”When the Sleeper Wakes” by Herbert George Wells

First of all I chose this book not only because it was the first book I found that had 100 pages or more, but because the title interested me. I would say this book is a fiction story because no one can sleep for decades and then wake up. The story “When the Sleeper Wakes” is about a man that lives in London and has insomnia. Graham then falls into a strange sleep while he was at a friend’s house. When he wakes up 200 years later, he is immediately overwhelmed by the changes in this time; the lower class lives in total enslavement. He got extremely confused and he even fell into a shock. He finds out that while he was sleeping, his money had been put into a trust and the money was used to establish a political world order. He started asking many questions to everyone in sight but nobody wanted to give him answers, all they replied was that the society they lived in was a total chaos. Graham couldn’t really learn anything about the future because, for his well being, he was kept in a room inside of the Grand Council building. He was stranded there for several days without any news from the outside world. He finds out that the villain, Ostrog, wants to overthrow the established order.

Agents of Ostrog let Graham know that the people of the world are preparing to revolt against the White Council and that he should leave with them because they need his help and leadership. In the long run Graham restored his place as the master of the world. But then unfortunately a woman named Helen Wotton tells him that the people from the lower-class are suffering because Ostrog still dominates the system. He decides to disguise himself and travel to London in order to see what the average people suffer. While he’s examining the daily life of the average worker, he finds out that Ostrog ordered the African troops to London for another battle. Graham then takes the only plane left and departs; he goes down fighting with his enemy.

I didn’t like this story too much because I feel that H.G. Wells’ ideas were unclear. I felt that there were parts of the story missing. For example, he wasn’t really clear in the ending of the story. The best part of the story was when Graham was left in house arrest, I liked this part the best because it had some suspense; for a while he didn’t know anything that was happening around him or in the outside world.