Summary
Summary of The Dream
Key ideas
Key idea 1
A strange waking opens another life
Sarnac leaves his research behind for a holiday with Sunray among lakes and mountains. Yet music and the ruins of an ancient town disturb the peace. After seeing a railway tunnel where people died, he dreams of men buried alive.
On a meadow, he falls asleep beside Sunray and wakes without recognising her. He says he is Harry Mortimer Smith and remembers a wife called Milly. His friends gather to listen, bringing the fears of a vanished age into their own happier world.
Key idea 2
A small world shapes Harry
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Key idea 3
Fear of shame divides the family
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Key idea 4
Harry searches for an education
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Key idea 5
Fanny opens a wider world
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Key idea 6
Jealousy overwhelms Harry's love
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Key idea 7
Cruelty grows from fear and training
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Key idea 8
The listeners make familiar things strange
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Key idea 9
Plain speech cuts through social roles
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
Readers who like a frame story told by firelight, a vivid picture of everyday life in old England, and a love story that turns on forgiveness. Fans of Wells who enjoy his ideas set inside human drama will feel at home.
What this book is
The Dream is a novel by H. G. Wells, published in the early 1920s. It opens in a bright future where people are free, healthy and kind, and then slips back two thousand years into the cramped, fearful England of the early twentieth century. Wells wrote it as a long look at the world he knew, set against the world he hoped would follow. You get a love story, a family drama and a sharp portrait of an age.
The frame is simple. Sarnac, a scientist worn out by work, goes walking in the mountains with his partner Sunray. He falls asleep on a meadow and wakes believing he is Harry Mortimer Smith, a shopkeeper's son from the south coast of England. Over one long evening and night, with friends gathered by a fire, he tells that whole life.
The tale takes in a poor home, a thin schooling, a move to London and a career in popular publishing. It also holds a war and two marriages. Along the way the listeners keep stopping Sarnac to ask what things meant, and his answers show how far the world has come. Let us begin with the day that sends Sarnac to sleep.
In this summary
- 1A holiday ends in a strange wakingFree
- 2A shopkeeper's son in Cherry Gardens
- 3Churches, sermons and a stolen supper
- 4The tornado of misfortunes
- 5Pimlico, a boarding house and a hunger to learn
- 6Fanny discovers herself, and Harry finds his work
- 7War, Hetty and a marriage that breaks
- 8What the story is about: confusion, fear and mercy
- 9How the dream is told
Key point 1 of 9
A holiday ends in a strange waking
Sarnac has spent almost a year on delicate research into the nerve cells of the body, and he is tired. He and Sunray set out to wander among lakes and mountains. They sail and swim, and they meet a very old man who makes clay figures and a musician who plays a piece by Chopin called the Revolutionary Etude. The music opens something dark in Sarnac that his people have long kept shut.
Four more travellers join them. Radiant and Starlight are brother and sister who train animals, and Willow and Firefly are electricians. Together the six visit excavated ruins from two thousand years earlier. A town and a railway tunnel lie there, where refugees and soldiers met their end long ago. The sight is almost too vivid, and Sarnac cuts his hand on a broken carriage window.
The friends argue about whether people of that age were happier or unhappier than they are. Radiant says each age has its own normal level, and Willow says that bodies and rules can keep people low. Sarnac mutters that everyone then must have felt trapped in a tunnel. That night he is feverish and dreams of men buried alive.
The day after that, on a meadow of asphodel, he sleeps with his head against Sunray. He cries out in his sleep, then wakes and does not know her. He says his name is Harry Mortimer Smith, and that he had a wife called Milly. The friends settle down to hear his story.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
Who does Sarnac believe he is when he wakes on the meadow?
Right. “He says his name is Harry Mortimer Smith, and that he had a wife called Milly.”Not quite. “He says his name is Harry Mortimer Smith, and that he had a wife called Milly.”
How does Fanny help Harry build a different future?
Right. “The job is at Thunderstone House, the home of the publishers Crane and Newberry.”Not quite. “The job is at Thunderstone House, the home of the publishers Crane and Newberry.”
What does Sarnac identify beneath Harry's response to Hetty?
Right. “He divorces her, and Sarnac says now with wonder that he felt no pity, only wounded pride and jealousy.”Not quite. “He divorces her, and Sarnac says now with wonder that he felt no pity, only wounded pride and jealousy.”
Questions about The Dream
What is The Dream by H. G. Wells about?
A scientist of the future named Sarnac wakes from a nap sure he once lived as Harry Mortimer Smith in early twentieth-century England. He tells that whole life to friends: family, schooling, London, publishing, war, love and loss.
Who is Sarnac and who is Harry Mortimer Smith?
Sarnac lives in a free, gentle future. Harry Mortimer Smith is the man he believes he was two thousand years earlier, a greengrocer's son from southern England who becomes a magazine editor in London.
Is The Dream a true story?
No. It is a novel by H. G. Wells, published in the early 1920s. The English scenes draw on the world Wells knew, and the future frame lets him compare that world with one he hoped for.
Is The Dream easy to follow?
Yes, it moves along clearly. A frame of friends by a fire keeps the telling lively, and Sarnac explains old objects and customs as listeners ask about them, so the world is easy to enter.
What is the main message of The Dream?
Wells suggests that people in any age are much alike, and that fear, ignorance and rigid rules make them hurt each other. Better teaching, honesty about the body and kindness could make life gentler.
