Tono-Bungay and A Modern Utopia – H.G. Wells, Odhams Press
Tono-Bungay and A Modern Utopia – H.G. Wells, Odhams Press
This Odhams Press omnibus edition of H.G. Wells's Tono-Bungay and A Modern Utopia is of interest to collectors of H.G. Wells, Edwardian fiction, and decorative vintage cloth bindings.
About: A very good copy in the original bright red cloth binding. The boards are vivid and clean, retaining excellent colour with only light rubbing to the spine lettering. A small bump to the top of the spine. The pages are age-toned as expected for a volume of this period, but the text block is clean, tight, and entirely unmarked throughout. A handsome and presentable copy of this attractive Odhams omnibus.
Details:
- Title: Tono-Bungay and A Modern Utopia
- Author: H.G. Wells
- Publisher: Odhams Press Limited, London W.C.2
- Date: Undated (c. 1930s–1940s)
- Binding: Hardcover, original bright red cloth
- Condition: Very Good (no dust jacket, as issued)
Synopsis: Odhams Press omnibus edition containing two of Wells's most celebrated works: Tono-Bungay (1909), his satirical novel of Edwardian capitalism and social ambition, and A Modern Utopia (1905), his visionary philosophical romance imagining an ideal world state. A handsome red cloth volume in very good condition.
Review: Tono-Bungay is widely regarded as one of Wells's finest novels - a sweeping, semi-autobiographical satire of Edwardian England told through the rise and fall of a patent medicine empire. A Modern Utopia, published four years earlier, is a more philosophical work, blending fiction and essay to imagine a world governed by a voluntary nobility of 'Samurai'. Together they represent Wells at the height of his powers as both novelist and social thinker.