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Loading... Hereward the Wake, 'Last of the English' (original 1866; edition 2001)by Charles Kingsley
Work InformationHereward the Wake by Charles Kingsley (1866)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. I wanted a rip-roaring boy's adventure tale or, at least, a soppy pseudo-Medieval Victorian romance but I got this instead. It was a retelling of the various tales of Hereward in a partly scholarly and partly in the style of Medieval chronicles and it was so boring I almost fell asleep several times. It utterly fail to engage my attention from the earliest pages and I got lost in the haze of names and places and finally found no reason that Hereward was the hero and "Last of the English". I know this is on many lists of books that I have liked but I should have remembered that I didn't make it more than a few pages into The Water Babies without putting it aside. If your idea of a good 19th C novel is one that preaches stoic acceptance of life's limitations, avoid Charles Kingsley and stick to George Eliot. But if you are up for Social Darwinism, Muscular Christianity, and Rule Britannia, you will find Hereward the Wake an enjoyable read. Kingsley is careful to refer regularly to the contemporary sources of his mediaeval tale but Hereward is the prototype of a Victorian Empire builder: fearless, pragmatic, C of E. Complicated sexual politics. "What I have had will still be mine, when that which I have shall fail me." (252) no reviews | add a review
Belongs to Publisher SeriesEveryman's Library (296) Is contained in
Hereward the Wake: Last of the English (also published as Hereward, the Last of the English) is an 1866 novel by Charles Kingsley. It tells the story of Hereward, a historical Anglo-Saxon figure who led resistance against the Normans from a base in Ely surrounded by fen land. It was Kingsley's last historical novel, and was instrumental in elevating Hereward into an English folk-hero. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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