Dreams May Come, Stir of Echoes, Bid Time Return (as Somewhere in Time), and Hell House (as The Legend of Hell House) and the aforementioned Duel, the last three adapted and scripted by Matheson himself. Three of his short stories were filmed together as Trilogy of Terror, including "Prey" with its famous Zuni warrior doll.
In 1960, Matheson published The Beardless Warriors, a nonfantastic, autobiographical novel about teenage American soldiers in World War II.
He died at his home on June 23, 2013, at the age of 87
His first short story, "Born of Man and Woman," appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1950. The tale of a monstrous child chained in its parents' cellar, it was told in the first person as the creature's diary (in poignantly non-idiomatic English) and immediately made Matheson famous. Between 1950 and 1971, Matheson produced dozens of stories, frequently blending elements of the science fiction, horror and fantasy genres.
Several of his stories, like "Third from the Sun" (1950), "Deadline" (1959) and "Button, Button" (1970) are simple sketches with twist endings; others, like "Trespass" (1953), "Being" (1954) and "Mute" (1962) explore their characters' dilemmas over twenty or thirty pages. Some tales, such as "The Funeral" (1955) and "The Doll that Does Everything" (1954) incorporate zany satirical humour at the expense of genre clichés, and are written in an hysterically overblown prose very different from Matheson's usual pared-down style. Others, like "The Test" (1954) and "Steel" (1956), portray the moral and physical struggles of ordinary people, rather than the then nearly ubiquitous scientists and superheroes, in situations which are at once futuristic and everyday. Still others, such as "Mad House" (1953), "The Curious Child" (1954) and perhaps most famously, "Duel" (1971) are tales of paranoia, in which the everyday environment of the present day becomes inexplicably alien or threatening.
He wrote a number of episodes for the American TV series The Twilight Zone, including "Steel," mentioned above and the famous "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"; adapted the works of Edgar Allan Poe for Roger Corman and Dennis Wheatley's The Devil Rides Out for Hammer Films; and scripted Steven Spielberg's first feature, the TV movie Duel, from his own short story. He also contributed a number of scripts to the Warner Brothers western series "The Lawman" between 1958 and 1962. In 1973, Matheson earned an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his teleplay for The Night Stalker, one of two TV movies written by Matheson that preceded the series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Matheson also wrote the screenplay for Fanatic (US title: Die! Die! My Darling!) starring Talullah Bankhead and Stefanie Powers.
Novels include The Shrinking Man (filmed as The Incredible Shrinking Man, again from Matheson's own screenplay), and a science fiction vampire novel, I Am Legend, which has been filmed three times under the titles The Omega Man and The Last Man on Earth and once under the original title. Other Matheson novels turned into notable films include What Dreams May Come, Stir of Echoes, Bid Time Return (as Somewhere in Time), and Hell House (as The Legend of Hell House) and the aforementioned Duel, the last three adapted and scripted by Matheson himself. Three of his short stories were filmed together as Trilogy of Terror, including "Prey" with its famous Zuni warrior doll.
In 1960, Matheson published The Beardless Warriors, a nonfantastic, autobiographical novel about teenage American soldiers in World War II.
He died at his home on June 23, 2013, at the age of 87
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September 10, 2024
A beautiful romance from the pen of a writer more famous for his horror thrillers. How far are you willing to go for the woman you love?
Richard Collier has never met the woman of his dreams. And now, at thirty-six, it might be too late, as he is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour. As a screenwriter he should know better than most how dreams are created out of thin air, yet in his vulnerable state of mind he is not immune to flights of fancy. While staying overnight at a luxury hotel near San Diego, he finds himself falling under the spell of an old photograph found in a dusty basement: he decides this is the woman he has been waiting for all his life. The only problem: the photograph is 80 years old, dating back to 1896, and the actress in the image has probably been dead a long time ago.
No, it's more than beauty. It's the expression on her face that haunts and conquers me. That gentle, honest, sweet expression. I wish I could have met her.
The image of the beautiful actress from last century becomes such an obsession for Richard, that he is constantly thinking about her, asleep or awake, as in a trance. He reads every available book about her life, about the period when she stayed in the same Coronado hotel near San Diego, about the history of the hotel and about the roles in the theatre that made her famous. Richard discovers that Elise McKenna was as famous in her time as Ingrid Bergman or Audrey Hepburn would be decades later. And, like a true diva, she kept her private life a mystery, carefully protecting her intimacy from the prying eyes of the press.
Almost half of the novel explores the total immersion of Richard into the life of Elise McKenna. He surrounds himself with her photographs, with her theatrical reviews, with the meagre tidbits available about her personal life. It appears a major change of heart in her career occurred in the very same hotel, during a late autumn performance of a piece by J M Barrie. Richard somehow convinces himself that in order to discover her secret it is enough to desire it with all his being, mind and body. If only he could convince himself it is possible to travel back in time, he would meet and talk to his idol in the flesh. That is all he wants from life right now. So he engages in an intensive regimen of hypnotic self-instruction, telling himself over and over and over again:
It's Thursday afternoon. You're lying on the bed in your room at the Hotel del Coronado and it's Thursday afternoon, November 19, 1896. Your mind accepts this absolutely. There is no question in your mind. It is November 19, 1896, Thursday November 19, 1896. You're Richard Collier. Thirty-six. Lying on your hotel bed, eyes closed, on Thursday afternoon, November 19, 1896. 1896, 1896, Room 527. Hotel del Coronado. Thursday afternoon, November 19, 1896.
Many writers have tried their hand at time-travel stories, inventing sophisticated machines or alternate dimension in the time-space continuum. Why not accept for once that love is strong enough to take you to the place your heart desires? The whole world might only be an illusion and we only live inside our heads anyway. So give Richard the benefit of the doubt, and let him wake up from his hypnosis in 1896, in a room of the Hotel del Coronado.
I'm pulled in two directions simultaneously - toward yearning and toward reason. It's at times like these I hate the brain. It always builds more barriers than it can topple.
In the second part of the novel, Richard gets to meet Elise, and because this is a romantic story, she seems to have been waiting just for him, all her life. The concept sounds so corny and cheap when I put it down on paper, like a typical obsessed weirdo stalking an innocent woman, but from the pen of Matheson, it is a thing of beauty, charged with passion and melancholy. With an elegant economy of means, he captures the beauty of the Belle Epoque building ( "Last of the extravagantly conceived seaside hotels" ), the different social conventions and attitudes of the turn of the century, and most of all the difficulties even beautiful and successful women had to face in a male dominated society. Elise is very much alone, self-reliant but wary of men's attentions, bullied by her impresario and discredited in the eyes of the public simply by being an actress. when she finally starts to express her inner feelings, we discover that people in 1896 were as passionate and in need of affection as today or 500 years ago. In only a couple of letters, Elise captured my imagination just as easily as her picture enchanted Richard Collier:
"And life, most sweet, as heart to heart,
speaks kindly when we meet and part."
The story stops much too soon for me, a bittersweet moment that is probably meant to encourage us to be true to our feelings and to live fully in the present, because it passes in the blink of an eye. What we learn from 1896 is that people seemed more alive then because they cared more about the world around them, and the greatest crime that Richard noticed in his 1970's contemporaries is an apathy and a waste of such precious moments:
There is something compelling about human beings believing deeply. I do not intend to discuss, at length, that time I left. I will only say say that there is memory of indifferent attitudes toward many things, among them life itself.
When asked in an interview about his favorite creation, Matheson nominated Bid Time Return , rechristened Somewhere in Time for the big screen translation that he also scripted (""Somewhere in Time is the story of a love which transcends time, What Dreams May Come is the story of a love which transcends death.... I feel that they represent the best writing I have done in the novel form.") . He probably put more of himself into the story than in his more commercial thrillers, including a love of music illustrated by references to Lehar, Strauss, and especially Mahler ( 'Has there ever been a more heartbreaking farewell to life expressed in music?'. Even more fascinating is the story of the novel's inception: Elise McKenna is based on a real character from 1896.
[source: wikipedia]
Maude Adams was a beautiful actress whose picture Matheson saw in a hotel lobby. Matheson began to read about her career, and his imagination soon transformed this encounter into a novel. I enjoyed reading more on the internet about Miss Adams and about the real Hotel del Coronado, a place that attracted celebrities like flies, and was familiar to me from Billy Wilder's "Some Like it Hot" movie. The line between fiction and real life becomes in this way slightly blurred and more convincing, for all the impossibility of time travel that my brain insists on raising up.
I would like now to watch again the movie with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, as the only way to spend a little more time with this magical romance.
Richard Collier has never met the woman of his dreams. And now, at thirty-six, it might be too late, as he is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour. As a screenwriter he should know better than most how dreams are created out of thin air, yet in his vulnerable state of mind he is not immune to flights of fancy. While staying overnight at a luxury hotel near San Diego, he finds himself falling under the spell of an old photograph found in a dusty basement: he decides this is the woman he has been waiting for all his life. The only problem: the photograph is 80 years old, dating back to 1896, and the actress in the image has probably been dead a long time ago.
No, it's more than beauty. It's the expression on her face that haunts and conquers me. That gentle, honest, sweet expression. I wish I could have met her.
The image of the beautiful actress from last century becomes such an obsession for Richard, that he is constantly thinking about her, asleep or awake, as in a trance. He reads every available book about her life, about the period when she stayed in the same Coronado hotel near San Diego, about the history of the hotel and about the roles in the theatre that made her famous. Richard discovers that Elise McKenna was as famous in her time as Ingrid Bergman or Audrey Hepburn would be decades later. And, like a true diva, she kept her private life a mystery, carefully protecting her intimacy from the prying eyes of the press.
Almost half of the novel explores the total immersion of Richard into the life of Elise McKenna. He surrounds himself with her photographs, with her theatrical reviews, with the meagre tidbits available about her personal life. It appears a major change of heart in her career occurred in the very same hotel, during a late autumn performance of a piece by J M Barrie. Richard somehow convinces himself that in order to discover her secret it is enough to desire it with all his being, mind and body. If only he could convince himself it is possible to travel back in time, he would meet and talk to his idol in the flesh. That is all he wants from life right now. So he engages in an intensive regimen of hypnotic self-instruction, telling himself over and over and over again:
It's Thursday afternoon. You're lying on the bed in your room at the Hotel del Coronado and it's Thursday afternoon, November 19, 1896. Your mind accepts this absolutely. There is no question in your mind. It is November 19, 1896, Thursday November 19, 1896. You're Richard Collier. Thirty-six. Lying on your hotel bed, eyes closed, on Thursday afternoon, November 19, 1896. 1896, 1896, Room 527. Hotel del Coronado. Thursday afternoon, November 19, 1896.
Many writers have tried their hand at time-travel stories, inventing sophisticated machines or alternate dimension in the time-space continuum. Why not accept for once that love is strong enough to take you to the place your heart desires? The whole world might only be an illusion and we only live inside our heads anyway. So give Richard the benefit of the doubt, and let him wake up from his hypnosis in 1896, in a room of the Hotel del Coronado.
I'm pulled in two directions simultaneously - toward yearning and toward reason. It's at times like these I hate the brain. It always builds more barriers than it can topple.
In the second part of the novel, Richard gets to meet Elise, and because this is a romantic story, she seems to have been waiting just for him, all her life. The concept sounds so corny and cheap when I put it down on paper, like a typical obsessed weirdo stalking an innocent woman, but from the pen of Matheson, it is a thing of beauty, charged with passion and melancholy. With an elegant economy of means, he captures the beauty of the Belle Epoque building ( "Last of the extravagantly conceived seaside hotels" ), the different social conventions and attitudes of the turn of the century, and most of all the difficulties even beautiful and successful women had to face in a male dominated society. Elise is very much alone, self-reliant but wary of men's attentions, bullied by her impresario and discredited in the eyes of the public simply by being an actress. when she finally starts to express her inner feelings, we discover that people in 1896 were as passionate and in need of affection as today or 500 years ago. In only a couple of letters, Elise captured my imagination just as easily as her picture enchanted Richard Collier:
"And life, most sweet, as heart to heart,
speaks kindly when we meet and part."
The story stops much too soon for me, a bittersweet moment that is probably meant to encourage us to be true to our feelings and to live fully in the present, because it passes in the blink of an eye. What we learn from 1896 is that people seemed more alive then because they cared more about the world around them, and the greatest crime that Richard noticed in his 1970's contemporaries is an apathy and a waste of such precious moments:
There is something compelling about human beings believing deeply. I do not intend to discuss, at length, that time I left. I will only say say that there is memory of indifferent attitudes toward many things, among them life itself.
When asked in an interview about his favorite creation, Matheson nominated Bid Time Return , rechristened Somewhere in Time for the big screen translation that he also scripted (""Somewhere in Time is the story of a love which transcends time, What Dreams May Come is the story of a love which transcends death.... I feel that they represent the best writing I have done in the novel form.") . He probably put more of himself into the story than in his more commercial thrillers, including a love of music illustrated by references to Lehar, Strauss, and especially Mahler ( 'Has there ever been a more heartbreaking farewell to life expressed in music?'. Even more fascinating is the story of the novel's inception: Elise McKenna is based on a real character from 1896.
[source: wikipedia]
Maude Adams was a beautiful actress whose picture Matheson saw in a hotel lobby. Matheson began to read about her career, and his imagination soon transformed this encounter into a novel. I enjoyed reading more on the internet about Miss Adams and about the real Hotel del Coronado, a place that attracted celebrities like flies, and was familiar to me from Billy Wilder's "Some Like it Hot" movie. The line between fiction and real life becomes in this way slightly blurred and more convincing, for all the impossibility of time travel that my brain insists on raising up.
I would like now to watch again the movie with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, as the only way to spend a little more time with this magical romance.
November 3, 2024
So you want large numbers of people whom you’ve never met to hate you, curse your name, call you a hollowed-out shell who has never known romance? I can help you with that. All you need to do is say something bad about Somewhere in Time � either the Richard Matheson novel from 1975, or the movie adaptation from 1980 with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. Go ahead. Say something bad about Somewhere in Time. I dare you. I double-dare you. I triple-dog-dare ya!
Not going to take that dare? You are wise in your generation � for Somewhere in Time is the kind of story that, over time, has built up the kind of singularly devoted fan base that used to be called a “cult following.� This time-travel love story is so proudly and unabashedly romantic, in its setting-forth of a true love that can conquer time itself, that hopeless romantics around the world have given their hearts over to it.
Originally from New Jersey, Matheson built in Southern California his career of writing about the fantastic and the horrifying, often within an otherwise ordinary, contemporary U.S. setting. He wrote episodes of The Twilight Zone, and helped Roger Corman adapt Edgar Allan Poe stories for the screen, as with his screenplay for The Pit and the Pendulum (1961). His own original novels, with the way they combine a bizarre, otherworldly premise with a strong narrative line, have often been adapted for cinema themselves: I Am Legend (1954), The Shrinking Man (1956), A Stir of Echoes (1958), Hell House (1971). Stephen King is foremost among the modern horror writers who have cited Matheson, with gratitude, as a major influence.
For Matheson, an author who was always best known for science-fiction and horror stories, Somewhere in Time was a bold, time-travel-based foray into romantic fantasy. The novel was originally titled Bid Time Return, from a line in William Shakespeare’s play Richard II: “O call back yesterday, bid time return�. I like the Shakespeare allusion, but I suppose Somewhere in Time is a more marketable title.
As Somewhere in Time, or by any other name, this novel tells the story of one Richard Collier, a 36-year-old Los Angeles screenwriter who is terminally ill. Matheson’s own Southern California roots come through in Collier’s decision to spend what time he has left at San Diego’s historic Hotel del Coronado, with its meticulously preserved 19th-century ambiance. While at the Hotel Del, Collier sees a photograph of the eminent 19th-century actress Elise McKenna, and falls hopelessly in love with the image of the long-dead actress (reflecting a scenario that is said to have happened to Matheson himself, at the historic Piper’s Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada).
Becoming hopelessly entranced with Elise’s image, Collier decides that he will try to travel back in time so that he can see her! His method of time travel does not involve any sort of machinery or technology; there will be nothing like the gorgeous brass-and-fixtures steampunk time-travel device that Rod Taylor’s character uses to journey through time in George Pal’s 1960 film version of H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine. Rather, Collier will take a room at the Hotel Del, dress himself in 19th-century clothing, immerse himself completely in the material culture of the period, and will himself back to Elise’s time.
Toward that end, Collier rents a vintage 1896 costume from the San Diego Costume Company, and it is engaging to see the character working out the practical considerations of what seems a hopelessly impractical plan. “I was on the verge of leaving San Diego,� Collier tells us, “when it occurred to me that going back to 1896 well dressed wouldn’t buy me a cup of coffee� (p. 103) � and so he goes to a coin and stamp shop and emerges with a couple of gold and silver certificates.
Strangely enough, Collier’s improbable plan for traveling through time works! He feels “A physical sensation akin to sliding backward through a film�, a “slipping� (p. 107). And then, “My eyes were closed but I was awake and knew I was in 1896� (p. 108). He meets Elise, and their mutual attraction is immediate.
Throughout Somewhere in Time, novelist Matheson is clearly having fun showing how protagonist Collier experiences the unanticipated surprises of time travel. When Collier shakes the hand of one Babcock, a man about whom he has read, Collier observes that “there are few experiences to compare with feeling the sturdy handshake of a man who has been, until that moment, long dead in your mind� (p. 201).
Through protagonist Collier's observations, author Matheson can also offer commentary on the differences between life in the 1970’s and life in the 1890’s. While having breakfast with Elise one morning, Richard sets forth his impressions of dining habits in 1896: “This certainly is an eating age. People get down to the business of digestion first thing in the morning and stay with it all day and into the night� (p. 204).
The course of true love, it is said, never runs smooth; and in the case of Somewhere in Time, the chief obstacle to the love of Collier and Elise is Elise’s manager, William Fawcett Robinson. On the one hand, it is understandable that a conscientious manager for a famous actress would feel a sense of unease at seeing his client’s life suddenly intruded into by some Richard-come-lately from who-knows-where (or who-knows-when); on the other hand, Robinson seems to have long carried, in vain, his own torch for Elise. Whatever his true motivations may be, Robinson shows himself willing to take drastic action to prevent Collier from becoming part of Elise’s life.
But love does eventually blossom between Collier and Elise, leading to passages like this one:
“Oh, my love, my love.� She pressed her cheek to mine. “How can such happiness exist?�
We held each other tightly for a while before she drew back, eyes glistening as she looked at me. “Tell me all about yourself,� she said. “Whatever you can, I mean. I want to love everything you love.�
“Love yourself, then,� I told her.
She kissed me on the lips, then moved her gaze over my features. “I love your face,� she said. “Your nightbird eyes. Your dust-in-sunshine hair. Your gentle voice and touch”�
Smiling, I ruffled her silky hair.
“And I love your smile,� she said. “As though you are getting the humor of something all to yourself.”�
Now, who’s crying? Stop that! I’m not crying, you’re crying!
You get the idea. If a passage like this last one gets you feeling a bit misty and teary-eyed, then Somewhere in Time is for you. If, on the other hand, you find yourself saying something like, “Oh, come on,� then you may want to seek out other reading choices.
The science-fiction reader who enjoys the paradoxes of time travel may appreciate the fate-inflected manner in which the plotline of Somewhere in Time works itself out. And with its unabashed romanticism, Somewhere in Time certainly has the courage of its convictions. Matheson no doubt knew that he couldn’t take a knowing, winking, I’m-really-above-all-this approach to writing Somewhere in Time. With a story and a premise like this, a writer has to go big or go home.
I read Somewhere in Time while on a trip to San Diego. Attending a conference in Coronado, I had the chance to visit (though not stay at) the Hotel Del. Enjoying a lunch at the seaside (excellent fish-and-chips), or walking along the corridors of dark-paneled wood, I couldn’t help observing that the Hotel Del did seem like an excellent place in which to immerse oneself in the lifeways of an earlier age (as novelist Matheson reportedly did, staying at the Hotel Del while writing his novel). I’m not quite sure that I can buy into Somewhere in Time as completely as the book’s legions of fans do, but I will say that Matheson succeeded in crafting a kind of story that was new for him � one that generations of readers, and later moviegoers, came to love.
Not going to take that dare? You are wise in your generation � for Somewhere in Time is the kind of story that, over time, has built up the kind of singularly devoted fan base that used to be called a “cult following.� This time-travel love story is so proudly and unabashedly romantic, in its setting-forth of a true love that can conquer time itself, that hopeless romantics around the world have given their hearts over to it.
Originally from New Jersey, Matheson built in Southern California his career of writing about the fantastic and the horrifying, often within an otherwise ordinary, contemporary U.S. setting. He wrote episodes of The Twilight Zone, and helped Roger Corman adapt Edgar Allan Poe stories for the screen, as with his screenplay for The Pit and the Pendulum (1961). His own original novels, with the way they combine a bizarre, otherworldly premise with a strong narrative line, have often been adapted for cinema themselves: I Am Legend (1954), The Shrinking Man (1956), A Stir of Echoes (1958), Hell House (1971). Stephen King is foremost among the modern horror writers who have cited Matheson, with gratitude, as a major influence.
For Matheson, an author who was always best known for science-fiction and horror stories, Somewhere in Time was a bold, time-travel-based foray into romantic fantasy. The novel was originally titled Bid Time Return, from a line in William Shakespeare’s play Richard II: “O call back yesterday, bid time return�. I like the Shakespeare allusion, but I suppose Somewhere in Time is a more marketable title.
As Somewhere in Time, or by any other name, this novel tells the story of one Richard Collier, a 36-year-old Los Angeles screenwriter who is terminally ill. Matheson’s own Southern California roots come through in Collier’s decision to spend what time he has left at San Diego’s historic Hotel del Coronado, with its meticulously preserved 19th-century ambiance. While at the Hotel Del, Collier sees a photograph of the eminent 19th-century actress Elise McKenna, and falls hopelessly in love with the image of the long-dead actress (reflecting a scenario that is said to have happened to Matheson himself, at the historic Piper’s Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada).
Becoming hopelessly entranced with Elise’s image, Collier decides that he will try to travel back in time so that he can see her! His method of time travel does not involve any sort of machinery or technology; there will be nothing like the gorgeous brass-and-fixtures steampunk time-travel device that Rod Taylor’s character uses to journey through time in George Pal’s 1960 film version of H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine. Rather, Collier will take a room at the Hotel Del, dress himself in 19th-century clothing, immerse himself completely in the material culture of the period, and will himself back to Elise’s time.
Toward that end, Collier rents a vintage 1896 costume from the San Diego Costume Company, and it is engaging to see the character working out the practical considerations of what seems a hopelessly impractical plan. “I was on the verge of leaving San Diego,� Collier tells us, “when it occurred to me that going back to 1896 well dressed wouldn’t buy me a cup of coffee� (p. 103) � and so he goes to a coin and stamp shop and emerges with a couple of gold and silver certificates.
Strangely enough, Collier’s improbable plan for traveling through time works! He feels “A physical sensation akin to sliding backward through a film�, a “slipping� (p. 107). And then, “My eyes were closed but I was awake and knew I was in 1896� (p. 108). He meets Elise, and their mutual attraction is immediate.
Throughout Somewhere in Time, novelist Matheson is clearly having fun showing how protagonist Collier experiences the unanticipated surprises of time travel. When Collier shakes the hand of one Babcock, a man about whom he has read, Collier observes that “there are few experiences to compare with feeling the sturdy handshake of a man who has been, until that moment, long dead in your mind� (p. 201).
Through protagonist Collier's observations, author Matheson can also offer commentary on the differences between life in the 1970’s and life in the 1890’s. While having breakfast with Elise one morning, Richard sets forth his impressions of dining habits in 1896: “This certainly is an eating age. People get down to the business of digestion first thing in the morning and stay with it all day and into the night� (p. 204).
The course of true love, it is said, never runs smooth; and in the case of Somewhere in Time, the chief obstacle to the love of Collier and Elise is Elise’s manager, William Fawcett Robinson. On the one hand, it is understandable that a conscientious manager for a famous actress would feel a sense of unease at seeing his client’s life suddenly intruded into by some Richard-come-lately from who-knows-where (or who-knows-when); on the other hand, Robinson seems to have long carried, in vain, his own torch for Elise. Whatever his true motivations may be, Robinson shows himself willing to take drastic action to prevent Collier from becoming part of Elise’s life.
But love does eventually blossom between Collier and Elise, leading to passages like this one:
“Oh, my love, my love.� She pressed her cheek to mine. “How can such happiness exist?�
We held each other tightly for a while before she drew back, eyes glistening as she looked at me. “Tell me all about yourself,� she said. “Whatever you can, I mean. I want to love everything you love.�
“Love yourself, then,� I told her.
She kissed me on the lips, then moved her gaze over my features. “I love your face,� she said. “Your nightbird eyes. Your dust-in-sunshine hair. Your gentle voice and touch”�
Smiling, I ruffled her silky hair.
“And I love your smile,� she said. “As though you are getting the humor of something all to yourself.”�
Now, who’s crying? Stop that! I’m not crying, you’re crying!
You get the idea. If a passage like this last one gets you feeling a bit misty and teary-eyed, then Somewhere in Time is for you. If, on the other hand, you find yourself saying something like, “Oh, come on,� then you may want to seek out other reading choices.
The science-fiction reader who enjoys the paradoxes of time travel may appreciate the fate-inflected manner in which the plotline of Somewhere in Time works itself out. And with its unabashed romanticism, Somewhere in Time certainly has the courage of its convictions. Matheson no doubt knew that he couldn’t take a knowing, winking, I’m-really-above-all-this approach to writing Somewhere in Time. With a story and a premise like this, a writer has to go big or go home.
I read Somewhere in Time while on a trip to San Diego. Attending a conference in Coronado, I had the chance to visit (though not stay at) the Hotel Del. Enjoying a lunch at the seaside (excellent fish-and-chips), or walking along the corridors of dark-paneled wood, I couldn’t help observing that the Hotel Del did seem like an excellent place in which to immerse oneself in the lifeways of an earlier age (as novelist Matheson reportedly did, staying at the Hotel Del while writing his novel). I’m not quite sure that I can buy into Somewhere in Time as completely as the book’s legions of fans do, but I will say that Matheson succeeded in crafting a kind of story that was new for him � one that generations of readers, and later moviegoers, came to love.
November 16, 2014
What the heck was that I just read, and why did I read it?
This is one of the sappiest, outrageously nauseating, chauvinistic, sloppily sentimental books I've read this year, and considering how much actual 19th century literature I've read this year, that's really saying something.
We spend the first third of this book with the main character, Richard Collier (by the way, I always get afully suspicious when the character and the author share a name, don't you?) being maniacal about a photograph of a pretty woman. Like, stalker with a crush obsessed. The woman is Elise McKenna, an actress who staged a play in the hotel he's staying at in 1896, so of course his obsession becomes sufficiently powerful to let him hypnotize himself into time traveling to her, and that's where things get really cringeworthy.
Apparently, his tactic for wooing her is "cling to her knees and whine until she relents. And she does, because, literally, magic! "I don't know why I'm putting up with this obviously creepy stalker who won't leave me alone, but I am magically in love with him." Holy hell. Also, this woman who is an early Feminist and Suffragette and built up a ton of armoured walls - she says so, literally - just drapes herself all over this man who showed up out of nowhere, and melts. Wow. All this is buried in heaps and piles of the sappiest dialogue I've read in a while, and spattered with pointless scenes that are intended to make it look like plot is happening.
Girls, if a random creepy guy shows up and tells you he's destined for you after failing in love with your photograph, do the right thing and kick him out the nearest airlock.
This is one of the sappiest, outrageously nauseating, chauvinistic, sloppily sentimental books I've read this year, and considering how much actual 19th century literature I've read this year, that's really saying something.
We spend the first third of this book with the main character, Richard Collier (by the way, I always get afully suspicious when the character and the author share a name, don't you?) being maniacal about a photograph of a pretty woman. Like, stalker with a crush obsessed. The woman is Elise McKenna, an actress who staged a play in the hotel he's staying at in 1896, so of course his obsession becomes sufficiently powerful to let him hypnotize himself into time traveling to her, and that's where things get really cringeworthy.
Apparently, his tactic for wooing her is "cling to her knees and whine until she relents. And she does, because, literally, magic! "I don't know why I'm putting up with this obviously creepy stalker who won't leave me alone, but I am magically in love with him." Holy hell. Also, this woman who is an early Feminist and Suffragette and built up a ton of armoured walls - she says so, literally - just drapes herself all over this man who showed up out of nowhere, and melts. Wow. All this is buried in heaps and piles of the sappiest dialogue I've read in a while, and spattered with pointless scenes that are intended to make it look like plot is happening.
Girls, if a random creepy guy shows up and tells you he's destined for you after failing in love with your photograph, do the right thing and kick him out the nearest airlock.
Shelved as 'not-in-a-hurry-to-read'
December 18, 2017A screenwriter with an inoperable brain tumor becomes obsessed with an actress from the turn of the century and uses hypnosis to travel back in time to meet her.
I've been reading a fair bit of Richard Matheson lately and stumbled upon this at the used bookstore. After leaving my kindle at work over a long weekend, I pulled the trigger on it.
Firstly, the first 33% of this book was an uphill climb. Wearing snow shoes. With a safe strapped to my back. Richard Collier finds out he has a brain tumor and decides to go for one last road trip. He stays at a hotel, becomes infatuated with an actress from 1896, and travels back to the 1890's with self hypnosis. It takes over 100 pages for him to get there. Also, time travel via self hypnosis?
I had good intentions but life's too short to push through something I'm barely interested in, even if the author is responsible for most of the great Twilight Zone episodes. I may return to it at some future date.
I've been reading a fair bit of Richard Matheson lately and stumbled upon this at the used bookstore. After leaving my kindle at work over a long weekend, I pulled the trigger on it.
Firstly, the first 33% of this book was an uphill climb. Wearing snow shoes. With a safe strapped to my back. Richard Collier finds out he has a brain tumor and decides to go for one last road trip. He stays at a hotel, becomes infatuated with an actress from 1896, and travels back to the 1890's with self hypnosis. It takes over 100 pages for him to get there. Also, time travel via self hypnosis?
I had good intentions but life's too short to push through something I'm barely interested in, even if the author is responsible for most of the great Twilight Zone episodes. I may return to it at some future date.
November 1, 2020
Q: What you believe becomes your world. (c)
Q: I will try to be consistent, no longer oscillating like some planet that has lost its way. For, at long last, I have found my sun. (c)
OMG. I can't believe that I somehow missed reading this one before!
She was waiting for him. He was looking for her. So, he transcended time (if not space) and they met. For the 2nd time. The time has limited offers only.
An increadibly romantic time travel story with. admittedly, dubious mechanics of the said time travel. But, other than that, it's such a touching, emotionally developed idea that I can't help ling it. I got my new haunting, touching, endearing, dreamlike fav.
I'm so mad at everyone who was bothering them and preventing them from spending time together. Darn society and its ratty demands.
I've seen somewhere that this one is closely shadowed after . I've no idea in the slightest, so I'll probably wind up reading that one as well. Hope it's as lovely as this one.
Q:
Why then should I not be able to go back, just as before, but, instead of causing sorrow in her life, cause only joy? (c)
Q:
As I do this, I'll listen to Mahler's Ninth Symphony on my headphones, let it be my candle flame, my swinging pendant as I send written instructions to my subconscious that today is November 19, 1896. (c)
Q:
I feel as though I'm back in a cage. I was released before. In that miraculous instant, the door sprang open and I stepped out and was free. (c)
Q:
I write them now. Hold me to them always for they will always be true.
I love you. (c)
Q:
All I knew-as I'm sure she knew-was that it didn't matter now what mystery had joined us, didn't matter if I was some deep-set fantasy of hers brought to life or if she was that to me. As she had said, it was enough that we were together, sharing these moments. For, no matter how the mind may speak, there must always come that moment when the heart speaks louder. Both our hearts were speaking now and there was no denying the command they gave. (c)
Q:
"The one on the left is you," ...
"It is me,... There are stars in my hair." (c)
Q: I will try to be consistent, no longer oscillating like some planet that has lost its way. For, at long last, I have found my sun. (c)
OMG. I can't believe that I somehow missed reading this one before!
She was waiting for him. He was looking for her. So, he transcended time (if not space) and they met. For the 2nd time. The time has limited offers only.
An increadibly romantic time travel story with. admittedly, dubious mechanics of the said time travel. But, other than that, it's such a touching, emotionally developed idea that I can't help ling it. I got my new haunting, touching, endearing, dreamlike fav.
I'm so mad at everyone who was bothering them and preventing them from spending time together. Darn society and its ratty demands.
I've seen somewhere that this one is closely shadowed after . I've no idea in the slightest, so I'll probably wind up reading that one as well. Hope it's as lovely as this one.
Q:
Why then should I not be able to go back, just as before, but, instead of causing sorrow in her life, cause only joy? (c)
Q:
As I do this, I'll listen to Mahler's Ninth Symphony on my headphones, let it be my candle flame, my swinging pendant as I send written instructions to my subconscious that today is November 19, 1896. (c)
Q:
I feel as though I'm back in a cage. I was released before. In that miraculous instant, the door sprang open and I stepped out and was free. (c)
Q:
I write them now. Hold me to them always for they will always be true.
I love you. (c)
Q:
All I knew-as I'm sure she knew-was that it didn't matter now what mystery had joined us, didn't matter if I was some deep-set fantasy of hers brought to life or if she was that to me. As she had said, it was enough that we were together, sharing these moments. For, no matter how the mind may speak, there must always come that moment when the heart speaks louder. Both our hearts were speaking now and there was no denying the command they gave. (c)
Q:
"The one on the left is you," ...
"It is me,... There are stars in my hair." (c)
November 17, 2019
The book starts out rather rough and the time-travel aspect is half-laughable and absolutely necessary for the ambiguity inherent in the novel, but DAMN...
THIS IS ONE HELL OF HEA ROMANCE.
Love and first sight, straining against social customs, heaving bosoms, torn hearts....
Sigh.
I admit I kinda fell for this. I'm not a huge romance reader, but it was soooooo damn sweet and predictable and full of satisfaction.
But I also really appreciated the twist. :) I should probably re-watch the 1980 movie and see if it really does the book justice.
THIS IS ONE HELL OF HEA ROMANCE.
Love and first sight, straining against social customs, heaving bosoms, torn hearts....
Sigh.
I admit I kinda fell for this. I'm not a huge romance reader, but it was soooooo damn sweet and predictable and full of satisfaction.
But I also really appreciated the twist. :) I should probably re-watch the 1980 movie and see if it really does the book justice.
March 6, 2025
Originally, this book was named “Bid Time Return� by Matheson. Five years later, a movie version debuted with the titled changed as it is here. I always meant to find the book with the original title, though it's far easier to find Matheson's more popular books (I Am Legend, Hell House, etc.). I do know that I've seen at least a portion of the movie � it's ending for certain. That culminate scene was not changed. It was too good to be changed, even if much of the rest was not nearly so, excepting it premise on traveling back in time. Stories about time have always been among my favorite to read, and so I hoped for more from this book. I'll say this much - the ending has stayed with me since finishing. If you're a Matheson “completionist�, then definitely read it.
August 10, 2022
3 Stars for Somewhere in Time (audiobook) by Richard Matheson read by Scott Brick.
I’ve enjoyed some other time travel stories lately so my wife recommended this one to me. So far this is my least favorite. The main character really seemed like a stalker to me in the beginning of the book and the ending just wasn’t very satisfying.
I’ve enjoyed some other time travel stories lately so my wife recommended this one to me. So far this is my least favorite. The main character really seemed like a stalker to me in the beginning of the book and the ending just wasn’t very satisfying.
November 5, 2014
Somewhere in Richard Matheson's 1975 novel Bid Time Return is a wonderful science fiction tale dying to get out. Some would argue it did, inspiring the much loved 1980 film Somewhere In Time, which was so embraced that it became the de facto title for the novel when reprinted. This is the romantic fantasy of an author born in the 1920s and in addition to being difficult for me to relate to on that end, excited me only in the moments its hero travels through time.
Unfolding in the format of a found journal, Bid Time Return begins November 14, 1971 with thirty-six year old screenwriter Richard Collier leaving the Los Angeles home of his brother Robert. With the flip of a coin, he drives south. Richard has learned he has six months to live as a result of a temporal-lobe tumor and with no children, no great love of his own, takes to the road, stopping in Long Beach to tour the Queen Mary before settling at the grand Coronado Hotel in San Diego.
It is here that Richard comes across the portrait of Elise McKenna, star of the turn-of-the-century stage who was at the hotel on November 18, 1896 to perform in a play written for her by J.M. Barrie. Richard becomes obsessed with the actress, learning what little he can about her life from books. He determines that he actually saw her once, while a twenty-year-old boy in college, and begins to piece together clues that they may have actually met sometime long ago.
Employing hypnosis techniques (which actually work much better on the page than they have any right to), Richard is able to reconstitute in 1896 on the eve of Miss McKenna's performance at the Coronado. He's rented a period costume for the occasion, brought along a twenty-dollar gold certificate and a ten-dollar silver certificate of the time for mad money and armed with the confidence that history has meant for them to be together, opens his eyes in the turn of the century.
Perhaps the biggest problem with reading Bid Time Return today is how Matheson's prescription for eternal love comes across a lot like stalking. Richard is not only obsessed with Elise and adamant about being with her, but possessing her as an object. Her beauty and allure is what attracts him, nothing more. It's not a leap to imagine the stalker who confronted Sandra Bullock outside her bedroom in 2014 shares a lot of the same qualities as Matheson's lovesick hero.
Matheson employs some neat slight of hand to explain why Elise wouldn't turn and run away from Richard at the first sight of him. He filled the story with just enough detail about the Coronado Hotel and time travel to tease my curiosity, but falters by not giving Richard anyone in the story to confide in, to truly examine what it would be like for a man from 1971 to be living in 1896. Richard could have just as easily arrived on a movie set.
Richard Matheson's contributions to The Twilight Zone and to science fiction in general are impossible to ignore, but it seems that some of his best known novels are better suited to a 24-minute TV format. Bid Time Return is quite thin, perhaps born of a time when science fiction and fantasy was meant to be consumed in magazine format, long before Stephen King was devoting 150,000 words and more to his dark fantasy novels.
What disappointed me about Bid Time Return is how little Richard and Elise have in common once they cross the sea of time to be together. Their laughter is fleeting, their cultures completely disparate and their apologies for clinging on to each other so ferociously never seem to end. This couple has no reason to be together other than the author's insistence that they're meant to be together.
Matheson was apparently inspired by a portrait he came across at Piper's Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada of the 19th century stage actress Maude Adams (she is quite beautiful). Matheson was struck by the fact that Adams never married and as if seeing an opening, inserts himself into the shoes of a time traveler who covets her. For some readers, this is true love. For me, it was creepy. I needed a reason for Richard to travel through time and pursue Elise rather than to possess her.
The author's imagination is never in doubt when it comes to time travel. Like my favorite stories in this sub-genre, no time machine was employed, no tech, simply the human mind, and it works quite well. The romantic component, on the other hand, was repellent. I wished the story was devoted to the time period and to the nature of a traveler from the future who finds himself trapped there. Elise McKenna should've been left alone. Richard can't help but expose himself as a world class creeper.
Unfolding in the format of a found journal, Bid Time Return begins November 14, 1971 with thirty-six year old screenwriter Richard Collier leaving the Los Angeles home of his brother Robert. With the flip of a coin, he drives south. Richard has learned he has six months to live as a result of a temporal-lobe tumor and with no children, no great love of his own, takes to the road, stopping in Long Beach to tour the Queen Mary before settling at the grand Coronado Hotel in San Diego.
It is here that Richard comes across the portrait of Elise McKenna, star of the turn-of-the-century stage who was at the hotel on November 18, 1896 to perform in a play written for her by J.M. Barrie. Richard becomes obsessed with the actress, learning what little he can about her life from books. He determines that he actually saw her once, while a twenty-year-old boy in college, and begins to piece together clues that they may have actually met sometime long ago.
Employing hypnosis techniques (which actually work much better on the page than they have any right to), Richard is able to reconstitute in 1896 on the eve of Miss McKenna's performance at the Coronado. He's rented a period costume for the occasion, brought along a twenty-dollar gold certificate and a ten-dollar silver certificate of the time for mad money and armed with the confidence that history has meant for them to be together, opens his eyes in the turn of the century.
Perhaps the biggest problem with reading Bid Time Return today is how Matheson's prescription for eternal love comes across a lot like stalking. Richard is not only obsessed with Elise and adamant about being with her, but possessing her as an object. Her beauty and allure is what attracts him, nothing more. It's not a leap to imagine the stalker who confronted Sandra Bullock outside her bedroom in 2014 shares a lot of the same qualities as Matheson's lovesick hero.
Matheson employs some neat slight of hand to explain why Elise wouldn't turn and run away from Richard at the first sight of him. He filled the story with just enough detail about the Coronado Hotel and time travel to tease my curiosity, but falters by not giving Richard anyone in the story to confide in, to truly examine what it would be like for a man from 1971 to be living in 1896. Richard could have just as easily arrived on a movie set.
Richard Matheson's contributions to The Twilight Zone and to science fiction in general are impossible to ignore, but it seems that some of his best known novels are better suited to a 24-minute TV format. Bid Time Return is quite thin, perhaps born of a time when science fiction and fantasy was meant to be consumed in magazine format, long before Stephen King was devoting 150,000 words and more to his dark fantasy novels.
What disappointed me about Bid Time Return is how little Richard and Elise have in common once they cross the sea of time to be together. Their laughter is fleeting, their cultures completely disparate and their apologies for clinging on to each other so ferociously never seem to end. This couple has no reason to be together other than the author's insistence that they're meant to be together.
Matheson was apparently inspired by a portrait he came across at Piper's Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada of the 19th century stage actress Maude Adams (she is quite beautiful). Matheson was struck by the fact that Adams never married and as if seeing an opening, inserts himself into the shoes of a time traveler who covets her. For some readers, this is true love. For me, it was creepy. I needed a reason for Richard to travel through time and pursue Elise rather than to possess her.
The author's imagination is never in doubt when it comes to time travel. Like my favorite stories in this sub-genre, no time machine was employed, no tech, simply the human mind, and it works quite well. The romantic component, on the other hand, was repellent. I wished the story was devoted to the time period and to the nature of a traveler from the future who finds himself trapped there. Elise McKenna should've been left alone. Richard can't help but expose himself as a world class creeper.
July 30, 2008
All I can say is, it is completely obvious that this book was written by a man. He spends a tedious amount of time trying to explain away his time travel premise and forgets to explain the most obvious part of his book: how could a supposedly intelligent woman fall in love with his wacko main character?
Saw the movie years ago and thought it would be fun to read the book, since they are USUALLY better. What I found was a super sugary story that wasn't very moving.
Richard Collier is the main character, dying of a brain tumor. He runs off to a historical hotel near San Diego and proceeds to fall in love with an actress from the 1890s purely by looking at her photo. He then proceeds to learn all about her (and oh yeah, how to time travel) by ducking into the local book store. Of course in a matter of days he's figured out how to go back in time, come across famous actress Elise McKenna and make her fall ardently in love with him in a matter of hours.
Instead of a smart and dashing hero, Richard comes off as a crazy fan/stalker that tells Elise he loves her but of course refuses to tell her anything about himself. It seems incredible to me that the reader is to believe that Elise would just go for this guy (who knows a creepy amount about her without being told and is only vague about himself) with no questions asked.
I also found the beginning of the book, which is written as if it is a transcript of Richard speaking into his handy-dandy hand recorder extremely distracting. An image of this lone dude whispering into his recorder while mooning over vintage photographs does little to dispess his psycho image.
It gets easier to read as the book goes on and gets into a better flow of dialog, but it is still a very fluffy storyline.
I read this book while lounging poolside, and that is probably why I read it all the way through. It is good vacation reading, because ultimately you're not going to care if it gets wet and soggy from the pool. I doubt this will be a re-reader, you'll be happy enough to just rent the dvd.
Saw the movie years ago and thought it would be fun to read the book, since they are USUALLY better. What I found was a super sugary story that wasn't very moving.
Richard Collier is the main character, dying of a brain tumor. He runs off to a historical hotel near San Diego and proceeds to fall in love with an actress from the 1890s purely by looking at her photo. He then proceeds to learn all about her (and oh yeah, how to time travel) by ducking into the local book store. Of course in a matter of days he's figured out how to go back in time, come across famous actress Elise McKenna and make her fall ardently in love with him in a matter of hours.
Instead of a smart and dashing hero, Richard comes off as a crazy fan/stalker that tells Elise he loves her but of course refuses to tell her anything about himself. It seems incredible to me that the reader is to believe that Elise would just go for this guy (who knows a creepy amount about her without being told and is only vague about himself) with no questions asked.
I also found the beginning of the book, which is written as if it is a transcript of Richard speaking into his handy-dandy hand recorder extremely distracting. An image of this lone dude whispering into his recorder while mooning over vintage photographs does little to dispess his psycho image.
It gets easier to read as the book goes on and gets into a better flow of dialog, but it is still a very fluffy storyline.
I read this book while lounging poolside, and that is probably why I read it all the way through. It is good vacation reading, because ultimately you're not going to care if it gets wet and soggy from the pool. I doubt this will be a re-reader, you'll be happy enough to just rent the dvd.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 2, 2013
Opening Line: "Driving down Long Valley Road. Lovely day; bright sunshine, blue sky."
This week has been one filled with romantic tragedies for me. First I went to the see the re-release of Titanic in 3D (oh Jack) and then because I hadn’t had quite enough heartache I decided to revisit one of my all time favourite romances with Somewhere In Time (Bid Time Return.) It’s been years since I first read this as a teenager, -god knows how many times I watched the movie starring Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve (another tragedy there) and I wasn’t sure if I’d feel the same about it now.
Really the only difference this time around was that I was able to appreciate the quality of the writing and amount of research that must have gone into making this tale of time travel, well, believable. The romance is still as moving as it was. And yes much like Titanic even though I knew what was coming I still shed a tear at the end.
Told from a first person narrative and written as if you were reading a journal, we meet Richard Collier. A 30ish Los Angeles screenwriter with an inoperable brain tumour. Not wanting to burden his family, Richard packs up his life and decides to end his days wherever the road takes him. These beginning chapters are fast moving, choppy and written with short slightly erratic paragraphs as Richard dictates into an audio diary. In the second half the journal entries become longer and more detailed and quite honestly a little dry in places.
Through the fate of a coin toss Richard finds himself at the Hotel Del Coronado, a grand seaside resort, steeped in history that manages to become a character onto itself here. It’s within the hotel museum that Richard comes across a turn of the century photograph of an actress named Elise McKenna, and at that moment everything else in Richard’s life ceases to exist. He can’t stop thinking about the beautiful woman, or the look in her eyes, becoming obsessed with her and the time she lived in. Richard then begins to research her life and in every instance notes a complete change in her character after her acting troupe left the hotel 75 years before. If only he could meet her, if only he could get to her and find out what made her so sad, why she never married.
Its then that Richard begins researching time travel and self hypnosis, convinced that he can get back to her. When he finds his name in an 1896 hotel registry he knows with certainty what the change in Elise was. He was with her, now he just has to get back to her. Some of the time travel paradoxes in this are positively mind bending and you can’t think about them too long for fear of brain explosions.
As I mentioned the writing changes as soon as Richard finds himself in 1896 (yeah he does) becoming more formal and detailed. It is explained that he is now writing his accounts instead of dictating. Matheson’s descriptions of the time are pure genius, not just taking into account the obvious like clothing but the social attitudes, the language differences, the size of people. Is everyone short and stocky? I loved the descriptions and Richards discovery of it all. The romance aspect here is beautifully done albeit a little soppy and with a hint of the supernatural, because as it turns out Elise was expecting him. Well not him but through a physic she’s been waiting for someone mysterious to sweep her off her feet. Her over protective manager plays the antagonist here, trying in vain to keep them apart and while Richard should hate him he finds that he cannot because he knows how the man dies.
I suppose you can’t change the past though and as much as I found myself cheering for our couple it was already written. Probably the most moving part of this book is in the afterward (provided by Richard’s brother) which explains that his time travel was only that of a form of escapism provided by his tumour amassed brain. Robert Collier cannot however explain the love letters in Richards pocket or the antique (yet new) pocket watch or Elise McKenna’s famous dying last words. He leaves it up to the reader to decide if it happened or not. I think it did. Cheers.
291jb4
This week has been one filled with romantic tragedies for me. First I went to the see the re-release of Titanic in 3D (oh Jack) and then because I hadn’t had quite enough heartache I decided to revisit one of my all time favourite romances with Somewhere In Time (Bid Time Return.) It’s been years since I first read this as a teenager, -god knows how many times I watched the movie starring Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve (another tragedy there) and I wasn’t sure if I’d feel the same about it now.
Really the only difference this time around was that I was able to appreciate the quality of the writing and amount of research that must have gone into making this tale of time travel, well, believable. The romance is still as moving as it was. And yes much like Titanic even though I knew what was coming I still shed a tear at the end.
Told from a first person narrative and written as if you were reading a journal, we meet Richard Collier. A 30ish Los Angeles screenwriter with an inoperable brain tumour. Not wanting to burden his family, Richard packs up his life and decides to end his days wherever the road takes him. These beginning chapters are fast moving, choppy and written with short slightly erratic paragraphs as Richard dictates into an audio diary. In the second half the journal entries become longer and more detailed and quite honestly a little dry in places.
Through the fate of a coin toss Richard finds himself at the Hotel Del Coronado, a grand seaside resort, steeped in history that manages to become a character onto itself here. It’s within the hotel museum that Richard comes across a turn of the century photograph of an actress named Elise McKenna, and at that moment everything else in Richard’s life ceases to exist. He can’t stop thinking about the beautiful woman, or the look in her eyes, becoming obsessed with her and the time she lived in. Richard then begins to research her life and in every instance notes a complete change in her character after her acting troupe left the hotel 75 years before. If only he could meet her, if only he could get to her and find out what made her so sad, why she never married.
Its then that Richard begins researching time travel and self hypnosis, convinced that he can get back to her. When he finds his name in an 1896 hotel registry he knows with certainty what the change in Elise was. He was with her, now he just has to get back to her. Some of the time travel paradoxes in this are positively mind bending and you can’t think about them too long for fear of brain explosions.
As I mentioned the writing changes as soon as Richard finds himself in 1896 (yeah he does) becoming more formal and detailed. It is explained that he is now writing his accounts instead of dictating. Matheson’s descriptions of the time are pure genius, not just taking into account the obvious like clothing but the social attitudes, the language differences, the size of people. Is everyone short and stocky? I loved the descriptions and Richards discovery of it all. The romance aspect here is beautifully done albeit a little soppy and with a hint of the supernatural, because as it turns out Elise was expecting him. Well not him but through a physic she’s been waiting for someone mysterious to sweep her off her feet. Her over protective manager plays the antagonist here, trying in vain to keep them apart and while Richard should hate him he finds that he cannot because he knows how the man dies.
I suppose you can’t change the past though and as much as I found myself cheering for our couple it was already written. Probably the most moving part of this book is in the afterward (provided by Richard’s brother) which explains that his time travel was only that of a form of escapism provided by his tumour amassed brain. Robert Collier cannot however explain the love letters in Richards pocket or the antique (yet new) pocket watch or Elise McKenna’s famous dying last words. He leaves it up to the reader to decide if it happened or not. I think it did. Cheers.
291jb4
March 5, 2015
The uniqueness of the way this time travel story is written......and begins......drew me right in, and then......BAMMM! you find out why handsome, 36 year old Richard Collier decides to travel and write a book about it.......hooked!
As you can guess or already know having seen the movie, Richard travels back in time from 1971 to the Victorian times of 1896 to find his imagined love, actress Elise McKenna, and although the love relationship is foolishly sentimental and a bit over-the-top with all the "I Love You's"......combined with the detailed historic descriptions and "Oh No!" surprise moments within these pages, I really quite enjoyed it.......
The Beginning Note and Postscript by (brother) Robert Collier brought the story's climax together for me making for a delightful trip into the past.
May 6, 2021
I want to explain my rating. The first 1/3 of the book was worthy of 5 stars for me. The second 2/3, only worth 3 stars, but I can't justify an overall rating of 3. In addition to a foreword from the "author's" brother, there is an afterword that bumps up the quality of the story from those 3 stars.
As a teen, I must have seen this movie a hundred times, so I went into the book looking for those same feelings of love, romance, nostalgia, and melancholy. They were all present, but the movie had an innocence I found lacking on the written page. I haven't seen the movie in years, so a re-watch may be in order.
This is the story of R.C. Collier, told in a narrative as if it were his journal. Collier has an inoperable, so terminal, brain tumor. He escapes his life to end his days traveling and journaling alone. Along the way, he stumbles upon the Hotel Del Coronado and falls in love, not only with a woman he sees pictured in the hotel's museum but, the hotel and time she lived in, as well. He then does exhaustive research into her life, the hotel's history, and the period in which she lived. The woman, a famous stage star of the late 1800s, early 1900s, is Elise McKenna.
My favorite part of the book, which was very brief in the movie, was his research and attempts to visit the past. It was hard! He had nothing to lose, so kept at it, and I found his dedication to a seemingly, impossible task sweet. All for the sake of a face. I don't want to spoil anything for that 2% of readers who have not seen the movie, but the entire premise is based on an ontological paradox. One could go dizzy trying to analyze the ramifications of Collier's actions.
Suffice it to say, against all odds, Collier succeeds. Once he reaches 1896 and Elise, it gets pretty sappy. Lines I found charming from Christopher Reeves, came across as almost ridiculously mooney on the page. He does find his love, becomes her love, and...tragically is sent back to 1971. In a nutshell.
The afterword, written by Collier's brother, explains that the journal outlining his "adventure" is the escape mechanism of a dying mind. Genius, as far as I'm concerned, for Matheson to give us the option of believing or not. Is there really such a thing as love that can triumph over time? He gives us the privilege of deciding for ourselves. Either way, it's a great, heart-tugging tale.
As a teen, I must have seen this movie a hundred times, so I went into the book looking for those same feelings of love, romance, nostalgia, and melancholy. They were all present, but the movie had an innocence I found lacking on the written page. I haven't seen the movie in years, so a re-watch may be in order.
This is the story of R.C. Collier, told in a narrative as if it were his journal. Collier has an inoperable, so terminal, brain tumor. He escapes his life to end his days traveling and journaling alone. Along the way, he stumbles upon the Hotel Del Coronado and falls in love, not only with a woman he sees pictured in the hotel's museum but, the hotel and time she lived in, as well. He then does exhaustive research into her life, the hotel's history, and the period in which she lived. The woman, a famous stage star of the late 1800s, early 1900s, is Elise McKenna.
My favorite part of the book, which was very brief in the movie, was his research and attempts to visit the past. It was hard! He had nothing to lose, so kept at it, and I found his dedication to a seemingly, impossible task sweet. All for the sake of a face. I don't want to spoil anything for that 2% of readers who have not seen the movie, but the entire premise is based on an ontological paradox. One could go dizzy trying to analyze the ramifications of Collier's actions.
Suffice it to say, against all odds, Collier succeeds. Once he reaches 1896 and Elise, it gets pretty sappy. Lines I found charming from Christopher Reeves, came across as almost ridiculously mooney on the page. He does find his love, becomes her love, and...tragically is sent back to 1971. In a nutshell.
The afterword, written by Collier's brother, explains that the journal outlining his "adventure" is the escape mechanism of a dying mind. Genius, as far as I'm concerned, for Matheson to give us the option of believing or not. Is there really such a thing as love that can triumph over time? He gives us the privilege of deciding for ourselves. Either way, it's a great, heart-tugging tale.
March 27, 2013
I was pretty unimpressed with this book. A story about a man transporting himself backwards through time by love's inspiration is pretty great, and the way in which it's delivered is clever. I enjoyed the components of the story much more than the story as a whole. But what drew me out and became difficult for me even to endure was the main character's peevishness. I was constantly distracted by the seemingly foolish, brash, unthinking, short-sighted, ignorant decisions or conversations the main character made.
It seems like someone who can master himself, his mind, and time itself would be a bit cooler, calmer and more thoughtful.
Furthermore - while this is perhaps more a commentary that Matheson intended about "love" and "true love", I couldn't help but find that once the lovers DO meet and DO fall in love, it's terribly shallow. With hardly any conversation, they fall madly in love, never exchanging more than names and a walk on the beach. Call me cold-hearted, but that's not love. I would've liked more substance to each character and their relationship.
Overall, I was just disappointed, the book did not read easily and I was not compelled by the main character's monologue. Though the story was cleverly delivered, and I found myself utterly taken in by the love interest.
It seems like someone who can master himself, his mind, and time itself would be a bit cooler, calmer and more thoughtful.
Furthermore - while this is perhaps more a commentary that Matheson intended about "love" and "true love", I couldn't help but find that once the lovers DO meet and DO fall in love, it's terribly shallow. With hardly any conversation, they fall madly in love, never exchanging more than names and a walk on the beach. Call me cold-hearted, but that's not love. I would've liked more substance to each character and their relationship.
Overall, I was just disappointed, the book did not read easily and I was not compelled by the main character's monologue. Though the story was cleverly delivered, and I found myself utterly taken in by the love interest.
September 8, 2008
Part fantasy novel, part romance novel, Richard Matheson's "Bid Time Return" finds dying writer Richard Collier falling in love with a photograph of a turn of the century actress Elise McKenna, becoming obsessed with her and then finding a way to travel back in time to meet her.
On the surface, the premise sounds absurd, but really no more so than your standard romance novel. It's the story of two people falling in love and overcoming obstancles to be together. In this case, it's the gulf of time standing between them. At least that's the case at first.
Once you accept the premise that Collier can and does find a way to move back in time to meet McKenna (he's staying at the same hotel she is, so he doesn't move in space, only time), the rest of the story falls well into place. Matheson's narration of the Collier via first-person, starting off in short, punctuated bursts from Collier's audio diary and later becoming longer and more detailed as Collier switches to writing out his feelings and confiding more in the readers, helps draw the reader in and question if this is really happening or if Collier has descending into dementia due to a brain tumor. Thankfully, Matheson wisely decides to not confirm or deny the reality of events, allowing the reader to choose for themselves.
Instead, what drives the story is Matheson's ability to put ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances and realistically portray the character's reactions. The premise may be one of fantasy, but the characters are realistic. It's easy to see why Stephen King says Matheson was a big influence on his (King's) works.
Time travel in a romance story is apparently nothing new. But Matheson's strengh is finding a new twist on the old story, bringing in just enough of his own distinctive storytelling style to make it his own. This is a book that will have you rooting for Collier in his quest and heartbroken at the end when it ends in tragedy (as it must, since the ending is set before the story begins.) But it's not the ending that matters so much as the journey. And in the hands of Matheson, this is a journey worth taking.
On the surface, the premise sounds absurd, but really no more so than your standard romance novel. It's the story of two people falling in love and overcoming obstancles to be together. In this case, it's the gulf of time standing between them. At least that's the case at first.
Once you accept the premise that Collier can and does find a way to move back in time to meet McKenna (he's staying at the same hotel she is, so he doesn't move in space, only time), the rest of the story falls well into place. Matheson's narration of the Collier via first-person, starting off in short, punctuated bursts from Collier's audio diary and later becoming longer and more detailed as Collier switches to writing out his feelings and confiding more in the readers, helps draw the reader in and question if this is really happening or if Collier has descending into dementia due to a brain tumor. Thankfully, Matheson wisely decides to not confirm or deny the reality of events, allowing the reader to choose for themselves.
Instead, what drives the story is Matheson's ability to put ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances and realistically portray the character's reactions. The premise may be one of fantasy, but the characters are realistic. It's easy to see why Stephen King says Matheson was a big influence on his (King's) works.
Time travel in a romance story is apparently nothing new. But Matheson's strengh is finding a new twist on the old story, bringing in just enough of his own distinctive storytelling style to make it his own. This is a book that will have you rooting for Collier in his quest and heartbroken at the end when it ends in tragedy (as it must, since the ending is set before the story begins.) But it's not the ending that matters so much as the journey. And in the hands of Matheson, this is a journey worth taking.
July 26, 2020
Somewhere in Time turned out to be the most controversial book I've ever read.
At first I was annoyed with the writing style, also by illogical events, and given my high hopes, I knew I was going to rate it under 2 stars.
But then, this book just broke my heart.
When you read it, maybe you won't even like it. But for me, it deserves five stars just for breaking my heart.
So, I just want to quote from and go to sleep.
It’s dark now and I am very tired. I love you, always. Time is nothing.
At first I was annoyed with the writing style, also by illogical events, and given my high hopes, I knew I was going to rate it under 2 stars.
But then, this book just broke my heart.
When you read it, maybe you won't even like it. But for me, it deserves five stars just for breaking my heart.
So, I just want to quote from and go to sleep.
It’s dark now and I am very tired. I love you, always. Time is nothing.
March 10, 2016
Behind this bearded, occasionally cynical face of mine hides a romantic soul. I can almost hear some of you laughing but I will politely ignore you and start blabbering for yet another review. :P
This my fellow readers is romance, and it's actually written by a guy who wrote "I Am Legend", "Hell House" and "Stir of Echoes", if these titles ring any bells. This proves that romance novels aren't supposed to be made for quick mass consumption, written solely by insecure, money-hungry chicks (or dudes, or chicks that are dudes and vice versa), nor portray equally shallow themes that go on for volumes as long as they keep selling. It takes some balls to be able to appropriately write romance. The sort of balls which isn't an exclusive previledge of men.
Matheson tells us the story of Richard, a guy suffering from a terminal illness who falls in love with Elise, an actress who lived almost a century before his time. So he decides to travel back in time in order to be with her. It's an undeniable fact that Matheson was a maniac with details. He doesn't just have his hero travel through time. He goes through many details as to how he achieves such thing. The same goes about pretty much everything in this novel. Every small step, he takes with extreme difficulty and is well-deserved. That said, it never lacks the ability to convey to the reader the magnitude of Richard's feelings for Elise. In fact, Matheson writes in a way that makes you feel as though you're reading something personal. Something that actually happened. Thus, you actually get into the hero's shoes and never step out of them until the very last page.
"Somewhere in Time" is not as cheesy as it may look. It's not a happy love story. It's a deep, psychological drama. It makes you go through all kinds of emotions before you eventually reach to the end and find yourself clinging to the one side of the coin, deliberately ignoring the other. It speaks to your very need of believing in the extraordinary romance and, typical as it may sound, love that transcends time. Moreover, it's a perfect reminder of what used to be considered good in literature.
This my fellow readers is romance, and it's actually written by a guy who wrote "I Am Legend", "Hell House" and "Stir of Echoes", if these titles ring any bells. This proves that romance novels aren't supposed to be made for quick mass consumption, written solely by insecure, money-hungry chicks (or dudes, or chicks that are dudes and vice versa), nor portray equally shallow themes that go on for volumes as long as they keep selling. It takes some balls to be able to appropriately write romance. The sort of balls which isn't an exclusive previledge of men.
I'm standing on nothing. Like a character from a movie cartoon who runs off a cliff yet keeps on moving in midair a while before he notices. I've noticed.
Now begins the fall.
Matheson tells us the story of Richard, a guy suffering from a terminal illness who falls in love with Elise, an actress who lived almost a century before his time. So he decides to travel back in time in order to be with her. It's an undeniable fact that Matheson was a maniac with details. He doesn't just have his hero travel through time. He goes through many details as to how he achieves such thing. The same goes about pretty much everything in this novel. Every small step, he takes with extreme difficulty and is well-deserved. That said, it never lacks the ability to convey to the reader the magnitude of Richard's feelings for Elise. In fact, Matheson writes in a way that makes you feel as though you're reading something personal. Something that actually happened. Thus, you actually get into the hero's shoes and never step out of them until the very last page.
"Tell me all about yourself," she said. "Whatever you can, I mean. I
want to love everything you love."
"Love yourself then," I told her.
"Somewhere in Time" is not as cheesy as it may look. It's not a happy love story. It's a deep, psychological drama. It makes you go through all kinds of emotions before you eventually reach to the end and find yourself clinging to the one side of the coin, deliberately ignoring the other. It speaks to your very need of believing in the extraordinary romance and, typical as it may sound, love that transcends time. Moreover, it's a perfect reminder of what used to be considered good in literature.
February 6, 2017
I have yet to have liked a Matheson book but I thought if there was one that I would, it would have been the last one, or at least this one. I was still dithering about reading this but then I landed on Time Travel in the SciFi and Fantasy Book Club Monopoly and thought it was a good excuse to finally knock it off my list.
It turns out I still haven't liked a Matheson book. I'm a huge fan of this movie but it turns out that Christopher Reeve was entirely responsible for turning a creepy, obsessive, possessive guy into a romantic hero. This was so much like being in the first person mind of a stalker. He was so needy. He needed to be glued - the super glue type - to her side for the rest of eternity. This made the the three briefly described sex scenes make me feel like I needed a shower. It was gross.
Well, at least it isn't waiting for me anymore.
It turns out I still haven't liked a Matheson book. I'm a huge fan of this movie but it turns out that Christopher Reeve was entirely responsible for turning a creepy, obsessive, possessive guy into a romantic hero. This was so much like being in the first person mind of a stalker. He was so needy. He needed to be glued - the super glue type - to her side for the rest of eternity. This made the the three briefly described sex scenes make me feel like I needed a shower. It was gross.
Well, at least it isn't waiting for me anymore.
June 17, 2010
5, 5, 5 stars. More if I could. I read another 5-star review that described the book as 'emotionally draining.' Yes, it is. It's also one of the only 'period novels' where I actually felt to be IN the time period itself. It's written in first-person narrative, reminiscent of the heightened awareness of environment and physical self of Kafka's Metamorphosis, and the dramatic inner dialogue of Camus' The Stranger. And it's romantic and touching and BELIEVABLE. Just a wonderful book.
April 8, 2019
Deși publicată în 1974, este o carte excelentă și am recitit-o cu plăcere. Merită cu prisosință cele 5 steluțe!
A fost ecranizată în 1980, iar actorii principali au jucat excepțional (mă refer la Christopher Reeve - înainte de a deveni Superman și la Jane Seymour - înainte de a deveni Doctor Queen).
Există unele mici diferențe între carte și ecranizare, dar recomand să aveți parte și de film, și de carte (nu neapărat în ordinea asta).
Revenind la carte, avem o poveste romantică de dragoste cum nu se mai scriu azi.
Vei fi complet absorbit de lumea minunată a lui Richard Matheson și asta chiar după 20-25 de pagini.
Minusuri?
Singurul punct mai slăbuț al cărții (chiar „tras de păr�, aș zice) este episodul acela fierbinte în care tinerii noștri năbădăioși ajung în dormitor ca să-și consume surplusul de hormoni sau... dragostea...pasiunea, chimia (spuneți-i cum doriți).
De ce consider că episodul împerecherii este slab realizat din punct de vedere literar?
Pentru că nu e veridic.
Adică, dacă te culci cu o fată VIRGINĂ, e puțin probabil că o vei face de trei ori în aceeași noapte (Asta dacă nu ești un porc egoist și anormal la cap).
Dar dacă ești totuși un anormal și o vei face de trei ori la rând... e puțin probabil ca dumneaei să aibă de fiecare dată orgasm.
Cum adică? Trei împerecheri = trei orgasme (fata fiind virgină?).
Hai, dă-o-ncolo! Mi se pare cusută cu ață albă.
Dar stați așa! Poate mă-nșel eu!
Am uitat că Richard Matheson este specializat în literatură științifico-fantastică. Omul acela a mâncat SF pe pâine toată viața lui.
Poate de aici vine și explicația celor trei orgasme în serie la o virgină. Chiar dacă autorul ne vinde trei gogoși, asta nu-i ruinează câtuși de puțin cartea.
O recomand în pofida fazelor SF? Ba bine că nu! E o lectură minunată pentru o după amiază plictisitoare.
Așa că, dacă n-ați pus încă mâna pe ea, cumpărați-o repede!
A fost ecranizată în 1980, iar actorii principali au jucat excepțional (mă refer la Christopher Reeve - înainte de a deveni Superman și la Jane Seymour - înainte de a deveni Doctor Queen).
Există unele mici diferențe între carte și ecranizare, dar recomand să aveți parte și de film, și de carte (nu neapărat în ordinea asta).
Revenind la carte, avem o poveste romantică de dragoste cum nu se mai scriu azi.
Vei fi complet absorbit de lumea minunată a lui Richard Matheson și asta chiar după 20-25 de pagini.
Minusuri?
Singurul punct mai slăbuț al cărții (chiar „tras de păr�, aș zice) este episodul acela fierbinte în care tinerii noștri năbădăioși ajung în dormitor ca să-și consume surplusul de hormoni sau... dragostea...pasiunea, chimia (spuneți-i cum doriți).
De ce consider că episodul împerecherii este slab realizat din punct de vedere literar?
Pentru că nu e veridic.
Adică, dacă te culci cu o fată VIRGINĂ, e puțin probabil că o vei face de trei ori în aceeași noapte (Asta dacă nu ești un porc egoist și anormal la cap).
Dar dacă ești totuși un anormal și o vei face de trei ori la rând... e puțin probabil ca dumneaei să aibă de fiecare dată orgasm.
Cum adică? Trei împerecheri = trei orgasme (fata fiind virgină?).
Hai, dă-o-ncolo! Mi se pare cusută cu ață albă.
Dar stați așa! Poate mă-nșel eu!
Am uitat că Richard Matheson este specializat în literatură științifico-fantastică. Omul acela a mâncat SF pe pâine toată viața lui.
Poate de aici vine și explicația celor trei orgasme în serie la o virgină. Chiar dacă autorul ne vinde trei gogoși, asta nu-i ruinează câtuși de puțin cartea.
O recomand în pofida fazelor SF? Ba bine că nu! E o lectură minunată pentru o după amiază plictisitoare.
Așa că, dacă n-ați pus încă mâna pe ea, cumpărați-o repede!
July 8, 2014
pleh. I'm unimpressed by guys traveling back in time to find the perfect woman, that is, one uninfected with feminism. Actually, if we could send all those guys back in time, it'd probably be just as well to have them out of the way. Perhaps I wouldn't be so cranky if there were just as many men coming forward in time to find the perfect mate, but I can't think of any. Sure, the modern world isn't perfect, but the decrease in maternal and childhood mortality alone would suggest it's a better place to have your family.
May 25, 2023
04/2020
From 1975
Originally called Bid Time Return (Then the movie came out and changed the name of the book).
The beginning is slow, long. The method of time travel seems unbelievably easy (just like in Jack Finney's Time and Again, which is from 1970). Wear the right clothes, be in the right place, a little self-hypnosis: you're time travelling (I know, it's fictional anyway so why should it matter?). But once the main character transports from 1971 to 1896 the book gets so entertaining. But then it turns to mushy romance and cheesy love scenes.
From 1975
Originally called Bid Time Return (Then the movie came out and changed the name of the book).
The beginning is slow, long. The method of time travel seems unbelievably easy (just like in Jack Finney's Time and Again, which is from 1970). Wear the right clothes, be in the right place, a little self-hypnosis: you're time travelling (I know, it's fictional anyway so why should it matter?). But once the main character transports from 1971 to 1896 the book gets so entertaining. But then it turns to mushy romance and cheesy love scenes.
January 27, 2012
Remember "Somewhere In Time", the ultra-romantic movie from 1980 starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour? Until a couple of months ago, I had no idea that the movie was based on a book -- and a book by Richard Matheson, no less!
Matheson was really ahead of his time (ahem... pardon the pun), writing about time travel before time travel became such a common literary device. In SIT, Hollywood writer Richard Collier hits the road after being diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor, intending to travel according to his whim and write about his experiences. Landing by chance at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, Richard falls instantly and passionately in love with actress Elise McKenna. Unfortunately, Elise visited the hotel in 1896, and it is the portrait of Elise which Richard sees in 1971 that spurs his mad love for her.
Richard becomes obsessed with the idea of finding a way through time to meet Elise. He becomes convinced that he can use his mind to disassociate himself from 1971 and break through the barrier of time. That he succeeds, after great effort and much research, will be no surprise to anyone who has seen the movie.
Richard and Elise's love story is swift, intense, and heartbreaking. Matheson captures the dizzying highs and lows of their encounter, the doubts and fears, the mystery and the sorrow. Throughout the book, of course, the question remains -- did this happen, or was this all a grand delusion brought on by the disease afflicting Richard's brain?
Beautifully written, full of intelligence and romance, SIT was a true delight to read. And now, I can't wait to pull the DVD off my shelf and watch the movie all over again!
Matheson was really ahead of his time (ahem... pardon the pun), writing about time travel before time travel became such a common literary device. In SIT, Hollywood writer Richard Collier hits the road after being diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor, intending to travel according to his whim and write about his experiences. Landing by chance at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, Richard falls instantly and passionately in love with actress Elise McKenna. Unfortunately, Elise visited the hotel in 1896, and it is the portrait of Elise which Richard sees in 1971 that spurs his mad love for her.
Richard becomes obsessed with the idea of finding a way through time to meet Elise. He becomes convinced that he can use his mind to disassociate himself from 1971 and break through the barrier of time. That he succeeds, after great effort and much research, will be no surprise to anyone who has seen the movie.
Richard and Elise's love story is swift, intense, and heartbreaking. Matheson captures the dizzying highs and lows of their encounter, the doubts and fears, the mystery and the sorrow. Throughout the book, of course, the question remains -- did this happen, or was this all a grand delusion brought on by the disease afflicting Richard's brain?
Beautifully written, full of intelligence and romance, SIT was a true delight to read. And now, I can't wait to pull the DVD off my shelf and watch the movie all over again!
February 27, 2010
What can I say? Many people know of this book because of the movie with this same title. The book was originally published under "Bid Time Return", which I like much more. Richard Collier falls in love with a photo of an actress from 1896, his year being 1971. He attempts time travel back, she falls in love with him, and then they live happily ever afer in 1896? That would only be too easy.
Richard Matheson is that type of author who grips me with such force that I can't find what's real and what's fiction. Through the course of the book, I actually believed that it is possible to time travel the way the character did in this book - almost tried it one night; I'll spare you the details of the attempt.
(***Possible Spoilers Below***)
I have read through a lot of the reviews on "Somewhere in Time" and I'm having a hard time understanding many responses. Some broke down the book in sections, saying the first part was bad and the ending was good; vice versa. One actually said the writing was horrible. To say the least, I am flabbergasted by these remarks. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, of course, but for one to say this was bad writing; I just don't know how to approach this.
Anyhow, I haven't seen the movie - on regards to many people's opinions on the movie was much better than the book - I can only assume that this movie is the best movie ever made. (To me, it's hard to grasp this because - Gasp! - I have never seen, nor heard of the movie prior.) So, having said that, I may not watch the movie after all. The book is phenominal.
Richard Matheson is that type of author who grips me with such force that I can't find what's real and what's fiction. Through the course of the book, I actually believed that it is possible to time travel the way the character did in this book - almost tried it one night; I'll spare you the details of the attempt.
(***Possible Spoilers Below***)
I have read through a lot of the reviews on "Somewhere in Time" and I'm having a hard time understanding many responses. Some broke down the book in sections, saying the first part was bad and the ending was good; vice versa. One actually said the writing was horrible. To say the least, I am flabbergasted by these remarks. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, of course, but for one to say this was bad writing; I just don't know how to approach this.
Anyhow, I haven't seen the movie - on regards to many people's opinions on the movie was much better than the book - I can only assume that this movie is the best movie ever made. (To me, it's hard to grasp this because - Gasp! - I have never seen, nor heard of the movie prior.) So, having said that, I may not watch the movie after all. The book is phenominal.
February 26, 2021
It is terribly obvious that this was a "love story" written by an inexperienced man. Richard Collier was an obsessed weirdo that fell in love with a photograph. From that photograph, and Collier's research into the past, he decided that only he could save Elise's poor broken heart. Because, obviously, the only way a woman can be happy and fulfilled is by a man coming to "save" them. Even the love making scenes are fantastical. Here you have a 36 yr old virgin Collier and the 29 yr old virgin Elise having mind blowing sex at least 3 times in a row. Is this possible? Well I suppose it could be, but generally speaking the discomfort on the females part would most likely be a deterent. Does Matheson understand the female body/mind at all?
As a side note, this story is based on events that happened to Richard Matheson. When he was on vacation at the hotel from the novel, he found a picture of Maude Adams, and fell in love with her. Her story and Elise's were almost identical, except for one "minor" detail. The reason Maude Adams never married wasn't because of not finding true love. It was actually because she was a lesbian and was living a secret life with a woman she was very much in love with. But in the mind of Matheson he clearly thought that unmarried meant unhappy, or unloved.
As a side note, this story is based on events that happened to Richard Matheson. When he was on vacation at the hotel from the novel, he found a picture of Maude Adams, and fell in love with her. Her story and Elise's were almost identical, except for one "minor" detail. The reason Maude Adams never married wasn't because of not finding true love. It was actually because she was a lesbian and was living a secret life with a woman she was very much in love with. But in the mind of Matheson he clearly thought that unmarried meant unhappy, or unloved.
November 22, 2008
I read this under the original title "Bid Time Return", before the movie was released. I've re-read it several times since (and will read it again). I wish I could give it more stars. This is probably my all-time favorite book ever, and I read a LOT.
The book is a million times better than the movie, and I really like the movie. The book was written in such a believable style that honestly, I was looking for some proof after I finished it that it was, in fact, fiction. I was completely captivated by the story.
As many of you are probably familiar with the movie, I'll just say that the book does differ a bit, most notably in the location. It takes place in California, at the Hotel Del Coronado - a real hotel that's just as incredible as the Grand Hotel they used for the movie.
I can't recommend this one enough - love love love it!
The book is a million times better than the movie, and I really like the movie. The book was written in such a believable style that honestly, I was looking for some proof after I finished it that it was, in fact, fiction. I was completely captivated by the story.
As many of you are probably familiar with the movie, I'll just say that the book does differ a bit, most notably in the location. It takes place in California, at the Hotel Del Coronado - a real hotel that's just as incredible as the Grand Hotel they used for the movie.
I can't recommend this one enough - love love love it!
November 28, 2021
I think this is the 3rd time through this book. It is the 2nd best book I have ever read. The movie "Somewhere in Time" is based on the book. Elise is based on the actress Maude Adams. I love the passion, and the short true love between Richard and Elise - something we probably all want. Time travel may be real if you believe that the Past, Present and Future are all here now. Going back in time may someday be possible. Anyway, it is the best love story I have ever read.
BTW - my favorite all time book is "Once and Eagle" which I have read multiple times.
BTW - my favorite all time book is "Once and Eagle" which I have read multiple times.
December 27, 2017
This book is the source for the movie SOMEWHERE IN TIME which I loved. I liked this book. The story was a bit different than the movie, but aren't they generally! ;)
June 15, 2024
Eu sempre gostei muito da adaptação desse livro, amores impossíveis sempre me atraem...
Não sei como demorei tanto tempo pra poder ler essa história, apesar de ser bem diferente do filme, eu amei demais ler, a narrativa do Richard Mathenson sempre me agrada e o sentimento acho que é o mesmo do filme, mas mais sombrio no livro.
Não sei como demorei tanto tempo pra poder ler essa história, apesar de ser bem diferente do filme, eu amei demais ler, a narrativa do Richard Mathenson sempre me agrada e o sentimento acho que é o mesmo do filme, mas mais sombrio no livro.
April 19, 2024
Ovo je naprosto loše. Dosadno i bez poente, na momente previše glupo osmišljeno. Kakva crna ljubavna priča... Da li je ta velika ljubav sada sa nama u prostoriji?
Srećna mi prva kečina ove godine!
Srećna mi prva kečina ove godine!
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