Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
Edinburgh & London
When the
Sleeper Wakes
A Story of the Days to Come. By
H. G. WELLS, Author of "The War
of the Worlds," &c.
"When the Sleeper Wakes," by far the longest story Mr. Wells has yet
given us, presents a spacious picture of the development of our
civilisation during the next two hundred years. The sleeper is a typical
liberal-minded man of means of the nineteenth century, and he awakens
from a cataleptic trance in the year 2100, to discover that by an ironic
combination of circumstances he has become the central figure of an
enormous political convulsion. His attempt to rise to the
responsibilities of his position, his struggle for power--inspired by an
enthusiastic girl--with the great political organiser Ostrog, give the
great structural lines of the story.
"He fell to sleep a fanatical democrat--a socialist: he woke a
tyrant; he died fighting with the people against the tyranny he had
unconsciously fashioned while he slept. Surely a theme of
magnificent possibilities--a theme more fertile in romance even than
the central idea of 'The War of the Worlds.' The discovery of such
material is in itself no mean triumph."--_Bookman._
"One of the cleverest books ever written."--_Birmingham Post._
"Mr. Wells sustains his reputation as the leading novelist of the
unknown in his latest effort of imagination, 'When the Sleeper
Wakes.'"--_The World._
"There is more than the triumph of extravagant fancy in Mr. Wells's
book; its undertones are well worth attention too."--_The World._
"Mr. Wells beats Jules Verne on his own ground."--_Daily News._
"An enthralling effort of imagination, vivid and bizarre as a
powerful nightmare."--_The Guardian._
"This is undoubtedly a most remarkable book, a _tour de force_ of
the intellect and imagination."--_The Queen._
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