From the author of The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds: “Everyone who has ever read When the Sleeper Wakes remembers it” (George Orwell). One of the founding fathers of science fiction, H. G. Wells is known for such landmark novels as The Time Machine and The Island of Doctor Moreau. In When the Sleeper Wakes, he sends a nineteenth-century man hurtling into an unfamiliar dystopian future . . . In 1890s England, Graham, a fanatic socialist and author of prophetic writings, takes medication for his insomnia and is plunged into a deep sleep that lasts two hundred years. He awakens in a domed twenty-second-century London in which he has become—due to the compound interest on his bank accounts—the richest man in the world. But as a nightmarish caste system is revealed, Graham realizes all his worst fears for the future have come to fruition, especially when he discovers a lower class of workers who spend their entire lives underground—a species that will soon evolve into the Morlocks of Wells’s The Time Machine. “Even in the 21st century, Wells still speaks to our fears and dreams.” —The Washington Post “Nothing is more striking about Mr. Wells . . . than his power of lending freshness and vitality to some well-worn formula of fiction.”—The Spectator
From the author of The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds: “Everyone who has ever read When the Sleeper Wakes remembers it” (George Orwell). One of the founding fathers of science fiction, H. G. Wells is known for such landmark novels as The Time Machine and The Island of Doctor Moreau. In When the Sleeper Wakes, he sends a nineteenth-century man hurtling into an unfamiliar dystopian future . . . In 1890s England, Graham, a fanatic socialist and author of prophetic writings, takes medication for his insomnia and is plunged into a deep sleep that lasts two hundred years. He awakens in a domed twenty-second-century London in which he has become—due to the compound interest on his bank accounts—the richest man in the world. But as a nightmarish caste system is revealed, Graham realizes all his worst fears for the future have come to fruition, especially when he discovers a lower class of workers who spend their entire lives underground—a species that will soon evolve into the Morlocks of Wells’s The Time Machine. “Even in the 21st century, Wells still speaks to our fears and dreams.” —The Washington Post “Nothing is more striking about Mr. Wells . . . than his power of lending freshness and vitality to some well-worn formula of fiction.”—The Spectator
Add to your library to track progress and write reviews
Add to your library to track progress and write reviews
Find The Sleeper Awakes H. G. Wells in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Find The Sleeper Awakes H. G. Wells in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
10 books in catalog
Groundbreaking speculative fiction transformed early science fiction by introducing foundational concepts such as time travel, alien invasions, and ethical dilemmas surrounding biological manipulation. English writer Herbert George Wells achieved enduring international recognition through early scientific romances that used imaginative premises to examine contemporary social and political concerns. His seminal 1895 novel The Time Machine established the concept of time travel via vehicle and remains one of the defining texts of speculative literature.
Beyond his early scientific romances, Wells produced a vast bibliography spanning over fifty novels and dozens of short stories, alongside extensive non-fiction works addressing history, politics, popular science, satire, biography, and autobiography. Often called one of the fathers of science fiction alongside Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback, his narrative vision influenced later generations of authors, including George Orwell and Isaac Asimov.
Herbert George Wells was born on 21 September 1866 in Bromley, Kent, England, to a family of former domestic servants who operated a small shop. His father, Joseph Wells, had previously worked as a gardener at Uppark and played county cricket for Kent, but the family business struggled financially, resulting in frequent interruptions to the young author's education. At age fourteen, Wells was apprenticed to a draper, an experience that fueled his commitment to self-education and reading. He eventually secured employment as a teacher at several schools, during which time he began composing his first stories and journalism.
The publication of The Time Machine in 1895 launched a remarkably prolific literary career spanning more than six decades. Between 1895 and 1901, Wells published a series of pioneering speculative novels that included The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, When the Sleeper Wakes, and The First Men in the Moon. In addition to his speculative fiction, he became an outspoken socialist and pacifist whose writing explored contemporary realism in novels such as Tono-Bungay and The History of Mr. Polly, as well as visionary sociopolitical treatises like A Modern Utopia and The Shape of Things to Come. He continued writing until his death in London on 13 August 1946.
Wells developed a concise, journalistic narrative style that grounded extraordinary speculative concepts in recognizable everyday detail. Rather than focusing solely on technological mechanics, his scientific romances used fantastical premises—such as invisible bodies, lunar expedition craft, or martian tripods—as satirical allegories for class struggle, imperialism, and human hubris. His social commentary frequently challenged Victorian conventions, examining how scientific advancement could either liberate humanity or exacerbate social inequality without ethical oversight.
10 books in catalog
Groundbreaking speculative fiction transformed early science fiction by introducing foundational concepts such as time travel, alien invasions, and ethical dilemmas surrounding biological manipulation. English writer Herbert George Wells achieved enduring international recognition through early scientific romances that used imaginative premises to examine contemporary social and political concerns. His seminal 1895 novel The Time Machine established the concept of time travel via vehicle and remains one of the defining texts of speculative literature.
Beyond his early scientific romances, Wells produced a vast bibliography spanning over fifty novels and dozens of short stories, alongside extensive non-fiction works addressing history, politics, popular science, satire, biography, and autobiography. Often called one of the fathers of science fiction alongside Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback, his narrative vision influenced later generations of authors, including George Orwell and Isaac Asimov.
Herbert George Wells was born on 21 September 1866 in Bromley, Kent, England, to a family of former domestic servants who operated a small shop. His father, Joseph Wells, had previously worked as a gardener at Uppark and played county cricket for Kent, but the family business struggled financially, resulting in frequent interruptions to the young author's education. At age fourteen, Wells was apprenticed to a draper, an experience that fueled his commitment to self-education and reading. He eventually secured employment as a teacher at several schools, during which time he began composing his first stories and journalism.
The publication of The Time Machine in 1895 launched a remarkably prolific literary career spanning more than six decades. Between 1895 and 1901, Wells published a series of pioneering speculative novels that included The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, When the Sleeper Wakes, and The First Men in the Moon. In addition to his speculative fiction, he became an outspoken socialist and pacifist whose writing explored contemporary realism in novels such as Tono-Bungay and The History of Mr. Polly, as well as visionary sociopolitical treatises like A Modern Utopia and The Shape of Things to Come. He continued writing until his death in London on 13 August 1946.
Wells developed a concise, journalistic narrative style that grounded extraordinary speculative concepts in recognizable everyday detail. Rather than focusing solely on technological mechanics, his scientific romances used fantastical premises—such as invisible bodies, lunar expedition craft, or martian tripods—as satirical allegories for class struggle, imperialism, and human hubris. His social commentary frequently challenged Victorian conventions, examining how scientific advancement could either liberate humanity or exacerbate social inequality without ethical oversight.
