Somewhere in Time

I wrote a previous review on Bid Time Return. The story really touched me, but what impacted me even more was visiting the actual site depicted as the backdrop for Matheson's book, the Hotel Del Coronado in Coronado, California. Realizing the movie version of this fantastic story (Somewhere In Time) was filmed in a different location, I recently took the opportunity to visit the real site of the novel, Hotel Del Coronado. If you ever get the chance to visit this location, do it! It is really something to walk the halls and gaze at what was described in the book. It really helps you identify and sense the depth of the story. There's even a gift shop there, in the lower level of the hotel called, Est. 1888. I found that they have copies of Bid Time Return and also a very interesting book too about the filming of the movie, Somewhere in Time Story. For someone who loves the movie and wants to visit the real thing, the Hotel Del Coronado and the Est. 1888 are both an excellent place to find more of the experience of this timeless story of love.

Warning: spoilers below This is a very good fantasy novel by Richard Matheson. A young man named Richard Collier is suffering from a brain tumor. He decides that he is going to go travelling and flips a penny to decide north or south. The ends up going to San Diego and stays at a historical hotel. While there, he finds a picture of a late 19th century actress named Elisa McKenna and is stunned by her beauty. Becoming obsessed with her, and falling in love with her, he researches her life and becomes convinced that he has known her before, thanks to a remarkable series of coincidences. He also deduces that this is the woman that he saw when one of his plays was being delivered, who was eyeing him from he audience and then went home and died. Studying books on time, notably J. B. Priestly's Man and Time, he wills himself back to November, 1896 when Elisa McKenna was at the hotel. Once there, he wills himself into her life and becomes her lover. Her mother does not approve, but the real villain of the story is McKenna`s manager, Will Robinson, who tries to have Collier forcibly removed in one memorable scene. Tied up for the evening, and fearing that he has lost her, Collier descends into depression when it turns out that she has stayed overnight while the company has moved on. There starts the most moving part of this book. They make love after hours of talking and upon waking in the middle of the night, Collier decides to burn his notes of the period. He steps outside and Robinson confronts him with ideas of murder. Collier pushes him and retreats back into the bedroom. There, he discovers a lump in his 1896 suit and discovers it to be a 1971 penny. The shock is immediate and the process irreversible: he flips back into into 1971. He declines quickly and dies. The novel is presented as Collier's brother found it, with an introduction and afterward by him. This is a tremendously well-written book. Its only flaw, if it has one, is that Robinson is not fully fleshed out as a villain and Collier's confrontation with him at the end of the book could have been more memorable. Nevertheless, this is first class story-telling with a marvellous structure.

I hate those sappy romance movies and novels but this story is one of my all time favorites. After seeing the movie over and over for years, I hunted down the author and the book and I wasn't disappointed. This book fills in a lot more details than the movie(of course) - and basically if you loved the movie, you'll love the book. The entire mystery of the woman with the watch and the 'what ifs' just captured me from the get go. You know its a doomed romance from the get go but the romantic period of time it takes place in just captures your imagination.

I first read this magical book almost fifteen years ago, and like the movie based upon it, it's stuck with me and haunted me ever since. Both compliment each other wonderfully. I won't bother to rehash the story, since others have done so more effectively here. Needless to say, like any good novel that becomes a movie, the text story is much richer than the onscreen experience. You can almost feel yourself living and breathing the world of 1896 as Richard Matheson manages to strike a perfect balance of a realism, and romanticism.If you've seen the film Somewhere In Time you may be struck by the changes you'll find here. However at the same time you'll likely be touched by the books in-depth portrayal of Elise, sharing the joy she feels as she finds herself giving her heart to a man for the first time in her life. The range of emotions that flow through her, the sense of fear, the uncertainty, the immeasurable joy are simply beautiful. This makes her eventual fate all the more tragic and heart-rending. Her manager, William Robinson is also a completely different character from the one in the film, and is in many ways a much more vivid one. This is definately not a book for the easily depressed. If you fit into this category I'd recommend watching the movie first as the ending is much less dispairing. This is a book that will forever haunt anyone with a truely romantic heart.

It's 1971, and 36 year-old Richard Collier, dying of a brain tumor, decides to spend his final days traveling the country. On the flip of a coin, he travels toward San Diego, and happens upon an old hotel. There he finds the captivating photograph of a young actress, Elise McKenna, who performed at the hotel in 1896. "... the most gloriously lovely face I have ever seen in my life. I've fallen in love with her." He decides to research everything he can about her, and the more he learns, the more deeply he falls in love with her, and the more deeply convinced he is that; he has been to her time, and that he has had a relationship with her. The 1980 movie, Somewhere In Time, starring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, and Christopher Plummer, was based upon this 1975 novel by Richard Matheson. Though the dates and locations have been changed in the screenplay, also written by Matheson, the movie pretty much follows the book. The novel's pulls on the heartstrings, however, is even more intense, and the ending to the novel is much more tragic. For those who like romantic tragedy, this could possibly be the greatest ever written.