Tono-Bungay

“Tono-Bungay. Like Mountain Air in the Veins.”

Tono-Bungay is a patented medicine that promises it all: health, beauty, and strength. George Ponderevo, the narrator of this story, is persuaded by the inventor of the medicine—his Uncle Edward—to help develop the Tono-Bungay business. George devotes seven years of his life to doing so, despite believing that the whole operation is “a damned swindle.”

After breaking free in a new direction, however, George’s ties with his uncle continue to shape his life, as do various social forces.

This coming-of-age novel explores themes including religious skepticism, socialism, ennui, English society, sexual relationships, and metaphysics, as George searches for an ideal to which he can devote his life. Like all Wells’s novels, Tono-Bungay abounds with social critique.

This novel was published in 1909 and is semi-autobiographical.