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Loading... Rule Britannia (1972)by Daphne du Maurier
None.  Lnatal | Mar 31, 2013 |  This is the story of Emma (English region in Cornwall) who wakes up one morning to discover that the world is completely upside down: there is no correspondence, telephone and radio do not work, a warship is docked in the port and there are American soldiers advancing toward the house. What happens is that the action of the novel takes place in the future, a future in which Britain withdrew from the European Common Market, is on the verge of economic collapse and concluded that his only salvation lies in a political, economic and military with the United States. Theoretically it is a union where there is equality between the parties, but for some people it starts to look more like an occupation. Even if this book is controversial, it has Dame du Maurier unique style of writing since it's a mixture of science fiction, history with a lot satyrical historical points of view both from Cornwall people and the American "invaders". (  ) Lnatal | Mar 31, 2013 | This is the story of Emma (English region in Cornwall) who wakes up one morning to discover that the world is completely upside down: there is no correspondence, telephone and radio do not work, a warship is docked in the port and there are American soldiers advancing toward the house. What happens is that the action of the novel takes place in the future, a future in which Britain withdrew from the European Common Market, is on the verge of economic collapse and concluded that his only salvation lies in a political, economic and military with the United States. Theoretically it is a union where there is equality between the parties, but for some people it starts to look more like an occupation. Even if this book is controversial, it has Dame du Maurier unique style of writing since it's a mixture of science fiction, history with a lot satyrical historical points of view both from Cornwall people and the American "invaders". ( ) Lnatal | Mar 31, 2013 | This is the story of Emma (English region in Cornwall) who wakes up one morning to discover that the world is completely upside down: there is no correspondence, telephone and radio do not work, a warship is docked in the port and there are American soldiers advancing toward the house. What happens is that the action of the novel takes place in the future, a future in which Britain withdrew from the European Common Market, is on the verge of economic collapse and concluded that his only salvation lies in a political, economic and military with the United States. Theoretically it is a union where there is equality between the parties, but for some people it starts to look more like an occupation. Even if this book is controversial, it has Dame du Maurier unique style of writing since it's a mixture of science fiction, history with a lot satyrical historical points of view both from Cornwall people and the American "invaders". ( ) Lnatal | Mar 31, 2013 | Not Du Maurier's best work by a long shot, but entertaining enough for all that. The only thing that really irked me was the casual racism directed at Ben throughout the book - there was really no need for it. ( ) cazfrancis | May 10, 2012 |
Originally published in 1972, the novel perhaps illustrates du Maurier’s lingering resentment at the influx of US troops to Cornwall during WW2 and at the time of writing to the possible transformation of Cornwall into nothing but a theme park. The book extends this concern to Britain as a whole. The UK has left the EU and is apparently bankrupt. Its inhabitants wake up one morning to no news on TV or radio and the presence of US troops on their streets. A union between the UK and the US (to be called USUK) has been arranged and imposed from on high. The book is concerned with the impact of all this on a strange mongrel household presided over by a determined matriarch, known as Mad. du Maurier of course does not take this in the direction an SF writer would have done. Her focus is firmly on the locality - in and around a small town in Cornwall - though wider events are mentioned. Egged on by Mad, civil disobedience blooms and is presented as a trigger for the rest of the country to begin to resist the changes. Despite the murder of a US serviceman, the destruction of a US warship and various other incidents there is a lightness of touch to the narration and as a result there is little sense of real jeopardy for the main characters, and a consequent failure to ensure the necessary suspension of disbelief. Perhaps, though, the invaders of Iraq and Afghanistan might have benefited from reading this book as they may have gained more insight into how resentments at such takeovers are easily stirred, and not so easily calmed.
References to this work on external resources.
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(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Apr 2011 10:43:31 -0400)
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Even if this book is controversial, it has Dame du Maurier unique style of writing since it's a mixture of science fiction, history with a lot satyrical historical points of view both from Cornwall people and the American "invaders". (