Battle of the Strong Complete
Parker, Gilbert, 1860-1932
English
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Below is a summary of Battle of the Strong Complete
THE BATTLE OF THE STRONG, Complete
[A ROMANCE OF TWO KINGDOMS]
By Gilbert Parker
CONTENTS:
THE INVASION
ELEVEN YEARS AFTER ELEVEN YEARS AFTER
IN FRANCE--NEAR FIVE MONTHS AFTER
IN JERSEY FIVE YEARS LATER IN JERSEY FIVE YEARS LATER
DURING ONE YEAR LATER DURING ONE YEAR LATER
IN JERSEY--A YEAR LATER
INTRODUCTION
This book is a protest and a deliverance. For seven years I had written
continuously of Canada, though some short stories of South Sea life, and
the novel Mrs. Falchion, had, during that time, issued from my pen. It
looked as though I should be writing of the Far North all my life.
Editors had begun to take that view; but from the start it had never been
my view. Even when writing Pierre and His People I was determined that I
should not be cabined, cribbed, and confined in one field; that I should
not, as some other men have done, wind in upon myself, until at last each
succeeding book would be but a variation of some previous book, and I
should end by imitating myself, become the sacrifice to the god of the
pin-hole.
I was warned not to break away from Canada; but all my life I had been
warned, and all my life I had followed my own convictions. I would rather
not have written another word than be corralled, bitted, saddled, and
ridden by that heartless broncho-buster, the public, which wants a man
who has once pleased it, to do the same thing under the fret of whip and
spur for ever. When I went to the Island of Jersey, in 1897, it was to
shake myself free of what might become a mere obsession. I determined
that, as wide as my experiences had been in life, so would my writing be,
whether it pleased the public or not. I was determined to fulfil myself;
and in doing so to take no instructions except those of my own
conscience, impulse, and conviction. Even then I saw fields of work which
would occupy my mind, and such skill as I had, for many a year to come. I
saw the Channel Islands, Egypt, South Africa, and India. In all these
fields save India, I have given my Pegasus its bridle-rein, and, so far,
I have no reason to feel that my convictions were false. I write of
Canada still, but I have written of the Channel Islands, I have written
of Egypt, I have written of England and South Africa, and my public--that
is, those who read my books--have accepted me in all these fields without
demur. I believe I have justified myself in not accepting imprisonment in
the field where I first essayed to turn my observation of life to
account.
I went to Jersey, therefore, with my teeth set, in a way; yet happily and
confidently. I had been dealing with French Canada for some years, and a
step from Quebec, which was French, to Jersey, which was Norman French,
was but short. It was a question of atmosphere solely. Whatever may be
thought of The 'Battle of the Strong' I have not yet met a Jerseyman who
denies to it the atmosphere of the place. It could hardly have lacked it,
for there were twenty people, deeply intelligent, immensely interested in
my design, and they were of Jersey families which had been there for
centuries. They helped me, they fed me with dialect, with local details,
with memories, with old letters, with diaries of their forebears, until,
if I had gone wrong, it would have been through lack of skill in handling
my material. I do not think I went wrong, though I believe that I could
construct the book more effectively if I had to do it again. Yet there is
something in looseness of construction which gives an air of naturalness;
and it may be that this very looseness which I notice in 'The Battle of
the Strong' has had something to do with giving it such a great circle of
readers; though this may appear paradoxical. When it first appeared, it
did not make the appeal which 'The Right of Way' or 'The Seats of the
Mighty' made, but it justified itself, it forced its way, it assured me
that I had done right in shaking myself free from the control of my own
best work. The book has gone on increasing its readers year by year, and
when it appeared in Nelson's delightful cheap edition in England it had
an immediate success, and has sold by the hundred thousand in the last
four years.
One of the first and most eager friends of 'The Battle of the Strong' was
Mrs. Langtry, now Lady de Bathe, who, born in Jersey, and come of an old
Jersey family, was well able to judge of the fidelity of the life and
scene which it depicted. She greatly desired the novel to be turned into
a play, and so it was. The adaptation, however, was lacking in much, and
though Miss Marie Burroughs and Maurice Barrymore played in it, success
did not attend its dramatic life.
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