This was enormous fun - and has given me lots of things to chase up - the Spanish story especially, but also the Russian one - and the 1830s "Paris before Man". I'm very grateful to have been directed here to find such wonders! :)
One time travel story that seems to have been missed, even in that terrific story-pilot link, is the 1888 story by Catherine Helen Spence, A Week in the Future (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0603381h.html). The protagonist, with a weak heart and only year or two to live, expresses to her doctor her desire to see the future. Ah-ha! "How far in the future should you like to spend your solid week--twenty years, fifty years, a hundred years hence?" said Dr. Brown, with a curious expression on his intelligent countenance.
Which leads fairly quickly to "our great experiment" - the time travel, powered by "strength of volition" and the contents of "a small phial containing a colorless liquid", and possibly some hypnotic passes by the doctor. There's "a singular calm", then "a mighty spasm", and there she is in the future.
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One time travel story that seems to have been missed, even in that terrific story-pilot link, is the 1888 story by Catherine Helen Spence, A Week in the Future (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0603381h.html). The protagonist, with a weak heart and only year or two to live, expresses to her doctor her desire to see the future. Ah-ha!
"How far in the future should you like to spend your solid week--twenty years, fifty years, a hundred years hence?" said Dr. Brown, with a curious expression on his intelligent countenance.
Which leads fairly quickly to "our great experiment" - the time travel, powered by "strength of volition" and the contents of "a small phial containing a colorless liquid", and possibly some hypnotic passes by the doctor. There's "a singular calm", then "a mighty spasm", and there she is in the future.