- Shopping Bag ( 0 items )
Want a NOOK? Explore Now
Miles away from the fabulous science fiction for which Wells is best known, this comic romp unspools the unlikely story of a timid, financially strapped, unhappily married shopkeeper whose plan to do away with himself fails miserably—and in fact inspires him to do something adventurous with his life. Wells himself called this "one of my good books.”
Anonymous
Posted August 18, 2002
I first read this book at school in 1961 and I have read it maybe twenty times in the following forty years. I am currently reading it again. This story 'lives'. The scenes and the characters are there in front of you. You can see the people, hear their voices. You laugh out loud at their humorous antics and have real tears for the pathos. This is an intensely personal book for me. I think it appealed to me as a schoolboy because I saw so much of myself in the hero, Alfred Polly. As the years have passed my life has loosely followed the same pattern of the tale. Fortunately I have not considered suicide, as the hero did, and I have not yet found my 'Potwell Inn'. The feelings I get when reading this book are uncanny and, even after an intense schoolboy study of the book and twenty other readings over many years, I still find it hard to put it down.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted November 30, 2011
No text was provided for this review.
Overview
Miles away from the fabulous science fiction for which Wells is best known, this comic romp unspools the unlikely story of a timid, financially strapped, unhappily married shopkeeper whose plan to do away with himself fails miserably—and in fact inspires him to do something adventurous with his life. Wells himself called this "one of my good books.”