Summary
Summary of Twelve Stories and a Dream
Twelve Stories and a Dream at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 4 h 50 min3 h 50 min fast, 5 h 45 min slow
- Length
- 69,300 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1903by H. G. Wells
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
Fame demands courage from an inventor
Filmer knows how to build a flying machine, but he has never planned to fly in it. After years of being ignored, the timid scientist wins the backing of Banghurst, a newspaper owner, and suddenly finds himself celebrated as a great discoverer. The public assumes he will climb aboard his invention.
His fear of empty air turns success into a trap. As he delays and worries over the machine's strength, Wells separates the talent to invent from the courage that an admiring crowd expects.
Key idea 2
A child welcomes what reason resists
When Gip leads his father into a magic shop, the two enter the same place but experience it differently.
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Key idea 3
A clever cure creates another problem
Pyecraft cannot stop talking about his fatness.
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Key idea 4
Strange encounters reveal ordinary loneliness
Skelmersdale, a grocer's assistant, says a Fairy Lady fell in love with him after he fell asleep on Aldington Knoll.
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Key idea 5
Extraordinary tools bring power and exposure
A diving suit lets a man pass for a god, while Professor Gibberne's drink lets him and his companion move through a world that seems frozen.
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Key idea 6
Leaving the body carries a risk
Mr. Bessel and Mr. Vincey approach a trance experiment as investigators.
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Key idea 7
Refinement can become a heart's defense
On her first trip abroad, Miss Winchelsea wants above all not to look like a tourist.
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Key idea 8
Private love cannot keep war away
A pale man on a train describes dreams in which he lives as Hedon, a former leader who has abandoned politics for love on Capri.
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Key idea 9
The impossible reveals what people are
Across these tales, an ordinary setting gives the impossible somewhere believable to enter.
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Who it’s for
Readers who enjoy short stories with a sting of humor, and anyone curious about early science fiction, ghosts, fairies and impossible inventions, will find quick pleasures here. Fans of The Time Machine will enjoy more Wells.
What this book is
Can a man be made famous for the one thing he fears? In the first story of this book, a shy inventor perfects a flying machine and is crowned the greatest discoverer of his age. Then the whole world waits for him to climb aboard.
Twelve Stories and a Dream gathers short fiction by H. G. Wells, the English writer who also gave us The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds. The tales first ran in magazines and were collected in 1903. Each begins in a plain, believable place, such as a toy shop, a London club or a railway carriage. Then something impossible walks in. Wells treats it as a test of character, and you get quick portraits of what people do when the rules bend.
In this summary
- 1Fame demands courage from an inventorFree
- 2A child welcomes what reason resists
- 3A clever cure creates another problem
- 4Strange encounters reveal ordinary loneliness
- 5Extraordinary tools bring power and exposure
- 6Leaving the body carries a risk
- 7Refinement can become a heart's defense
- 8Private love cannot keep war away
- 9The impossible reveals what people are
Fame asks an inventor to be a hero
Filmer is told like a short biography. The narrator pieces together the life of a timid scientist from letters, patents and old newspaper files. Filmer starts as a poor student from Dover with a gift for chemistry and a nervous, grasping manner.
His idea is simple. Balloons float but drift with the wind, and heavy machines fly against it but crash. Filmer joins the two with sealed balloons that swell or shrink. For five years nobody listens. Then a model flight catches the eye of Banghurst, a loud newspaper owner, who pays him thousands of pounds. Within weeks Filmer is hailed as the Greatest Discoverer of This or Any Age.
But the crowd takes one thing for granted. Filmer will climb into the full-size machine himself. He never planned for that, and the thought of empty air keeps him from sleep. He delays the work and fusses over its strength.
Fame asks an inventor to be a hero as well.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
Why does Filmer's sudden fame become a source of fear?
Right. “Filmer will climb into the full-size machine himself.”Not quite. “Filmer will climb into the full-size machine himself.”
How do Gip and his father respond differently to the magic shop?
Right. “He keeps looking for the trick behind the trick.”Not quite. “He keeps looking for the trick behind the trick.”
What conflict lies at the heart of Hedon's dream life?
Right. “He has the chance to go back and prevent disaster, and he lets it pass.”Not quite. “He has the chance to go back and prevent disaster, and he lets it pass.”
Go deeper: the whole of Twelve Stories and a Dream
About 5 h to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 69,300 words
- Reading timeAbout 4 h 50 min
Questions about Twelve Stories and a Dream
What is Twelve Stories and a Dream about?
It is a collection of thirteen short pieces by H. G. Wells. Each one drops a strange event into everyday life, such as a magic shop, a potion, a ghost or a flying machine, and shows how ordinary people respond.
Which stories are in Twelve Stories and a Dream?
The book holds Filmer, The Magic Shop, The Valley of Spiders, The Truth About Pyecraft, Mr. Skelmersdale in Fairyland, The Inexperienced Ghost, Jimmy Goggles the God, The New Accelerator, Mr. Ledbetter's Vacation, The Stolen Body, Mr. Brisher's Treasure, Miss Winchelsea's Heart and A Dream of Armageddon.
What is the dream in the title?
The dream is the final story, A Dream of Armageddon. A pale man on a train describes nightly dreams of living in a future pleasure city, where he faces a choice between love and his duty to a world drifting toward war.
Is Twelve Stories and a Dream science fiction?
Some stories are, such as The New Accelerator, The Stolen Body and Filmer. Others are ghost stories, fairy tales or comedies of manners. Wells wrote these tales in the 1890s and early 1900s, and many first appeared in magazines.
Is Twelve Stories and a Dream easy to read?
Yes, in the sense that each tale is short and self-contained, with lively dialogue and a clear central idea. You can read one story at a sitting, in any order, and enjoy it on its own.
Cite this edition
Wells, H. G. Twelve Stories and a Dream. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/twelve-stories-and-a-dream.
Wells, H. G. (2026). Twelve stories and a dream. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/twelve-stories-and-a-dream (Original work published 1903)
Wells, H. G. Twelve Stories and a Dream. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/twelve-stories-and-a-dream.
@book{wells2026twelve,
author = {Wells, H. G.},
title = {Twelve Stories and a Dream},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/twelve-stories-and-a-dream},
note = {First published 1903}
}
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