When the Sleeper Wakes by H.G. Wells - 1899

London: Harper & Brothers. London, Harper & Brothers, 1899. First Edition. First Impression. Hardback. A very good copy. Wells revised the book in 1910 as he felt the present edition was rushed, commenting that it was 'one of the most ambitious and least satisfactory of my works' [Hammond, p94]. That said, it's one of the earliest dystopias, We, Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty Four all derive, consciously or unconsciously from Wells's vision of a regimented totalitarian state. Currey notes two states, A and B [Currey, p426]. On the present copy the Harpers imprint on the spine measures as a 9pt font, the boards measure 194mm vertically. Likely an unrecorded state or issue; that's not to conflated with its scarcity of which we have no records. Suffice to say that this is the only copy we've seen thus bound. Boards quite sharp with a little dulling to the spine, some softening to the tips. Slight reading lean and some foxing to the block edges. Interior neat with a seller's blindstamp and some areas of toning to the endpapers. Better than usually found. Illustrations by H. Lanos [7833, Hyraxia Books]. . Very Good. Hardback. 1st Edition. 1st Printing. 1899.