The San Francisco call., 1909-01-31
HTono-BunCayn

''TOnO-Bungay"
BY Is. g. Wells. author of "First ard Last
Things" etc. Published by nuf6eld & Co.
NcR York. Price Si.5o.
"Tono- -Bungav" is a big novel: il is
.@60 pages Of fine print and contains
much food for thought. Also fl con
tains an uncounted number Of maps,
for pages and pages of it. even chap
.fers, would counteract the effects OF All
the black coffee one could drink. The
novel is one OF the most desultory
books ever offered to the modern read
4ug public. IT tells all the important
and unimportant events which go 20
make UP the life Of Edward Ponderevo,
the inventor OF the great quack medi-
cine, 'Tono- -Bungay" The story Is
told BY George Ponderevo, the nephew
OF the medicine man, and one is much
more interested in his affairs than in
his uncles. Before George gets viii
started he tries TO tell the reader what
he is attempting TO do. and among
other things says:
Il realize how
hopeless my book must be from the
very outset. I suppose what I'm really
trying 10 render IS nothing more nor
less than life-as one man has found 1t.
I want TO tell-myself. and my impress
Eions OF the thing as a whole. TO say
things 7 have come TO feel intensely Of
LlLE LdWE. LLaOlLlDNt. MtdkEE ana lucas
We call society, and how we poor in
.dividusis get driven and lured and
stranded among these windy, DerpleN-
ing shoals and channels"
The writer, It must be admitted, does
what he starts out to DO. but there is
little story about Il, though his uncles
life was exciting, filled with melodra-
matte material and curious adventures
1t must be the idle way the tale is told
shat frnrc The fnlInr
George, IS the son Of the house keeper
OF Bladesover. the estate OF a fine old
country family. His recollections Of
teatime IN his childhood present a
vivid picture:
Il hated teatime IN the house keep
er's room more than anything else at
Bladesover. And more particularly I
hated II when Mrs. Mackridge and Mrs.
Booch and Mrs. Latude-F -Fernay were
staying IN the house They were, all
three OF them. pensiOned OF servants.
old friends Of Lady DreW's had re-
warded them posthumoUsly for pro-
Ionged devotion to their minor COM
forts, and Mrs. Booch was also trustee
for a favorite skye terrier. Every year
Lady Drew give them an invitation-a
reward and encouragement Of virtue
with especial reference to my mother
and Miss Fison, the maid. They sat
about ia black and shiny and nouncy
clothing adorned with gimp and beads,
eating great quantities of cake drink
ing much tea IN a stately manner and
reverberating remarks. I remember
these women as immense. No doubt
they were Of negotiable size, but I was
only a very little chap and they have
assumed nightmare proportions in my
mind. They loomed. they buIged, they
impendeo."
The boy has the training Of the son
- ~ fr. l.rr4 Il s.4
ell satisfied. and as n last resort he is
sent TO his uncle in Wimble-
burst. The uncle is very in
teresting character. English readers
will say he is very American He
IS very poor and keeps a small chem
ist's shop. but he constantly complains
that the town IS cead--Qead. tell you
dead. Nothing ever happens there. lie
IS nlled with ideas and ambitious to
make money; his advertising schemes,
81 must be confessed, sound suspicious
~ and "Americaniy' familiar. The
nephew's mother dies and leaves some
600 ia trust with the uncle. The uncle
gets to speculaung in an ignorant and
CrackbraineQ fashion and loses all his
own money and all the nephew's too.
His chemist shop is sold out and he
and his wife 30 TO London. The
nephew stays several years longer in
Wimblehurst and studies. finally re-
cezVinE q EchOAafSnip IN London. SO he
takes himself to town. His feelings
when he first saw il are worth record
ing, for they read like the thoughts Of
every young college man when he first
goes out into the world:
London. came up to it young and
without advisers. rather priggish,
rather dangerously open minded and
very open eyed and with something
st Is. I think, the common gift of imag-
inative youth, and I claim II unblush-
ingly-fne IN me. finer than the world
and seeking fine responses. 1 did not
want simply 70 live or simply TO live
happily or well; I wanted 70 serve and
Go and make-with some nobility. Il
was IA me. II is in half the youth Of
the world"
II IS q very short time that he feels
80 big and fine. At first he thought the
change Of atmosphere was responsible
for the warping OF his ideas and the
distribution Of his energies. He says
IN the first place I became invisible
No one noticed il he was ab-
sent from HIS classes for a day-no ore
cared what his aims ia life might be-
..In the next place I became inconsid-
erabie In Wlmblehurst / felt 7 stood
for science: nobody there seemed to
have so much az / and to have il so
fully and completely. In London