The Machine Stops

E. M. Forster (1879–1970) was an English novelist, short story writer, essayist,and librettist. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society. Forster's humanistic impulse toward understanding and sympathy may be aptly summed up in the epigraph to his 1910 novel, Howards End: "Only connect..." His 1908 novel, A Room with a View, is his most optimistic work, while A Passage to India (1924) brought him his greatest success.

First published in 1909, Forster's short science fiction work, "The Machine Stops," posits a technology-dependent humanity now living underground, its every need serviced by machines. But what happens if--or when--the machines stop? "The Machine Stops" was named one of the greatest science fiction novellas published before 1965 by the Science Fiction Writers of America.