How old do you think Wells’ Time Traveler was?

[raccoon]

“I…knew instinctively that the machine was removed out of my reach…I suppose I covered the whole distance from the hill crest to the little lawn, two miles perhaps, in ten minutes. And I am not a young man…”

From THE TIME MACHINE, Chapter 5

http://www.bartleby.com/1000/5.html

[sorcrow]

1. I'd say in his 30s

If you read books of that period, 40 is OLD, and 50 is positively ancient. So I think 30s would class as not young. That being said, a 10-minute two mile is pretty respectable, even running downhill.

Sorghum

[zbdent]

2. seemed that old to me when he stopped by last week ...

[pitohui]

3. i thought 40

been too long now but a lot of fiction of that era, where there is a sort of generic upper middle-classish male lead, it's easy to picture the guy as 40 or fortysomething

[raccoon]

4. I have always thought 40-something too. nt