The Sleeper Awakes

Graham, a troubled Londoner of the 1890s, collapses into a trance that lasts more than two centuries. He wakes to find the world transformed and himself at its center: interest on his small fortune has compounded into a vast estate, and a council ruling in his name has built a towering, mechanized London where most people live as near slaves. Hailed as the Sleeper by a restless population, he is pulled into revolt against the very system his money created. H. G. Wells uses the premise to attack unchecked capitalism and mass control, sketching an aerial, glass-and-steel future that anticipates much later science fiction. Offered here as a free PDF and EPUB edition.