When the Sleeper Wakes: A Critical Text of the 1899 New York and London First Edition, With an Introduction and Appendices (The Annotated H. G. Wells, 5)

By H.G. Wells

Book Overview

Critics rightly view When the Sleeper Wakes as a prototype of the anti-utopian novel, a genre developed by Zamyatin, Huxley, and Orwell into nightmare futures associated with the totalitarian age and the moral horrors of fascism and communism. Suppose, however, that Wells rather favored unlawful statist controls, if justified in a good cause by his own ideological lights?This is one possibility explored in the apparatus to the present edition. Annotated by the world's leading Wellsian scholar, in Sleeper is found a greater measure of artistry and characterization than is usually accorded it. As a complex work combining technological with social speculation, Sleeper is unmatched for canniness in the history of futuristic literature. Indeed, its aeronautical details influenced the Wright Brothers in the design of their flyer, and the novel predicts the promotion of airplanes as a weapon, a prophecy dramatically fulfilled in the twentieth century. This exhaustive critical edition follows other influential titles in the series and features a lengthy introduction, appendices, bibliography and index, and a frontispiece taken from the original 1899 edition.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786406666
• ISBN13: 9780786406661
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: McFarland Publishing
• Length: 465 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.3" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Very inventive

Considering when it was written, the author creates a futuristic society that appears good but has flaws like any other city. The inventions were interesting and the problems between the elite and the impoverished was depicted well. The sleeper's observation of what is going on around him is amusing because he is from a very different time. Good read.

when the sleeper wakes

When the Sleeper Wakes was a pretty good book. It was a little boring in some spots though. This wasn't one of H.G. Wells' better stories. I reccomend others like the Invisible Man or The War of the Worlds or The Time Machine.