H. G. Wells is famous for his works of science fiction; Tono-Bungay is less known, but while it is not futuristic in subject it seems keenly prescient a hundred years later.

“Tono-Bungay” is the brand-name of a patent-medicine. The story is based on the history and commercial success of Coca-Cola; like Coke, Tono-Bungay is not entirely good for you. The novel remains a timely story for its exposé of the pharmaceutical industry and of unrestrained financial speculation. 

Wells drew his own sketches of ads for Tono-Bungay that are reproduced in the book. Expanding on these, Hoyem and Folger created twenty additional ads for Tono-Bungay and other products, as well as some of their own invention. To distinguish these outside inventions from Wells’s own, they have been set in larger type, with various display typefaces, and are printed on gray paper.

This edition features fourteen psychological portraits of the main characters by Stan Washburn, and a booklet reprinting notes by Edward Mendelson from the Penguin Classics edition. Explanations of unfamiliar references and elucidations of realities underpinning the fiction can be readily consulted while reading.

Production Details

• Edition of 300 numbered copies for sale

• Large octavo, 9 1/8 by 6 inches, 372 pages

• Bound in full aubergine cloth with titling labels, in slipcase

• Arion Press publication #82, 2008