The Dream

More about the book

What would a man from a fortieth-century utopia make of Edwardian England? In this, one of Wells's funniest and most perceptive scientific romances, the bewildered here, Sarnac, basking in a sunny, trouble-free world, is hurtled back 2000 years into the gaslit gloom of the streets of London - and into the life of the splendid Henry Mortimer Smith, a character to rival Mr Polly. Henry, a chemist's apprentice, is destined for greatness as a publishing tycoon, whisked along by his wilful sister Fanny and hindered only by his wayward loves. Looking back from the future, 'The Dream' is a wonderfully comic saga in which the mysteries of British life and the eccentricities of Wells's own day are alarmingly, and irresistibly recovered from oblivion.