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The First use of time travel in fiction question resulted in forwards time-travel as the accepted answer. So now I'm wondering about backwards time travel.

This answer from that question, which I would've accepted were it not in that question, is WhatRoughBeast's:

Memoirs of the Twentieth Century by Samuel Madden was published in 1733, and uses the idea that the author is given documents from 200 years in the future. While no person is shown travelling back in time, the documents may count.

So, are there any backwards time travel uses from even earlier than 1733?

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  • 1
    Do you want to count stories that turn out to be dreams?
    – Hypnosifl
    May 11 at 18:13
  • This is a very interesting question: forward time travel is something we all have experienced, even jumps in time due to falling asleep for an odd several minutes which no doubt led to stories like Rip van Winkel. But the idea of visiting the past might be a conceptual leap and the twist of time paradoxes I am betting did not occur before the 20th century. Anyway, damn good question.
    – releseabe
    May 11 at 19:20
  • 2
    "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" by Twain, or "The Chronic Argonauts" by H.G. Wells?
    – CBredlow
    May 11 at 20:12
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    @releseabe - The History of the time travel concept section of the "time travel" wiki article I mentioned above features a supernatural story of interfering with the past and causing a changed present, Edward Everett Hale's "Hands Off" from 1881, where an unnamed being "interferes with ancient Egyptian history by preventing Joseph's enslavement", resulting in an alternate history.
    – Hypnosifl
    May 11 at 20:22
  • 4
    "A Christmas Carol" from 1843 predates "A Connecticut Yankee..." and "Hands Off"
    – Clara Diaz Sanchez
    May 11 at 21:00

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