Reviews (1)

wonderful
This book truly works at the essence of what it means to be human, the idea the sentience can be seen as the ability to laugh may seem at times to be a stretch it is argued in such a effortless care-free manner that one is drawn to share the authors conclusions.Read more

Subjects:  1. General    2. History    3. History and criticism    4. Humor    5. Laughter    6. Literature - Classics / Criticism    7. Psychology Of Humor    8. Satire And Humor    9. Social norms in literature    10. Sociology - General    11. Wit and humor    12. Cultural studies    13. Physiological & neuro-psychology   

Subjects:  1. American - General    2. American Literature (General)    3. American literature    4. American wit and humor    5. English wit and humor    6. English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh    7. General    8. History and criticism    9. Humor    10. Literary Collections    11. Literary Criticism    12. Literature - Classics / Criticism    13. Satire And Humor    14. Theory, etc    15. English    16. Humour    17. Literary studies: from c 1900 -    18. USA   

Reviews (3)

A novel for our time
This amazing novel could have been written today, except for the wonderful Edwardian style and language. The story of a rags-to-riches advertising fraud sounds quite the contemporary tone. Edward Ponderevo runs a chemist's shop in the Victorian equivalent of Vic and Sade's Dismal Seepage, Ohio. The idea strikes him to add coloring and flavor to a bottle of junk and market it as a miracle drug, Tono-Bungay. Before long, other quacks jump onto his bandwagon and he rises in society and prestige. Part of Wells' genius lay in foreseeing the future: he has the narrator, poor, "ruined" George, go out on a leaky sailing vessel to west Africa in search of radioactive "quap," some stuff that will turn the world on its head, as indeed uranium did, later. He even describes this "quap" as deriving from pitchblende, as uranium does! He also plays with aeronautical inventions such as gliders and balloons, and our anti-hero ends up designing destroyers for the Royal Navy. The love interest, Beatrice (pace, Dante), is unattainable, not because of the usual Victorian claptrap about class or modesty, but because she's addicted to "chloral," the hypnotic element of knockout drops, chloral hydrate. Some of the love interest may have arisen from Wells' romance with Rebecca West, quite a looker in her younger days; (their affair produced a son, Anthony West, who became an embittered old man hating both his parents).
Everything you want in Wells
"Tono-Bungay" is an alleged tonic with dubious medical benefits; and the story is one of the brief fortunes of someone who manages to turn the worthless substance into a formidable fortune - for a while.By the timeWells wrote this novel he had already written books which might or mightnot be science fiction (witness "The War in the Air") and, all in all,"Ton-Bungay" probably isn't science fiction.But I should mention asubstance called "quup" which is introduced towards the end of the book. (I'm not giving anything important away.)"Quup" is the first mention Iknow of of what we would now call radioactive waste, except that it'snaturally occurring, and ... well, perhaps I should be discrete, but I cansay that the scenes involving quup have a peculiar flavour which writerswould find impossible to capture nowadays. Social-Fiction, not Science-Fiction
Having read H.G. Wells' classics WAR OF THE WORLDS, THE INVISIBLE MAN, THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON, THE TIME MACHINE, and THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, I looked forward to reading what is often claimed to be his "best" work.TONO-BUNGAY is completely different than any of his Sci-Fi classics.TONO-BUNGAY is more of a study of class structure and class struggle in England during the late 1800s and early 1900s.The story follows the life of a young man, George, and his Uncle Edward. Edward invents an elixir called TONO-BUNGAY and hires his nephew George to help build the company. As the book goes George and Edward become quite wealthy.Throughout the book George makes numerous comments on his varying places on the social ladder.It seems that no matter how wealthy George becomes, he will never be accepted in certain circles because he is newly rich and not "old money."The story is well written and is generally easy to follow.I would, however, recomm! end the World's Classics edition of this book (published by Oxford U. Press and available from Amazon.Com) because there are some instances in which Wells makes comments about European literature, art, languages, colleges and phrases that may be of little meaning to the average reader, but for the six pages of end notes provided in the World's Classics edition.The World's Classics edition also claims to be the most accurate edition of the story, taking into account all of Wells' revisions of the story, many of which were made after the book was initially published in 1909 (TONO-BUNGAY was revised by Wells and re-released in 1925). ... Read more

Subjects:  1. England    2. Family & General Practice    3. Fiction    4. Marketing    5. Medical    6. Patent medicines    7. Pharmaceutical industry    8. Satire    9. Wells, H. G. (Herbert George), 1866-1946    10. English    11. Fiction / Classics    12. Modern fiction   

Subjects:  1. American - General    2. Anecdotes, facetiae, satire, etc    3. Humor    4. Literature - Classics / Criticism    5. Sex   

Subjects:  1. Ancient - General    2. Ancient and Classical    3. Chaucer, Geoffrey,    4. English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh    5. History    6. History and criticism    7. History: World    8. Literature - Classics / Criticism    9. Medieval    10. Satire, Greek    11. Satire, Latin    12. To 1500    13. Women and literature    14. Women's Studies - General    15. d. 1400    16. Literary studies: general    17. Social Science / Women's Studies    18. Women's studies   

Subjects:  1. 19th century    2. American - General    3. American Satire And Humor    4. American literature    5. American wit and humor    6. Literary Criticism    7. Literary collections    8. Literature - Classics / Criticism    9. Southwest, Old   

Subjects:  1. 1821-1867    2. Baudelaire, Charles,    3. Caricature    4. General    5. Graphic Satire And Humor    6. History    7. History - General    8. Literary Criticism    9. Literature - Classics / Criticism    10. Modernism (Art)    11. Philosophy    12. Baudelaire, Charles    13. Comic book & cartoon art    14. French    15. Literary studies: 19th century   

Subjects:  1. 18th century    2. Art    3. Christianity and the arts    4. Church history    5. England    6. English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh    7. European    8. European - General    9. General    10. History    11. History and criticism    12. Literature - Classics / Criticism    13. Literature: Classics    14. Religious satire, English   

Subjects:  1. History and criticism    2. In literature    3. Latin Literature    4. Literary Criticism    5. Literature - Classics / Criticism    6. Petronius Arbiter    7. Petronius Arbiter.    8. Roman Literature    9. Rome    10. Satire And Humor    11. Satire, Latin    12. Satyricon    13. Ancient Rome    14. History / Ancient / General    15. Latin    16. Novels, other prose & writers    17. Plays & playwrights: classical, early & medieval   

Subjects:  1. 1667-1745    2. Closure (Rhetoric)    3. Criticism and interpretation    4. English Satire And Humor    5. English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh    6. History and criticism    7. Literary Criticism    8. Literature - Classics / Criticism    9. Satire, English    10. Swift, Jonathan,    11. Critique et interprtation    12. Swift, Jonathan   

Subjects:  1. Asian    2. Asian - General    3. Asian - Japanese    4. History and criticism    5. Japanese wit and humor    6. Literary Collections    7. Literary Criticism    8. Literature - Classics / Criticism    9. Satire And Humor   

Subjects:  1. 1814-1869    2. 19th Century American Novel And Short Story    3. American - General    4. American Satire And Humor    5. Bibliography    6. Criticism and interpretation    7. Dialect literature, American    8. Fiction    9. General    10. Harris, George Washington,    11. History and criticism    12. Humorous stories, American    13. Literature - Classics / Criticism    14. Lovingood, Sut (Fictitious character)    15. Tennessee    16. American English    17. Biography: general    18. Harris, George Washington    19. Literary Criticism & Collections / American    20. Novels, other prose & writers: 19th century    21. USA   

Reviews (1)

Indispensable for addicts
Penguin's Wodehouse Companion is actually a compilation of two earlier books by Richard Usborne--"Wodehouse at Work to the End" and "A Wodehouse Companion." It combines elements of biography, critical bibliography, and apologia (for the controversial Berlin broadcasts). Brief plot summaries of all 92 novels are included. If you love Wodehouse, but have trouble keeping all the tangled skeins straight, this text will be of immense utility. It could have been improved by an encyclopedic coverage of the characters and key props. Hopefully Penguin will see fit to bring it back into print. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. (Pelham Grenville),    2. 1881-1975    3. Characters    4. Characters and characteristics in literature    5. English Satire And Humor    6. History and criticism    7. Humorous stories, English    8. Literary Criticism    9. Literature - Classics / Criticism    10. Wodehouse, P. G    11. Wodehouse, P. G.    12. Literary Criticism & Collections / General   

Subjects:  1. 1785-1866    2. 19th Century English Novel And Short Story    3. Criticism and interpretation    4. General    5. History and criticism    6. Humorous stories, English    7. Literature - Classics / Criticism    8. Peacock, Thomas Love,    9. Satire, English    10. English    11. Literary Criticism & Collections / General    12. Literature: History & Criticism    13. Peacock, Thomas Love   

Subjects:  1. 1667-1745    2. 18th century    3. Authors, Irish    4. Biography    5. English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh    6. History and criticism    7. Ireland    8. Literature - Classics / Criticism    9. Satire, English    10. Swift, Jonathan,   

Subjects:  1. 18th century    2. English poetry    3. English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh    4. Great Britain    5. History    6. History and criticism    7. Literary Criticism    8. Literature - Classics / Criticism    9. Politics and literature    10. Pope, Alexander,    11. Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744    12. Verse satire, English    13. Aesthetics    14. Criticism and interpretation    15. English    16. History of ideas, intellectual history    17. Literary Criticism & Collections / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh    18. Literary studies: 16th to 18th centuries    19. Literature/English | British Literature | 18th C    20. Pope, Alexander    21. United Kingdom, Great Britain    22. Western philosophy, c 1600 to c 1800    23. c 1700 to c 1800   

Subjects:  1. American Satire And Humor    2. Essays    3. Humor    4. Humorous stories, American    5. Literature - Classics / Criticism    6. Man-woman relationships    7. Non-Classifiable   

Subjects:  1. American - General    2. Bible.    3. Humor    4. Literature - Classics / Criticism    5. O.T.    6. Satire And Humor    7. Wit and humor in the Bible   

Reviews (1)

Biting satire
Perhaps the most famous work included is "An argument against abolishing Christianity", in which he points out the "Inconveniences" of abolishing Christianity. Why even "The Bank of East India Stock my fall at least one per cent". As a clergy, Swift wants to skewer the Enlightenment deism project of a rational religion. Read more

Subjects:  1. English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh    2. Essays    3. Literary Collections    4. Literature - Classics / Criticism    5. Literature: Classics    6. Satire, English    7. Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745    8. English    9. Other prose: 16th to 18th centuries   

Subjects:  1. English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh    2. Humor    3. Literature - Classics / Criticism    4. Satire And Humor