Sign-In
Cart
The dream
Paperback
Publisher: Bibliotech Pr
Published: Jan 9 2023
Pages: 196
Weight: 0.54
Height: 0.49 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
The Dream is a 1924 novel by H. G. Wells about a man from a Utopian future who dreams the entire life of an Englishman from the Victorian and Edwardian eras, Harry Mortimer Smith. As in other novels of this period, in The Dream Wells represents the present as an Age of Confusion from which humanity will be able to emerge with the help of science and common sense.
In circa 4,000 A.D., a biologist named Sarnac is taking a holiday among mountains and lakes with his lover, Sunray. With four other holiday travellers, they visit some 2,000-year-old ancient remains [of war dead] that had recently been excavated in a nearby valley. A little later, after a brief afternoon nap, Sarnac awakens from a very vivid dream. The rest of the novel consists of Sarnac's recounting of the dream, with occasional discussion of its particulars with his companions. Sarnac's dream brings with it total recall of the complete life of Harry Mortimer Smith. Smith's life and the institutions that structure it are the subject throughout the novel of a running commentary from the point of view of the achieved Utopia of 2,000 years later.
Harry Mortimer Smith was born in 1891 or 1892 in the fictional town of Cherry Gardens, in an area bordering the South Downs on the southern English coast. His father is a greengrocer who has trouble supporting his family because of the ignorance of birth control. He profits from the sale of produce from the nearby estate of Lord Bramble, where Harry Mortimer Smith's mother's brother, Uncle John Julip, works as head gardener.
Harry unwittingly exposes this theft when he is sent to work at Lord Bramble's estate, and as a result his uncle loses his job and comes to depend on the Smith household. Uncle John debauches Harry's weak-willed father, leading him to yield to the temptation to drink and bet on horses. The only person in the household that Harry esteems is his older sister Fanny, whom he helps run away to rejoin a lover in London. Harry's parents are scandalised by Fanny's sudden departure; shortly afterwards Smith père dies after being struck by an automobile.
Harry and his sister Prue go with their widowed mother to a boarding house in the central London district of Pimlico run by Matilda Good, a friend of the family. Wells was proud of some of the minor characters he sketched in this part of The Dream..
By chance, in London Harry reestablishes contact with his sister Fanny, who has become the kept woman of an important publisher. This connection enables Harry to gain employment at Thunderstone House and the publishing firm of Crane & Newberry, where his star is still rising at the end of his life. In this part of the novel Wells analyses the importance of and limitations of popular publishers in the years before the First World War.
The conclusion of The Dream is chiefly concerned with Harry Mortimer Smith's love life. Just before going to fight in France he meets Hetty Marcus, the daughter of a farmer. They marry, but when Harry discovers that Hetty has been unfaithful to him in his absence and is carrying another man's child, he divorces her-despite the fact that he is still deeply in love with her. Wells uses the occasion to comment on English sexual mores of the day: We had no sexual education at all, only concealments and repressions. Our code was still the code of jealousy-thinly disguised. The pride and self-respect of a man was still bound up with the animal possession of women-the pride and self-respect of most women was by a sort of reflection bound up with the animal possession of a man. We felt that this possession was the keystone of life. Any failure in this central business involved a monstrous abasement, and against that our poor souls sought blindly for the most extravagant consolations. We hid things, we perverted and misrepresented things, we evade the issue. (wikipedia.org)
Also from
Wells, H. G.
Gothic Horror Stories: Frightful Tales of the Supernatural
Wells, H. G.
Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan
Allan Poe, Edgar
Hardcover
Stories for Seafarers Boxed Set: Three Unforgettable Tales from Above and Below the Waves
Wells, H. G.
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Verne, Jules
Hardcover
H. G. Wells Double Feature - The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds (Reader's Library Classics)
Wells, H. G.
Paperback
The Island of Doctor Moreau (Royal Collector's Edition) (Case Laminate Hardcover with Jacket)
Wells, H. G.
Hardcover
The Country of the Blind: Mandarin Companion Graded Readers Level 1, Traditional Character Edition
Wells, H. G.
Paperback
We: With the Introductory Chapter, The Revolution and Famine in Russia By H. G. Wells
Zamyatin, Yevgeny
Wells, H. G.
Paperback
The Sleeper Awakes & Men Like Gods: Dystopian & Utopian Fiction from the Father of Science Fiction
Wells, H. G.
Paperback
Mad Science: A Classic Horror Collection - Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Invisible Man
Wells, H. G.
Shelley, Mary
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Paperback
H.G. Wells Trilogy: The Time Machine The, War of the Worlds, and the Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H. G.
Paperback
The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds (A Reader's Library Classic Hardcover)
Wells, H. G.
Hardcover
The War of the Worlds (Royal Collector's Edition) (Case Laminate Hardcover with Jacket)
Wells, H. G.
Hardcover
The Invisible Man and The Island of Dr. Moreau (A Reader's Library Classic Hardcover)
Wells, H. G.
Hardcover
The Invisible Man (Royal Collector's Edition) (Case Laminate Hardcover with Jacket)
Wells, H. G.
Hardcover
We: With the Introductory Chapter, The Revolution and Famine in Russia By H. G. Wells
Zamyatin, Yevgeny
Wells, H. G.
Hardcover
The Time Machine (Royal Collector's Edition) (Case Laminate Hardcover with Jacket)
Wells, H. G.
Hardcover
The Time Machine: Large Print: Complete and Unabridged Classic Edition (Large Print Edition)
Wells, H. G.
Paperback
The Shape Of Things To Come Book The First Today And Tomorrow: The Age Of Frustration Dawns
Wells, H. G.
Paperback
The First Men in the Moon (Collector's Edition) (Laminated Hardback with Jacket)
Wells, H. G.
Hardcover
The Time Machine / La Machine à explorer le temps: English-French Side-by-Side
Wells, H. G.
Hardcover
The Country of the Blind / 盲人の国: Tranzlaty English 日本語
Wells, H. G.
Paperback
Science Fiction Classics: A Collection Of Short Si Fi Stories By The Father Of Science Fiction
Wells, H. G.
Paperback
Тоно Бунгей; Tono Bungay (Russian edition)
Wells, H. G.
Paperback
The Country of the Blind / 盲人之国: Tranzlaty English 普通话
Wells, H. G.
Paperback
Anticipations Of The Reaction Of Mechanical And Scientific Progress Upon Human Life And Thought
Wells, H. G.
Paperback
Also in
Classic Fiction
Four Comedies: The Taming of the Shrew, a Midsummer Night's Dream, the Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night
Shakespeare, William
Paperback
Before Gatsby: The First Twenty-Six Stories
Baughman, Judith
Fitzgerald, F. Scott
Bruccoli, Matthew J.
Paperback
The Princess Bride Deluxe Limited Edition: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure
Goldman, William
Paperback
The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of the Lord of the Rings
Tolkien, J. R. R.
Paperback
The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (Revised and easy-to-read)
Bunyan, John
Vermilye, Alan
Paperback
Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Stoker, Bram
Shelley, Mary
Paperback
The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure
Goldman, William
Hardcover
The Lord of the Rings Illustrated by the Author: Illustrated by J.R.R. Tolkien
Tolkien, J. R. R.
Hardcover