Mr Polly (1910)
Alfred Polly is a quiet, timid and direction-less young man living in Edwardian England, in the town of Fishbourne, West Sussex (although the town in the story is thought to be based on Sandgate, Kent where Wells lived for several years).[1] Polly enjoys reading books of knightly endeavours more than his jobs in a draper's shops, and several times his daydreaming mind loses him his job. After the death of his father, a man he had little in common with, he is left a little money in the inheritance, and at the funeral he meets Miriam Larkins, a distant cousin. Although not really in love with her (Polly is in fact in love with Christabel, a girl he met whilst out riding his bicycle), he marries Miriam, they buy a shop, and set out to make a success of it.
Fifteen years later, Miriam has become abusive and spiteful, Polly is still bored and dissatisfied with his life, the shop is in debt, and he hates all their neighbours. Polly is inclined to spark comedic arguments and slapstick calamity wherever he goes. When he knows his marriage is failing, and he is seen as a bit of a joke in the community and he is facing bankruptcy, he decides to set fire to his shop and cut his throat with a razor, but the twist is that he fails to go with the slash because the fire surprises him by the speed with which it spreads. Also, saving his neighbouring shop owner's elderly mother from the fire (the fire station is opposite the shops, but the firemen are unable to act before the fire-engine's hose is molten as they cannot find the key), Polly is seen as a local hero. The events lead to Polly wanting to do something adventurous with his life and go out and see the world instead of keeping stuck with his wife in Fishbourne. Polly then leaves the insurance money from the fire with Miriam, and he disappears in the night to try to make a new life for himself.
After a month of wandering aimlessly in the Sussex countryside, Polly comes to a riverside inn, the Potwell Inn, and is offered work by the innkeeper, a widow who is usually referred to only as the "plump woman". The relationship between Polly and the widow is friendly from the very beginning. Polly meets her young niece, also called Polly, and also "Uncle Jim", who turns up regularly, usually drunk and demanding money from his 'Aunt Flo'. Jim insists Polly "gets off his patch", but Polly sticks around and is nearly killed by Jim on one occasion, but survives by pure luck and chance. Despite not being exceptionally brave, Polly stands his ground and Jim stops visiting – later his body is found drowned and he is identified as Polly by the name sewn into a pair of trousers which Jim stole from the inn.
Several years later, in a fit of conscience, Polly returns to the shop in Fishbourne, now a tearoom run by Miriam and her sister. He briefly meets Miriam, who believed him dead and is horror-struck, but tells her that he doesn't really exist anymore and that he is a ghost. Knowing that Miriam is now happy and content, he returns to the Potwell. The novel ends with Alfred and the innkeeper enjoying a sunset together by the inn.
Themes: mid-life crisis, rebirth, heroism, courage, renewal, suicideImages: fire, curtains, pants, razor,
Tono-Bungay (1909)
Tono-Bungay (1909), by H. G. Wells, is a realist semi-autobiographical novel. It is narrated by George Ponderevo, a science student who is drafted in to help with the promotion of Tono-Bungay, a harmful stimulant disguised as a miraculous cure-all, the creation of his ambitious uncle Edward. As the tonic prospers, George experiences a swift rise in social status, elevating him to riches and opportunities that he had never imagined, nor indeed desired.
The novel displays Edward's social climbing satirically, and also George's discomfort at rising in social class. The hero's personal life is also narrated with unusual frankness for an Edwardian novel, from his unsuccessful marriage to Marion, to his affair with the liberated Effie to his doomed relationship with the Hon. Beatrice Normandy, whom he had known since childhood.
True to its name ("Ton o' Bunk, Eh?"), the Tono-Bungay empire eventually over-extends itself and then collapses. George tries to prop up his uncle's finances by stealing the radioactive compound quap from an island near Africa, but the expedition is unsuccessful. He helps his uncle escape from England in the aeroplane that he has invented, but Edward dies in France of fever. The novel ends with George finding a new occupation: designing battleships for the highest bidder.
"Uncle Ponderevo" is shown as an ingenious promoter, constantly finding new ideas for promoting Tono-Bungay and new conditions that he claims it will cure. "'George, whad'yer think of T.B. for sea-sickness?... No harm trying, George. We can but try.... It 'ud give 'em confidence, George.'" Wells shows us Ponderevo's sketch for an advertisement which claims that Tono-Bungay can fight influenza by "acting as a sort of Worcester Sauce for the phagocyte, [giving] it an appetite, [and making] it a perfect wolf for the Influenza Bacillus."
Themes: science, enterprise, capitalism, social status, drugs, charlatanism.
Images: tonics, disease, radioactivity, snake oil
See brief for synopsis.
Themes: mysticism vs. science, love, ambition
Images: ? ? ?
Kipps
See brief for synopsis.
Themes: new rich, social status, orphan, high society
Images: curtains, newspapers, gentleman
Ann Veronica
See brief for synopsis.
Themes: freedom, suffargettes, coming of age, free love, male oppression
Images: ? ? ?
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