{"product_id":"boon","title":"Boon","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst published in Britain and America in 1915 under the pseudonym Reginald Bliss, \u003cb\u003eBoon \u003c\/b\u003e(its full subtitle being \u003cb\u003ethe Mind of the Race, the Wild Asses of the Devil, and the Last Trump: Being a First Selection From the Literary Remains of George Boon, Appropriate to the Times. Prepared for Publication by Reginald Bliss, with an Ambiguous Introduction by H. G. Wells\u003c\/b\u003e) is a caustic satire aimed at those who engage in literary pomposity and pretentious high-mindedness, and shows the bitter side of H. G. Wells.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, in July 1915, described the book as 'a criticism of literature and thought, of the lives of men and their defensive instinct, constantly at war with ''all the great de-individualizing things, with Faith, with Science, with Truth, with Beauty\"'.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBoon is presented as a 'superannuated man of letters' supposedly killed in the Great War, but when Bliss - his self-appointed 'literary executor' - discovers that Boon's literary 'remains' are no more than a few sketches and jottings, he constructs a narrative from his own thoughts on Boon, his friends, conversations they had, and reconstructs from memory never-written works that Boon had described to him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmong these pieces is the infamous parody of the late style of Henry James, all the more effective for being so distinctive a target. Describing James as the 'culmination of the superficial type', it is not surprising that the 'indiscreet, ill-advised' content of \u003cb\u003eBoon\u003c\/b\u003e, as Wells describes it in his 'Introduction', put a serious strain on the relationship between the two authors.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Faber \u0026 Faber","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54243581198680,"sku":"9780571247608","price":18.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780571247608.jpg?v=1777705212","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/boon","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}