Beyond the plot, what specific societal concerns or technological anxieties might Wells have been critiquing or forecasting by having his character become the richest man in the world due to "compound interest" after two centuries?

From the book

here are no very trustworthy connections of ours. It is a grotesque and unprecedented position." "It is," said Isbister. "As a matter of fact, it's a case for a public trustee, if only we had such a functionary." "It seems to me it's a case for some public body, some practically undying guardian. If he really is going on living—as the doctors, some of them, think. As a matter of fact, I have gone to one or two public men about it. But, so far, nothing has been done." "It wouldn't be a bad idea to hand him over to some public body—the British Museum Trustees, or the Royal College of…

For other versions of this work, see The Sleeper Awakes . ← The Sleeper Awakes ( 1921 ) by H. G. Wells → The Sleeper Awakes is a dystopian novel by H. G. Wells about a man who sleeps for two hundred and three years, waking up in a completely transformed London, where, because of compound interest on his bank accounts, he has become the richest man in the world. The main character awakes to see his dreams realized, and the future revealed to him in all its horrors and malformities. The novel was originally serialized in The Graphic from 1898 to 1903, titled When the Sleeper Wakes and…

t, hesitated and spoke: ​ "No doubt—his keep here is not expensive—no doubt it will have improved—accumulated?" "It has. He will wake up very much better off—if he awakes—than when he slept." "As a business man," said Isbister, "that thought has naturally been in my mind. I have, indeed, sometimes thought that, speaking commercially, of course, this sleep may be a very good thing for him. That he knows what he is about, so to speak, in being insensible so long. If he had lived straight on —— —" "I doubt if he would have premeditated as much," said Warming. "He was not a far-sighted man. In…

nd of a social convulsion. "To explain it I must tell you the history of a gross and a half of years," protested Howard. "The thing is this," said Graham. "You are afraid of something I shall do. In some way I am arbitrator — I might be arbitrator." "It is not that. But you have — I may tell you this much — the automatic increase of your property puts great possibilities of interference in your hands. And in certain other ways you have influence, with your eighteenth century notions." "Nineteenth century," corrected Graham. "With your old world notions, anyhow, ignorant as you are of every…

ury Venusberg. He forgot the part played by the model in nineteenth century art, and gave way to an archaic indignation. He rose, angry and half ashamed at himself for witnessing this thing even in solitude. He pulled forward the apparatus, and with some violence sought for a means of stopping its action. Something snapped. A violet spark stung and convulsed his arm and the thing was still. When he attempted next day to replace these Tannhauser cylinders by another pair, he found the apparatus broken.... He struck out a path oblique to the room and paced to and fro, struggling with…