H. G. Wells (1866–1946)

William Hill is a biology student at the College of Science in 1896. Despite being the low-class son of a cobbler he is doing quite well for himself - good grades, the romantic attention of a smart and well-off classmate, and rousing discussions of the benefits of socialism with his fellow students. He is a very, very hard worker and is attending the school on scholarship. He has a friendly rivalry with another student named Wedderburn (son of a famous doctor), but when Hill’s crush and Wedderburn meet up at a rich people party that Hill is not invited to, he gets jealous. The rivalry starts to get unfriendly, on both sides, culminating in Hill accidentally seeing the answer to an exam question and not confessing in order to maintain his lead over Wedderburn in the class rankings. Hill was raised to be a good, honest person and his guilt eats away at him. He confesses, which results in the teacher failing him for the whole exam per school policy. The failed exam causes Hill's scholarship to be revoked, and he drops out of college.

I really loved this short story. Even the title has such an elegant double meaning. The slip (what we would now call a “slide”) under the microscope is what Hill sees that he’s not supposed to, but also Hill makes a slip, a mistake, while he is under the microscope of being a working-class student on scholarship at an upper-class institution. He is held to a standard of perfection, while Wedderburn who also cheats, but doesn’t confess and still doesn’t beat Hill’s ranking is not. Including Hill’s keen interest in socialism is also a nice touch. A reminder that no matter how perfect one member of the working class is, they will not be allowed equality by the elite.
What impressed me most of all was the timelessness of the story. A little bit of hay is made out of the inclusion of female students in this class, but other than that there’s nothing about it that couldn’t have been written in the 1920s or 1970s or yesterday or tomorrow. What an impressive reminder of what is so amazing about H. G. Wells as a writer.… (more)

his story was first published in 1895, quite a novel idea at the time. A man referred to only as the Time Traveler tells an unbelieving group of men what he can do with his machine. He does travel to a far distant future, but does not find what he expected. Mankind has not progressed to a utopia. Instead, two factions of humans exist, and neither is better than what he came from. This imaginative tale is well worth reading. It sets the tone for the time travel books to come, and it could be argued that it is the best of all.… (more)