Unlike his later, more optimistic works, H G Wells' earlier books display a deep mistrust of science and 'progress'. 'The Sleeper Awakes' is arguably the starkest and most pessimistic of these dystopian novels. It tells the tale of Graham, a chronic insomniac who falls into a coma-like sleep, from which he emerges over two hundred years later, to discover that investments willed to him by two childless industrialists have borne such fruit that he - The Sleeper - is now the owner of half the world. A 'Council' rules despotically in The Sleeper's name, presiding over a futuristic society of surpassing ugliness, with the uneducated masses themselves deeply asleep - their minds clouded by incessant propaganda and with no right to either property or privacy. Appalled, Graham strives for change, and finds himself regarded as a Messiah by the impoverished masses. But can The Sleeper alone sustain the revolution? And is he willing to make the ultimate sacrifice?