Coca-Cola – a steampunk novel
Two centuries ago, a plucky young English bloke named George got into a scrap and was too heavily injured to work in the coal mines. Because he could read and write and had some mathematical ability, he was apprenticed to a number of scientifical and engineering shops, including chemists and druggists. Eventually young George discerned that his talent lay in telling tall talls, with a heavy double dose of pseudo science and bull sugar. Naturally, he became a journalist and then a novelist.
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George Herbert Wells, or HG Wells, was the first person to suggest a mechanical means to surmount Time’s Arrow (“The Time Traveler”), followed by a number of other fantastical and profitable yarns. “The Invisible Man”, “The War of the Worlds”, “The Island of Doctor Moreau”.
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In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was pretty common for periodicals to publish famed and lessor authors’ works as serials. Charles Dickens would sit in a London pub and bang out his stories chapter by chapter, sometimes sending out completed pages one by one via messenger for hot lead interment to make the next trans-Atlantic steam* boat (there’s the steam). The fun part is that the story would begin in one direction and end up in a completely different path, as each chapter was published bi-weekly or monthly. “David Copperfield” slowly grew over three years, and plenty of Dicken’s buddies kibitzed on the progress, changing it over time. HG Wells went this route with his novel “Tono-Bungay”, published in issue one of “Popular” in 1908 and wrapped up rather quickly the next year.
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“Tono-Bungay” is the story of a young lad who’s dad has vanished, leaving mum and wee George alone in the world. Yes, fictional hero George is very much a standin for genuine George, and a greatly embellished autobiography of Wells guides the plucky fellow. Real and fictional George are raised in a country town that revolves around the local lessor aristocrats (think “Downton Abbey”). George’s mum works for the aristos and George has discrete access to their extensive library. George’s missing pappy was surnamed “Ponderevo”, which is not a very English name at all, and suggests that fictional George is a “half-caste” – part English flower and the other …. well, not English. Perhaps Hungarian? Italian?? It’s best not to enquire too closely into his semi-dusky hue.
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Once our fictional George Ponderevo reaches the terrible teens, he foolishly gets into a fight with a snotty punk* (and there’s the punk!) from the local Lord’s family, which results in poor George’s banishment. Soon enough, George is welcomed into the family of his absent father’s brother, Edward Ponderevo. Uncle Edward runs an apothecary, which makes most of its money off of tonics, patent medicine, snake oil and other such quackery.
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Uncle Edward has just concocted a new sort of tonic, a British version of “Coca-Cola”, which he calls, “Tono-Bungay”. The elder Ponderevo is very happy to have a strapping young lad to help with setting up mass-production of this miracle elixir, which is selling fantastically well. Uncle Edward plows the profits into the booming rail road business and its not too much later that they’re all rolling in dough, lighting cigars with hundred pound notes. There’s an amusing scene where the Ponderevo family, in all their non-English glory, take a carriage to a local estate and offer to buy the whole thing. The local gentry sneer, until Uncle Edward doubles the price and offers cash. SOLD!!!!
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And now comes the sad part of the story, where the stock market reminds us that as much as it likes to go up, down is also fun. And just like that, the “Tono-Bungay” fortune is lost.
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This is a long and dense novel, with a number of side stories. For example, a comic steam ship expedition to retrieve abandoned radioactive ore (called, uh, quap?? for reasons). And the story of fictional George’s first marriage to an indiffernent lassie, which mimics the real George’s marriage to an indifferent lassie. Fortunately, the novel ends with George burying his face in the heaving bosum of a lusty Noblewoman.
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Although it’s a long, and I dare say a bit tedious at times, “Tono-Bungay” is quite lively and modern, a dry satire on class and wealth. Worth every penny I paid!! (which was, uh nothing – picked it up for free from a discard pile).
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Wells has been my one of my favourite authors for over four decades, based almost entirely on his core science fiction titles such as The War of the Worlds, The First Men in the Moon, The Island of Doctor Moreau and The Invisible Man. I've reviewed these and other similar Wellsian scif-fi titles and they will always be important to me. However, I have not read enough of his novels that focus on social and domestic matters, excluding The History of Mr Polly, hence my desire to tackle Tono-Bungay. Now that it is done I can affirm that Wells was more than a writer of early science fiction; he had a very sharp and intelligent eye when it came to the issues and absurdities of the more mundane world he lived in. Love, death, class, sex, money, identity are all meat for Wells in this book and it is a most satisfying read. It is not without its faults, however the most important reflection one can garner from it is that Wells was always keen to explore the human condition, probing its flaws and considering what might be the remedies.

Tono-Bungay is a rather long and sprawling yarn that veers through several thematic concerns as it navigates its narrative. From the start his protagonist George Ponderevo (a representation in some way of Wells himself) is focused on the dual concerns of class and love. Material wealth and status are seen as a constraint on imagination, on love and on initiative, and as George transitions from childhood into his young adulthood Wells repeats again and again the deadening effect of his contemporary social hierarchy. One might find this boring or redundant, however Wells is able to encourage the reader to care through his characterisation of George. Ponderevo is not exactly likeable, however his persona is one that a great many will hopefully identify with, encouraging empathy. His challenging of the status quo and the resultant ejection by those who hold power over him, and by proxy over much of society, is one that will possibly make the reader angry and sympathetic.

That George's early life and expulsion from the upper echelons of society is also due to love and its attendant emotion of jealousy is crucial in its complementary influence on the narrative and the reader's reaction to the text. Wells positions George as someone who is invariably an outsider, whether it be due to class or due to his passions, and through this one cannot but find cause to rally behind him. We want George to succeed, to gain the success he arguably deserves, even though Wells has also made certain we understand that this won't happen.

It might be said that as Tono-Bungay progresses the focus on class and politics, love and sex waxes and wanes. After a brief foray into exploring the pros and cons of socialism Wells has George dive into a fateful romantic relationship that is highly reminiscent of the aforementioned History of Mr Polly. George's passion for Marion, who he chases into a fruitless and frustrating marriage, is perhaps the best part of the novel. Well, it is the section that most appeals to me, in that it resonates with my own personal experiences. That the marriage ends with an affair that has arisen more from disappointment than desire feels truthful, and surely is a reflection of Wells' own feelings re matrimonial matters.

George is shown to be a character who cannot find satisfaction in either his external or internal lives, and this is in part due to the conflicted manner in which he has to exist in a society where he has not definitive place. His wealth and success is underpinned by the sham value of Tono-Bungay, his love for Marion a submission to his physical needs and ego, his intellect and education achieved to no real end.

Tono-Bungay moves into less domestic focus in the final third of its narrative, returning ot the issues of class and wealth as Wells first explored in the opening chapters of the novel. As his Uncle and Aunt (the former a genial con-man, the latter a veritable good woman) strive in ill-matched efforts to turn their wealth into social status, becoming parvenus in an English upper class stratum that cannot ever truly welcome them, Wells has George constantly speak of how their 'rise' will lead to an almost inevitable 'crash'. And when the crash does come, after his efforts at trying to rescue his Uncle and Tono-Bungay through some ill-advised colonialist adventure, the downfall of all is almost entirely complete.

The only saving grace in this rise and fall, and one that doesn't really suffice for him, is that George rediscovers his childhood love Beatrice (undoubtedly a reference to Dante there). Their relationship is one that is perhaps the most loving that they both experience, yet it, like so much of what transpires in the novel, is spoiled and corrupted by the influence of class and wealth. George is left unable to solidify his love for Beatrice, and she for him, because they are both at odds with the reality of their social position. As they part the reader can't but contemplate how two innately worthy characters cannot find happiness in themselves nor in each other as a result of the problematic relationships between love, wealth and class.

All up Tono-Bungay is a very good book and one that, as stated earlier, resonates with me. It is intelligent and whilst perhaps a bit polemical it also has moments of worthy comedy. There is a certain level of moderation in all the characters bar George and perhaps his uncle Edward; it seems as if Wells can't allow his dramatis personae to reach elevated levels of emotion or personality because they are burdened all by the deadening effect of materialism and class. George is a flawed 'hero', and his self-awareness is both instructive yet also at times a tad indulgent. There is a tired and defeated tone in his voice throughout the novel and I suspect that Wells himself was projecting this aspect of his own life through George's characterisation.

This book will possibly find minimal favour among contemporary readers because it is not one that may be generally seen as a popular Wellsian text (unlike his science fiction texts), plus it doesn't quite say enough about contemporary issues or problems. The Edwardian world that Tono-Bungay describes is well examined and Wells draws out some provocative and truthful conclusions about society and capitalism. Yet they are of a time long gone and perhaps redundant based on today's challenges. Where the book really hist home though is its consideration of love and desire. As noted previously it is when George and Marion are brought together in a doomed relationship that perhaps Wells provides readers of today something we can appreciate.

I'm not sure if I would recommend Tono-Bungay to anyone except for those who are fans of Wells, or those interested in a text that charts the complex relationships we all have with love, money and status. If this is you then please, take this novel on.

Es un libro mucho más intimo y reflexivo de lo que las reseñas hacen esperar. Tiene episodios magníficos y las reflexiones del autor sobre lo que es la vida, a medida que le van pasando cosas, son profundas y sutiles. Aunque a ratos se me hacía un poco lento.

This is Wells's "State of England" novel which makes it very clear that the state of England is not good. Greed, capitalism gone rampant, dishonesty, decay, women forced into marriage or a form of prostitution, random pointless murder. I'm glad I read this for a class on Wells, as I think I can more clearly see what he was doing here when comparing it to his work in general.

Pretty turgid. Seemed to last forever and not I'm a good way. I love his Sci fi adventures, but not his attempts at social commentary. And they become Wells bingo - science, matriculated from West London University, socialism, Fabian Society, flying. They're all here.
I'm just glad it's over.

Huh, within itself, this was an ok book by Wells. There were a couple of streams of thought within this work. By themselves, they would have amounted to an excellent story, mixed together I found it ok, a nice read, nothing to 'write home about'.

In later years, Wells focused a lot of his attention on works advocating is belief in the Fabian Society (which he was a member of) view of socialism, equality and dream of the future. Many such stories, I found mediocre and boring. In part, I did find it refreshing Wells actually bringing in and mentioning the Fabian Society.

Within the story itself, Wells does look at the idea of Capitalism and the inherent faults it brings when an individual or individuals focus too much on the collection of wealth and greed. I draw parallels with the excellent Tolstoy Book "How much land is a man worth". In part, Wells does wonderfully depict in George's Uncle that no matter how much wealth he collected, it wasn't enough, he needed more. This was his ultimate downfall. However, Wells ended up focussing on Capitalism throughout without looking at socialism itself. George began life as a socialist with socialist morals and principles, but then changed and that was it.

Within the realms of Capitalism of this story we have the Tono Bungay, the foundation of their wealth. The foundation that was based on a lie. you can sell the proverbial 'sand to an Arab'. As in you can sell anything to anyone who is gullible enough. Again, a fascinating concept which could have been made more of.

Then, you have George and Beatrice, the love interest. There were moments when the story purely became a love interest and it was really nice. In parts brought to mind his work "Love and Mr Lewisham". But then again, this part was too fleeting and sporadic.

Towards the end of the story, I found it very remenicent of George Orwell's "Down and Out in Paris and London". He ended up going on a remenicent journey, trying to sum up England and potentially draw in Socialism, not too sure though. He tried to make a political analogy after writing a sweet story.

So, overall mixed views on this book.

An engaging read with usual moments of lax reading. Steeped a bit much into theory, seems as if you need to know all of the classical theories prevalent then to actually make sense of all the self reflexivity George goes through in the first half. I really enjoyed the first chapter, it seemed opening up newer vistas, but they kind of melted into a pre speculated future. Almost zero female voice is heard throughout. And the ways George reads into his immoral ways of life is scoff worthy.

This book is a masterpiece that reminds Dickens and Swift due to its social analysis and Verne for the adventure-like narrative. Different from most H. G. Wells books, it is not a science fiction book. Apart from the horses and the mystery of radioactive ore, it has a captivating modern resonance.

I can easily see why this is considered Wells' best written book. I just wish it wasn't so tonally jarring, that the characters so trite, or the pace so plodding. About 1/10th of this novel is a ripping adventure story that probably shouldn't even exist, and I only read the last quarter of the novel because I felt obligated to finish the story. As a result, the conclusion wore me down until I stopped caring about the whole enterprise.

Captivating, intregueing, and absolutely refreshing to say the least. This piece of work from H.G Wells offers the mind a feast in which to ponder on one's own life experiences and life's trials. As the story takes place in the early 1900's, we are brought to London England to chronical the life and times of George and his loved ones.

This book proves that although technology has made leaps and bounds, the human spirit remains the same within each of us.

"Tono-Bungay" is a novel written by H. G. Wells and published in 1909. It has been called "arguably his most artistic book." As for Wells himself he considered "Tono-Bungay as the finest and most finished novel upon the accepted lines" that he had "written or was ever likely to write." While reading the novel I also read a biography of Wells and found many interesting things about the author.

Although Wells was a prolific writer in many genres, including the novel, history, politics, and social commentary, he is now best remembered for his science fiction novels. His most famous science fiction works include "The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine and The Invisible Man." He has been called the father of science fiction, of course other authors have also been called the father of science fiction, so I guess we all get to pick whoever we want for the title. As to "Tono-Bungay", I've read at other places, including the introduction to my copy of the book that it is a "realist satire on consumer capitalism and a commentary on social injustice", but since these are terms that sound nothing like something I would say and I would never use, I won't use them here either, I will simply take the writer of the introduction's word for it.

In 1874 when just a young boy he had an accident that left him bedridden with a broken leg. To pass the time he started reading books from the local library. He soon became fascinated with the other worlds and lives to which books gave him access; and they stimulated his desire to write. Wells spent three very unhappy years as an apprentice to a draper, he also worked as a pupil-teacher at a school in Somerset and again apprenticed for a chemist in Midhurst. Wells studied biology at the Normal School of Science earning a bachelor of science and doctor of science degrees. I wonder who decided to name the school the "Normal" School of Science. I'll have to go see if there is an abnormal school of science somewhere when I'm done with this. His first writings were short stories and articles published in journals.

Now I'm moving on to what I thought was the most interesting and puzzling thing about his life. He first married his cousin Isabel Mary Wells in 1891, they divorced in 1894 after Wells fell in love with one of his students, Amy Catherine Robbins, whom he married in 1895. For some reason that I don't know he called her Jane. Ok, here's the puzzling thing, with his wife Jane's consent, Wells had affairs with a number of women, including the American birth control activist Margaret Sanger, adventurer and writer Odette Keun and novelist Elizabeth von Arnim. He had a daughter with the writer Amber Reeves; and in 1914, a son, by the novelist Rebecca West. What I have a hard time figuring out is why in the world his wife gave her consent to this. Oh well, I'll probably never know so I will give up on pondering the subject and move on to "Tono-Bungay".

Our main character and narrator of the story is George Ponderevo, the son of the housekeeper at a great estate called Bladesover. When as a boy he has a fist fight with a young aristocrat he is sent by his mother, first to her cousin Nicodemus Frapp, and after he runs away from there, he is sent as a fully indentured apprentice, to his uncle Edward Ponderevo. Uncle Edward dreams of making it big, and after years of failure he succeeds with his patent medicine he names "Tono-Bungay".Uncle Edward is bottling a sham tonic, it is completely devoid of any actual medicinal benefit, but he is advertising it with a flair and succeeding very well. Edward is a genius at marketing, Tono-Bungay advertisements are everywhere. On billboards all over the city of London, newspaper advertisements and posters. And as the advertisements tell us Tono-Bungay could do just about anything. Eventually we have:

"Tono-Bungay Hair Stimulant"

"Concentrated Tono-Bungay" for the eyes

"Tono-Bungay Lozenges"

"Tono-Bungay Chocolate." "You can GO for twenty-four hours,"the ad tells us, "on Tono-Bungay Chocolate."

and finally, Tono-Bungay Mouthwash. "You are Young Yet, but are you Sure Nothing has Aged your Gums?"

And so Tono-Bungay grows and grows and Uncle Edward gets richer and richer. However, like all businesses that grow and grow eventually it stops, at least that's how business seems to me. Except maybe McDonalds come to think of it. I'll have to give some thought to see if I come up with any other businesses that just grow and grow and never stop growing.

Now skipping over what happens to Tono-Bungay, whether it keeps growing and has now taken over the world, you will have to find out for yourself, I am moving on to quap, yes quap. Somewhere in the middle of the novel an explorer named Gordon-Nasmyth appears in the Tono-Bungay offices telling a strange story about a substance called quap, “the most radio-active stuff in the world.” Now if I found the most radio-active stuff in the world my first move wouldn't be to run to a company that makes medicine, even if it is fake medicine, but that's what Gordon-Nasmyth does and uncle Edward and George both seem to be interested. Godon-Nasmyth tells them this about quap, yes quap.:

"I'm sorry I came. But, still, now I'm here.... And first as to quap; quap, sir, is the most radio-active stuff in the world. That's quap! It's a festering mass of earths and heavy metals, polonium, radium, ythorium, thorium, carium, and new things, too. There's a stuff called Xk—provisionally. There they are, mucked up together in a sort of rotting sand. What it is, how it got made, I don't know. It's like as if some young creator had been playing about there. There it lies in two heaps, one small, one great, and the world for miles about it is blasted and scorched and dead. You can have it for the getting. You've got to take it—that's all!"

He then shows them a sample telling them:

"Don't carry it about on you," said Gordon-Nasmyth. "It makes a sore."

As for where you get this stuff in the first place:

"....within the thunderbelt of Atlantic surf, of the dense tangled vegetation that creeps into the shimmering water with root and sucker. He gave a sense of heat and a perpetual reek of vegetable decay, and told how at last comes a break among these things, an arena fringed with bone-white dead trees, a sight of the hard-blue sea line beyond the dazzling surf and a wide desolation of dirty shingle and mud, bleached and scarred.... A little way off among charred dead weeds stands the abandoned station,—abandoned because every man who stayed two months at that station stayed to die, eaten up mysteriously like a leper with its dismantled sheds and its decaying pier of wormrotten and oblique piles and planks, still insecurely possible. "

I can't quite remember why anyone would actually want to touch this stuff, or carry it around, or turn into a leper getting it among the dead trees, or buy it for that matter, but as I said they do seem interested and it does take the book in another direction, at least for awhile anyway. Now why I am mentioning quap other than it is an interesting though creepy section of the book, is because I decided to look up the word - like I usually do - and was actually surprised to find there was a definition for it. Here's the first definition:

"a hypothetical nuclear particle consisting of a quark and an antiproton"

There wasn't too much in this definition that made sense to me so I looked up the words quark and antiproton, and as I suspected would happen, after reading the first line or two I just gave up and moved on. So I am now done with the quap, whether anyone is stupid enough to go get this stuff I'm not telling. In fact, I'm about done telling anything as far as the story goes. There are love affairs, marriages, divorces, deaths, and lots about aeronautical experiments with gliders and balloons. There's even a flight and I do mean flight from the authorities.

As for the actual word or words, I don't know which, I have been trying to figure out since I picked up the book what "Tono-Bungay" is. I could say it is the title of a book. No kidding. I could say it is a "patent medicine" that is just a sham, no kidding. But what is Tono-Bungay? I never found a clear answer. From what I've read the name is a play on words. It has been suggested it stands for "ton of bunk" -- but other possibilities are "tonic bunk", or even "tonic Ben-gay." Regardless of what it stands for, it is clear that Tono Bungay is not entirely good for you, and certainly does nothing to help you in the long run. I'm having trouble believing the tonic Ben-gay one because the only Bengay I know is that cream you buy at the drug store that is supposed to temporarily relieve muscle and joint pain, backaches; stuff like that, and I don't think it was around when the book was written, but of course, I'll have to go look it up.

I liked the book. I read at several different places that Wells with "Tono-Bungay":

"is able to claim a permanent place in English fiction, close to Dickens because of the extraordinary humanity of some of his characters, but also because of his ability to invoke a place, a class, a social scene."

I liked the book alot, but for me anyway, it's not Dickens at all. Read it for yourself and see what you think.

H. G. put that hammer you've been beating your readers over the head with down. Put it down. Now take a step away from the hammer. Good... good, just a step away--

NO! NO! Don't pick up the hammer again! Don't pick it up I said!

Oh God he has the hammer and he's chasing us with it again! Run! Run!!