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  • Published: 18 December 2007
  • ISBN: 9780307432827
  • Imprint: RH US eBook Adult
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 400

Tono-Bungay





Rediscover H.G. Wells - what does he mean to you?

The story of an apprentice chemist whose uncle’s worthless medicine becomes a spectacular marketing success, Tono-Bungay earned H. G. Wells immediate acclaim when it appeared in 1909. It remains a sparkling chronicle of chicanery and human credulity, and is today regarded by many as Wells’s greatest novel. As Andrea Barrett observes in her Introduction, “Through its detailed, often brilliant descriptions and powerful imagery, [Tono-Bungay] slyly satirizes British imperial policy as a whole. . . . The insights into class, money, advertising, public relations, and the power of the press still ring horrifyingly true.”

This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the text of the original 1909 edition.

  • Published: 18 December 2007
  • ISBN: 9780307432827
  • Imprint: RH US eBook Adult
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 400

About the author

H. G. Wells

English novelist, journalist, sociologist, and historian, whose science fiction stories have been filmed many times. WELLS’ best known works are THE TIME MACHINE, one of the first modern science fiction stories, THE INVISIBLE MAN, and THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. Wells wrote over a hundred of books, about fifty of them novels.

H.G. Wells was born in Bromley, Kent, in 1866. After an education repeatedly interrupted by his family’s financial problems, he eventually found work as a teacher at a succession of schools, where he began to write his first stories.
Wells became a prolific writer with a diverse output, of which the famous works are his science fiction novels. These are some of the earliest and most influential examples of the genre, and include classics such as The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds. Most of his books very well-received, and had a huge influence on many younger writers, including George Orwell and Isaac Asimov. Wells also wrote many popular non-fiction books, and used his writing to support the wide range of political and social causes in which he had an interest, although these became increasingly eccentric towards the end of his life.
Twice-married, Wells had many affairs, including a ten-year liaison with Rebecca West that produced a son. He died in London in 1946.

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