Wells, H. G. Tono-Bungay. 1909. Penguin, 2005.
H. G. Wells, through George, his protagonist in Tono-Bungay, proclaims himself to be a rationalist, a socialist, and a man interested in improving society as much as he can. But what makes this novel so fascinating is that at every critical juncture, George acts in ways that violate all these principles and make him instead the kind of man he most despises. He studies science, but he abandons it at the first opportunity to take part in his Uncle’s patent medicine scam. He is critical of the injustice of the economic system represented by the English aristocracy, but if the aristocratic Beatrice would marry him, he would jump at the chance. His dreams of improving society and making a mark in the world end, but as he says, early in the novel, he discovers that it is the world that does things to him. All his ventures ultimately involve products that kill people, including a fictional compound called quap, “the most radioactive stuff in the world.” He occasionally sounds like Joseph Conrad, who admired Wells enough to dedicate a book to him, and perhaps he shares some of Conrad’s sadder-but-wiser romanticism.

An interesting hybrid of novel/fictional autobiography/social consciousness treatise. Wells traces the rise and fall of Edward Ponderevo, whose useless but well-advertised tonic 'Tono-Bungay' (based on Coca-Cola) conquers the market. George Ponderevo, Edward's nephew, is the protagonist and narrator through all this, reflecting on the rise of advertising and aggressive commerce and the decline of the aristocratic ruling classes.

É impressionante como uma sátira escrita em 1909 ainda retrata aspetos tão relevantes para os nossos dias de hoje. Houve momentos em que me senti completamente dentro da história e certas frases ficaram marcadas na minha memória, mas por algum motivo senti que não o tinha adorado. Talvez um dia consiga perceber o que realmente não funcionou para mim.

One of Wells' more obscure novels--deservedly so.

A somewhat clumsy attempt at satirizng capitalism, in a main character who gets wealthy bilking the public with ineffectual patent medicines, has affairs with women, loses everything as his uncle and he overexpands. Rambling essays on male-female relations collapse into a formless attempt to feel English. It is downbeat, nihilistic, and, worst of all, boring.

I have read several SIFi book by Wells. This was my first traditional social novel by him. It was much more satisfying and rewarding than his SiFi. I was surprised by the depth of the story, the development of the characters and the vivid description of English life at the turn on the 19th century. I would recommend his more traditional novels. I believe there are a few of them.

"Waste" is an excellent title

.

The majority of the book is boring and pointless, yet that may be the point. For as tedious as it is, the message is good and there is a beautiful gem near the end, which reminds me of my favorite poem, Ozymandias:

What a strange, melancholy emptiness of intention that stricken enterprise seemed in the even evening sunlight, what vulgar magnificence and crudity and utter absurdity! It was as idiotic as the pyramids. I sat down on the stile, staring at it as though I had never seen that forest of scaffold poles, that waste of walls and bricks and plaster and shaped stones, that wilderness of broken soil and wheeling tracks and dumps before. It struck me suddenly as the compactest image and sample of all that passes for Progress, of all the advertisement-inflated spending, the aimless building up and pulling down, the enterprise and promise of my age. This was our fruit, this was what he had done, I and my uncle, in the fashion of our time. We were its leaders and exponents, we were the thing it most flourishingly produced. For this futility in its end, for an epoch of such futility, the solemn scroll of history had unfolded....
“Great God!” I cried, “but is this Life?”
For this the armies drilled, for this the Law was administered and the prisons did their duty, for this the millions toiled and perished in suffering, in order that a few of us should build palaces we never finished, make billiard-rooms under ponds, run imbecile walls round irrational estates, scorch about the world in motor-cars, devise flying-machines, play golf and a dozen such foolish games of ball, crowd into chattering dinner parties, gamble and make our lives one vast, dismal spectacle of witless waste! So it struck me then, and for a time I could think of no other interpretation. This was Life! It came to me like a revelation, a revelation at once incredible and indisputable of the abysmal folly of our being.

only halfway through this one, but am loving it. once again a white male british protagonist (must read more women writers soon!), but the protagonist/author is incredible with writing descriptive detail. a great social commentary on class systems, industrialization in london, exploitation of the masses through marketing/advertising, etc. and an incredible vocabulary builder. SO many words i didn't know, but so well used i can discern their meaning contextually.

update: as with most satire, i "got the point" and started to get bored with it. but that was well into the novel.

i may lack patience.

An entertaining, engaging, first person narrative about the life of George Penderevo. George becomes employed by his uncle, Edward Penderevo, an entrepreneur who made a fortune selling ‘Tono-Bungay’, a miracle cure-all, which is nothing but a pleasant tasting liquid with no positive effects. George falls in love with Miriam, finding the path to marriage quite an accomplishment. Georgie is interested in and works on experimental aircrafts.

A satire on capitalism, advertising and the gullibility of the general public.

Here is an example of the author’s writing style in this book:
‘..I suppose it is a lingering trace of Plutarch and my ineradicable boyish imagination that at bottom our State should be wise, sane,and dignified, that makes me think a country which leaves its medical and literary criticism, or indeed any such vitally important criticism, entirely to private enterprise and open to the advances of any purchaser must be in a frankly hopeless condition.’

Very secretly (and cheekily) Welles absolute best novel. A riotous masterpiece which not only, in typical wellesian fashion, predicts an uncomfortable amount of stuff about the future but was prophetic about the form of the great satirical novel.

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*The History of Mr. Polly 3 stars
*Kipps 3 stars
*Tono-Bungay TBR

*The Young H.G. Wells: Changing The World by Claire Tomalin TBR