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.