| Tono-Bungay (Penguin Classics) | 
 enlarge | Authors: H.g. Wells, Patrick Parrinder
Creator: Edward Mendelson
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £3.61
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Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 40131
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0141441119
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780141441115
ASIN: 0141441119
Publication Date: March 31, 2005
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New. Shipped from UK Mainland. Delivery is usually 4 - 5 working days from order by Royal Mail, International Delivery is by Airmail.
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wasted value - extract July 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In a passage just before the midpoint of H.G. Wells's Tono-Bungay, one of the most telling examples of what would come to be called the Condition of England genre,1 George Ponderevo's childhood friend Ewart, a hard-drinking, itinerant artist prone to spouting Nietzschean aphorisms, visits the factory where the narrator and his uncle Edward produce the novel's spurious, eponymous product. Speaking as "one artist to another," Ewart lectures Edward on aesthetic and economic value; indeed, in Ewart's sarcastic rendering, the two forms are inseparable (169). Praising the Ponderevo operation for its "poetry" of production, Ewart goes on to describe the artistry of the entire system of consumer culture that Tono-Bungay embodies: "And it's not your poetry only. It's the poetry of the customer too. Poet answering poet-soul to soul" (168). But if economic concerns have usurped the purportedly disinterested space of art, the notion of economic value itself has undergone a similar revolution. "The old merchant used to tote about commodities; the new one creates values," Ewart asserts. "He takes something that isn't worth anything-or something that isn't particularly worth anything, and he makes it worth something" (169). This ironic commentary by a minor character precisely identifies the major preoccupation of Wells's novel and marks the site of Edwardian anxiety informing the Condition of England novel: the apparent abandonment by "modern commerce" of established determinants of value and waste.
Tono Bungay December 25, 2006
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Although the title Tono Bungay is the name of a fictitious and extremely profitable tonic, this novel is in fact the gripping autobiography of George Ponderevo, the nephew of Tono Bungay's inventor. We follow George from his humble beginnings through his doubting involvement in the marketing of a practically useless tonic medicine (actually based on Coca Cola) to his development of flying machines and modern warships.
George's doubts flow from his socialism (Wells himself was a Fabian) and his warm sense of humanity. Through the adventures of one of the most engaging characters in fiction, we are presented with a critical view of free-market Capital and the lengths it will go to seduce and persuade people into parting with their cash for the least return. Although published in Edwardian England (1909) its relevance and contemporary reference to our world today is startling: in a fast-moving narrative (blink and you miss it - don't be tempted to skip the odd paragraph) we find cash for honours, the rapid but fragile rise of the unprincipled entrepreneur, a subtle but significant allusion to drug addiction, exploitation of Africa...
The narrator himself is convivial company, and his observations and life-events kept grounded by his Aunt Susan who, although she too becomes vastly rich thanks to the financial success of her husband's business, remains down to earth throughout.
In short, this novel succeeds in giving an examination of Capitalism and the society it produces and feeds off, while being at all times an engaging account of warm, human characters.
My only reservations are about the notes to this Penguin edition. To be fair to Penguin, they head the notes with a statement that "...the notes explain many allusions for which British readers need no explanation". In other words, this is a 'one size fits all' edition for readers on both sides of the Atlantic. They were produced by an American Academic. Not only does this oxymoron patronise us with explanations of such obscure and confusing terms as 'gasworks' and 'William Morris' but he also informs us (note 19 to Book 3, Ch. 3) that Tristan & Isolde was the first of Wagner's operas, which it most certainly was not - Wagner had been writing operas for a good 25 years by the time he came to write Tristan. This seems to be part of a trend in current Penguins. For example, the notes to their edition of the Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano appear to have been similarly prepared for a readership of ill-educated Americans. Read the novel and ignore the notes!
A very unsettling read. June 11, 2005
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
If you think concerns about materialism, rampant consumerism and waste are anything new you should read this. Wells was on to it more than a hundred years ago in this novel about the rise and fall of a business empire founded on the success of an ineffectual tonic, Tono-Bungay. A fortune is made by selling this 'mischievous trash'. Wells seems very pessimistic about the human condition but there is humour to be found throughout, The novel seems more relevant today than ever and it's surprising that it's not a more famous classic. I highly recommend it.
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