The esteemed M.J. Nicholls dryly encircled the genius of this novel. It was fitting to conclude my week-long tour of Britons electing paired initials as Christian names - to rest easy under the warm praise of the Scotsman with his love of completeism and exhumation.

Alfred Polly is my hero. His neologisms are remarkable. I thought of citing a half dozen examples but feel that out of context, it would prove to be shit. His suspicions and pleasures appear to be my own. One can't just sit around forever. Such is my paraphrase of the novel's amazing conclusion.

Not what I was expecting from HG Wells. And half the time I had no idea what was going on. Can't say I liked it. I got a bit excited two thirds of the way thru that things were changing, but it didn't improve much.

I read this not long after reading Orwell's Coming Up For Air. This one is a much better novel, but they're interesting as two books about very similar characters in very similar circumstances; in the wrong class in Britain at the wrong time, badly educated, badly married, dreams lost, no real prospects or hopes or pleasure left in life when the books begin. Wells is much more subtle about the blind ignorant ways in which people can make themselves miserable in life, and get what they put out.

Also, in this one, the author has sympathy for his protagonist, warts and all, and he shows the internal forces shaping his life just as strongly as the external. Nobody in it is a simple caricature. And it is funny. I don't think I ever laughed out loud, but I was smiling a lot, and wincing too. The story is slower at first, and then starts leaping along in all kinds of startling and funny ways. The fire chapter is well worth the price of admission all by itself.

It was all right although not the most engaging story I've ever read, and certainly very different from the other HG Wells books I've read up until now.

Mr Polly is an Englishman at the turn of the century - just going into the 1900s. We first meet him aged thirty seven - apparently at forty there's nothing before you except old age and death: happy thoughts, eh? He's having a moment, realising his life has been an utter waste: he owes money on this shop he's been running for fifteen years, he and his wife don't like each other etc etc... so he decides to burn the shop to the ground and do himself in. Except that things don't work out quite like that.

Mr Polly is a bit of a bimbler, who has pottered through life without any major goals or drives, no interest in creating a great business or career, and is mostly happy with his books or going out for walks or bike rides in the countryside. Well, I can relate to that. He kind of falls through the various stages of life without taking anything too seriously. Marries cousin Miriam without being in love but because it just seemed like something to do. Sets himself up in a shop with a little money he inherited from his father, because he didn't really know what else to do with himself. A very ordinary story of a very ordinary guy - so there's a story to be told in everyone's life?

After his bungled suicide attempt, he takes it as a fresh start and leaves everything behind to do what he wants to do in life. And he's happy. But it's not particularly dramatic, and doesn't make for the most of exciting books. Certainly randomly walking around the countryside in the UK appeals to me.

Anyway, here's a thought from the book: "There is only one sort of man who is absolutely to blame for his own misery, and that is the man who finds life dull and dreary. There are no circumstances in the world that determined action cannot alter, unless, perhaps, they are the walls of a prison cell, and even those will dissolve and change..." (p167). Life is short, and you can make changes, however small, if they make you happy, then do it.

A pleasant story. Mr Polly gets a job and marries, becomes unhappy with both situations, finds a better life.

Absolutely hated this book. This is a book that's meant to act as social commentary, but unless you are intimately familiar with the time period or own a time machine (wink wink nudge nudge) the references don't make any sense and you will most likely miss them. In other words, this does not stand the test of time