num_pages: 252
description: A troubled insomniac in 1890s England falls suddenly into a sleep-like trance, from which he does not awake for over two hundred years. During his centuries of slumber, however, investments are made that make him the richest and most powerful man on earth. But when he comes out of his trance he is horrified to discover that the money accumulated in his name is being used to maintain a hierarchical society in which most people are poor and enslaved. Oppressed and uneducated, the masses cling desperately to one dream - that the sleeper will awake, and lead them all to freedom.Wildly imaginative and compelling, The Sleeper Awakes is a fascinating and prescient account of a future dominated by capitalist greed and mechanical force. Part of a brand-new Penguin series of H. G. Wells's works, this edition includes a newly established text, a full biographical essay on Wells, a further reading list and detailed notes. The introduction, by Patrick Parrinder, outlines the development of Wells's political philosophy.
language: English
title: The Sleeper Awakes
titlecomplete: The Sleeper Awakes (Penguin Classics)
characters: Lincoln, Ostrog, Graham
genres: Fiction, 19th Century, Speculative Fiction, Classics, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Time Travel, Fantasy, Literature, Novels
ratings_count: 4844
places: United Kingdom
publisher: Penguin Classics