Time and Again by Nicholas

Time and Again by Nicholas - October 2020 Scholarship Essay

Possibly one of the best books that I have read this past year has been “Time and Again,” a fiction piece by Jack Finney. The story is about a man, Si Morley, that becomes involved in a government project to achieve time travel through the use of hypnosis. The story takes Morley back to New York City in the winter of 1882, where he meets several people and starts to become involved in the long-gone period.
Morley is not without his own motives to join the project, however. His girlfriend, Kate, has an old letter from a relative that has a cryptic message, talking about a meeting that ends with talk of how the sending of said letter led to the destruction of the entire World- with a word missing from the end. They desire to find out what the letter could have possibly meant, which coincidentally they are allowed to travel to via the time travelling project.
As time passes, Morley meets with several people from 1882 and becomes involved in their lives. Morley begins to board with a family, with an engaged couple, Julia Charbonneau, who he begins to fall in love with, and Jake Pickering. Pickering is discovered to be a blackmailer, and Morley, in an effort to dispose of his rival, tells Julia about Pickering’s activities. They trail him to the headquarters of the New York World newspaper, where they watch as Pickering blackmails another character, Andrew Carmody, for some files. After Carmody does not give over the full value of money requested, Carmody knocks him out and begins to search for the files himself to prevent them from being exposed. After hours of searching unsuccessfully, he decides it would be better to burn all the files and sets a fire that threatens the lives of all four people in the building. The burning of the New York World Building was an actual event that did occur in 1882 in New York. They escape, and Pickering is believed to be dead, but Carmody has told the police that Morley started the fire and so Julia and Morley are hunted down to be arrested. They return to the present to escape, and Morley reveals how the world has changed in the time that has elapsed since they left. They discuss things for a while, and realize that the Carmody that reported them to the police was actually Pickering disguised as Carmody injured from the fire, and that the real Carmody was actually dead. Julia realizes that she could use that to prevent Pickering from getting revenge on her, and she desires to return home. She returns, and Morley reports to the project advisors what had happened in his time there. The military, having taken over the project, requests that Morley intentionally alter the past, however, Morley returns to the past, prevents the project head from being born, and slowly walks off towards Julia’s house, leaving his old life behind.
This book has been one of my favorite books that I have read. The book, while being a fiction piece, is incredibly historically accurate, and I am very into local history. The storyline is deep and entrancing, and it kept me fully involved. I would greatly recommend this book to any others that have an interest in history and those that enjoy a nice, realistic conflict.