9 h 38 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 9 h 38 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if your whole life were a troubling dream in a world that has learned to live better?
In H. G. Wells’s The Dream, Sarnac lives in a calm future, where people are healthy, educated, and free from fear of war and want. Then he dreams an entire life as Harry Mortimer Smith, an ordinary Englishman caught in the crowded, quarrelsome world of the early twentieth century.
Through Harry’s life, Wells explores what a society throws away: human strength, chances to learn, and the hope of living without constant conflict. Nations pull against one another. Schools teach little that matters. Set beside Sarnac’s ordered world, this muddle raises a question: must people always live this way?
What you’ll discover
- Two worlds in contrast Move between a peaceful future and a past crowded with waste and quarrels.
- An ordinary life reconsidered Follow Harry Mortimer Smith through a world whose habits look different from Sarnac’s distance.
- The cost of waste Consider how poor schooling and divided nations drain the strength of everyday lives.
- Wells the social thinker Explore his concern for education, shared knowledge, and a world no longer pulling apart.
- Space to reflect Let one man’s recollection lead you toward questions about humanity’s choices and future.
Who will love it
This book suits readers who love a story told by the fireside, who enjoy sharp social comedy about church and class, and who want a moving love story set in the First World War.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A quiet sleep opens another life
- Childhood takes shape inside crowded homes
- Fear takes the place of understanding
- Family security gives way to misfortune
- Learning finds allies in unexpected places
- Fanny offers help beyond family shame
- War makes love feel suddenly urgent
- Inherited shame turns tenderness into cruelty
- Two minds make memory a question
Who’s who
- SarnacA tired scientist of the future who wakes from a nap sure that he once lived as Harry Mortimer Smith, and tells the tale.
- Harry Mortimer SmithA greengrocer's son who longs for books and an education, works his way up at a publishing firm, and searches for true love.
- SunraySarnac's loving companion, who works on stories of the past and listens through the whole night.
- FannyHarry's clever, brave older sister, who escapes a stifling home to follow love and learning, and later helps her brother.
- Hetty MarcusA dark-eyed farmer's daughter with a still face and a poetic tongue, who becomes Harry's first great love.
- Matilda GoodThe huge, shrewd keeper of a Pimlico lodging house, who shelters Harry's family but opposes his pursuit of education.
- Milly KimptonA steady, ambitious colleague at Thunderstone House, who offers Harry a safe, proper marriage and wants him to rise.
- ErnestHarry's older brother, a hot-tempered chauffeur who dutifully guards his mother and keeps the family respectable.
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The Dream in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
The Dream
by H. G. Wells · 1924
A tired scientist wakes on a mountain meadow, certain he is Harry Smith, a greengrocer's son from old England.
Medium level5–10 hours to read2 languages
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In short
What if a nap on a mountain meadow gave you a whole other life? Sarnac, a researcher worn out by a year of work, falls asleep in the grass while on holiday with his companion Sunray.
The Dream at a glance
- Reading time
- About 5 h 35 min4 h 25 min fast, 6 h 40 min slow
- Length
- 80,000 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1924by H. G. Wells
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A sleep on a mountainside begins everything
The story opens in a calm future where people live simply and kindly. Sarnac, worn thin by a year of delicate work, takes a holiday with Sunray among lakes and mountains. They join four friends, and all six agree to climb together. Before the peaks, they visit a town freshly dug out of the earth.
The ruins are two thousand years old. Poison gas once killed the whole town, and many bodies lie preserved in a glass museum, an old woman back in her bed and a shrivelled baby in its cradle.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1924
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 6 h 15 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Wells, H. G. The Dream. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-dream.
Wells, H. G. (2026). The dream. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-dream (Original work published 1924)
Wells, H. G. The Dream. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-dream.
@book{wells2026dream,
author = {Wells, H. G.},
title = {The Dream},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-dream},
note = {First published 1924}
}
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What is The Dream by H. G. Wells about?
A man named Sarnac, living in a gentle future, wakes from a nap sure he was Harry Mortimer Smith, an Englishman from two thousand years earlier. He tells his friends that whole life, with its family, schooling, work, love and war.
Who are Sarnac and Harry Mortimer Smith?
Sarnac is a researcher in the future who tells the story. Harry Mortimer Smith is the English greengrocer's son whose life Sarnac says he remembers. Their feelings blend as the tale goes on, and Sarnac keeps stepping out to comment.
Who are Hetty and Sunray in The Dream?
Hetty Marcus is the dark-eyed woman Harry meets on the Downs and marries in wartime. Sunray is Sarnac's present-day love, who looks much like Hetty. The resemblance helps the friends wonder whether the tale is dream or memory.
The author
H. G. Wells
1866–1946 · English science fiction novelist
H. G. Wells (1866–1946) was an English writer born in Bromley, Kent. He wrote novels, short stories and nonfiction. His novels included The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897) and The War of the Worlds (1898). He died in London.
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