Tono-Bungay

"The Secret of Vigor, Tono-Bungay" It was simple and yet in some way arresting. I found myself repeating the word after I had passed; it roused one's attention like the sound of distant guns. "Tono" -- what's that? and deep, rich, unhurrying; -- ""Bun" -- gay!" Then came my uncle's amazing telegram, his answer to my hostile note: "Come to me at once you are wanted three hundred a year certain tono-bungay." "By Jove!" I cried, "of course! "It's something --. A patent-medicine! I wonder what he wants with me." * "Tono-Bungay" manages to capture much of the liveliness of Wells's scientifictional tales with the erudite aspects of his later, socially-critical work. It may and may not be SF, in the end, but if it isn't neither is a lot of socially-satirical SF from the 1050s and 1960s.