FIVE CLASSIC NOVELS OF REVOLUTIONARY BRITAIN
1. "Swallows and Amazons," Arthur Ransome, 1930
When Ransome had covered the Russian Civil War on behalf of the Manchester Guardian, he had acted for the Secret Intelligence Service and even been a go-between for the nascent Estonian state. He never thought he would put any of those skills to use in his own country.
"Swallows and Amazons" is a deeply personal work, where the idyllic setting of Ransome's Lake Country is juxtaposed with the harshness of the revolution. It tells the story of two families and how the friendship of the children is tested by the political upheaval: as the book begins, the Walkers and Blacketts are 'Swallows,' birds darting about at their ease.
As the violence of the world gradually settles in, and some of the adult characters begin to harden- or to disappear in the night at the hands of the Royalists- the young Blackett sisters have to decide if they have it in them to become young warriors... 'Amazons.'
When you're a kid you cry when the boats sink; when you're an adult you cry when you work out what happened to Mary. Beautiful, and best read with the deceptively sweet illustrations of Ransome himself.
2. “Brave New World,” Aldous Huxley, 1932
Written in 1932 and banned until 1985,Huxley’s satirical magnum opus (though he never considered it to be one) is considered by many to be one of most hard hitting depictions of both pre and post Revolutionary Britain,condemning the former for its ignorance and corruption and the latter for doing the same evils in different manner and even doing worse things than the older Britain.
Told through the eyes of Harry Crowne,the younger son of an upper class family of bankers and nicknamed Nitwit by those around him,the novel tells his life story from youth to adulthood and his inability to be his own man. Through out the novel,Harry is often a peon for others like his Conservative father and older brother,his Liberal sister and mother or his classmates,continuing to be misled by in the Revolutionary War by characters like the pig headed intellectual Sybil Webber (a satire of Sidney Webb, Minister of Culture),prone to lie and want to impose his views on to others,reactionary extraordinaire Sir Nigel Fetterwell or Second Lieutenant/Commisar Wilkins,an opportunist thug full of luck,but never of love.
Filled with great moments and characters that have come to define modern picaresque novels nowadays,the book also has great emotional moments. You start to hate Harry’s cad of an older brother Joseph,but end crying when he dies alone in prison camp,trying to help the other inmates survive. Wilkins makes feel loathe for him,bit you end some pity for him, especially during his now classic monologue about how he envies Harry for knowing how to love his fellow man.Above all,it’s a great book about sin that doesn’t try to preach anything to you.Merely asks you to show some compassion for time to time.
3. “The Swoop!” P.G. Wodehouse, 1923
Wodehouse was quasi-interned and placed under watch during the revolution and the early days, as the revolutionary government was never quite sure if he could be trusted but too many officials liked his books to send him to Dartmoor. With little to do, Wodehouse expanded and rewrote his 1909 comedy novella - parodying the first wave of invasion literature - to be about the much-feared foreign invasion that the government expected and warned about.
"The Swoop!" sees Britain invaded by a coalition of every foreign power the communists feared, then takes it to the extremes - one of the antagonists is Ireland's General Milligan, leading "twenty men, half a woman, and a dog" whose conquests get ever more ludicrously high. As British forces retreat from ever sillier battlegrounds, nine-year-old Comrade Clarence Chugwater of a working class schoolboy gang uses his tactical genius and "the spirit of the workers" to drive the foreigners out and save the nation. These actions feature over-the-top revolutionary rhetoric and gushing over what is, in most times, basic schoolboy pranks or the foreign army being quite dumb.
The book was not explicitly subversive but the sly comedy gave it a risque nature that no other literature in the early years could match. It would go on to spawn pantomimes, music hall performances, comic books, and posters throughout the 1920s, and forever after a youthful rising star in politics is called Chugwater.
4. "The Appearance of the Men in Mauve" Arthur Conan Doyle, 1927
Already famous for his Sherlock Holmes works, Doyle was secure in his personal wealth, and he kept quiet during the pre-revolutionary suppression. However, he continued to work on the side as an advocate, trying to secure justice for individuals at risk, and it was witnessing a jury blatantly packed with opponents that helped to turn Doyle against the Royalists. He would be radicalized further after the Second Peterloo Massacre - though the government would try to suppress it, word nevertheless spread through the underground press, and outrage from this this led him to support the post-revolutionary government, even if merely in the sense of accepting the new status quo.
"The Appearance of the Men in Mauve" is the latest installment in Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series. In this, Holmes discovers groups of people - "men in mauve" - discreetly wearing mauve ribbons, lapels, and the like, and in conjunction with Scotland Yard he tries to determine what they are up to. However, as Scotland Yard is militarized and turned into an arm of the military, Holmes grows increasingly unhappy - first with interference, then with their authoritarian attitudes. When he discovers that the Men in Mauve are dissidents and would-be revolutionaries, rather than turn them in, he helps them cover up their tracks; while not helping them in their violent actions, he nevertheless tries to keep them from being captured.
This book was released after Doyle's death, as it was found with its papers. Doyle's notes show that he was unsure about publication, worried that it may be controversial. Nevertheless, though it did see much controversy for its views on the revolution, it is today a part of the Holmes canon.
5. "Mary Poppins Returns", Pamela Travers, 1930
The Australian-born Travers, already a poet and actress at the time, had the misfortune to briefly move to England right as the revolution kicked off and fled back abroad before, once the fighting ending, moving back (post-revolutionary Ireland being an unfriendly place for her). The shock of what Britain was actually like versus her family's tales, the shock of the violence, and the third shock of what it looked like after the revolution would all be put into her debut novel.
As with Travers, the nanny Mary Poppins had fled to Ireland as the revolution took place and as with Travers, she returns to find everything different: she no longer has to serve 'her betters' but also no longer has more status than other workers; her old employer Mister Banks has been killed in revolutionary violence, while the widow Banks is taking steps into autonomy and the children are left confused by the changes; Fred Smith the park keeper is now a party administrator, using that to inflict his bitterness; and Bert the local street artist is a celebrated but crippled veteran. Poppins is left trying to navigate the changes, dealing with what has been lost as well as what has been gained.
At the time, censorship had been relaxed and so Travers' could present a sympathetic Mr Banks and a Fred Smith who was abusing his position. This led to the book being informally banned in some council areas and threatening letters arriving at her house, even as it became a huge seller and one of the first post-revolt British books to be exported - to which Travers, being a notoriously hard-edged woman, responded with a new novel about an Edwardian author being harassed by sneering royalist censors.
