Note: Probably this essay is included in some publications of the novel whose ISFDB publication records do not list it. As published by Collins' Clear-Type Press, 1921? to 1925?, it closes "H. G. Wells" and "Easton Glebe, Dunmow, 1921." No Project Gutenberg edition contains this preface. See Wikisource for a transcript. Preface to the New Edition (The Sleeper Awakes) is the original preface to The Sleeper Awakes: A Revised Edition of "When the Sleeper Wakes" (1910).

Synopsis: The 1910 preface concerns the text of the 1898 book, and how Wells has revised it. The 1921 preface concerns the future as Wells portrayed it in 1898, and how prospects have changed, as he sees them. "... It is a fantastic possibility no longer possible. Much evil may be in store for mankind, but to this immense, grim organisation of servitude, our race will never come."