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Another entry in Edgar Wallace's eminently popular "Sanders of the River" series, The Keepers of the King's Peace is an unlikely but ultimately engaging combination of a classic action-adventure tale and broad slapstick comedy. An elite crew of officers is charged with getting to the bottom of a female shaman's seemingly miraculous powers, but bumbling new addition Bones keeps getting in the way. Will they be able to stave off a mass rebellion before it's too late?.
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I saw this in a second hand bookshop and was so taken by the cover I convinced my friend Jo to buy it. Later I stole it from her. The cover shows five men. Three of them white. One pith helmet apiece. One has a monocle. Another has a revolver and a baton under his arm. The other two men are black. One has a spear. The other has two sticks with human skulls on them. Surprisingly, the book isn’t at all racist.
Only joking. It’s as racist as you could believe. This from page 118:
‘Native folk, at any rate, are but children of a larger growth. In the main, their delinquencies may be classified under the heading of “naughtiness.” They are mischievous and passionate, and they have a weakness for destroying things to discover the show more secrets of volition.”
What we have here are twelve connected short stories, comic adventures, set in a sanitised fantasy version of colonial Africa. Our hero is Bones, bumbling and British, but terribly brave. The plot of most of the stories involves him setting out on an expedition to save the natives from themselves.
Is it any good? Well, that second star is for the cover. It not quality literature. There are numerous small problems that could have been resolved if Mr Wallace had deigned to do a second draft. He’s obviously planned out what he’s going to write, but the beginnings are often a mess. You can see him gathering his thoughts on paper. The are some funny moments, but it’s bad dad-jokes really. It does have historical interest and I would recommend it if you are:
a) studying colonial history
b) studying early 20th Century British social attitudes
c) a massive racist
Actually, strike c). It’s concerns and attitudes are so far from the mores of modern racists that I think we shall just have to consign it to history. show less
Only joking. It’s as racist as you could believe. This from page 118:
‘Native folk, at any rate, are but children of a larger growth. In the main, their delinquencies may be classified under the heading of “naughtiness.” They are mischievous and passionate, and they have a weakness for destroying things to discover the show more secrets of volition.”
What we have here are twelve connected short stories, comic adventures, set in a sanitised fantasy version of colonial Africa. Our hero is Bones, bumbling and British, but terribly brave. The plot of most of the stories involves him setting out on an expedition to save the natives from themselves.
Is it any good? Well, that second star is for the cover. It not quality literature. There are numerous small problems that could have been resolved if Mr Wallace had deigned to do a second draft. He’s obviously planned out what he’s going to write, but the beginnings are often a mess. You can see him gathering his thoughts on paper. The are some funny moments, but it’s bad dad-jokes really. It does have historical interest and I would recommend it if you are:
a) studying colonial history
b) studying early 20th Century British social attitudes
c) a massive racist
Actually, strike c). It’s concerns and attitudes are so far from the mores of modern racists that I think we shall just have to consign it to history. show less
Read while on holidays in Springfield Castle, County Limerick. This is a series of short stories about Sanders, the English High Commisioner in a part of Africa and one of his assistants Bones, who is well-meaning but dim. I really enjoy these stories, some of which are stupid and racist but several of which are quite a lot of fun. These are of their time and do offer an insight into the lives and times of people then.
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526+ Works 10,133 Members
Among the most prolific of all authors of adventure fiction was the redoubtable Edgar Wallace. Born in London, Wallace received his early education at St. Peter's School and the Board School. Wallace served in the Royal West Kent Regiment in England and later as part of the Medical Staff Corps stationed in South Africa. During World War I, Wallace show more acted as a special interrogator for the War Office. As was the case with a number of successful popular authors, Wallace experienced a rich and diverse life before turning to professional writing. From 1886 to the 1930s, he worked in a printing shop, a shoe shop, and a rubber factory, and served as a merchant sailor and milk deliverer. Beginning in 1899, Wallace became a journalist and wrote variously for the London Daily Mail and the Rand Daily News, among others; he also worked with the racing periodicals, having founded two of them---Bibury's Weekly and R. E. Walton's Weekly. Like Sax Rohmer, Wallace earned a fortune from his writings, yet, because of a lack of business sense and a tendency to overspend, he died in debt. A prodigious writer of fiction, Wallace published, over the course of his professional life, some 173 books and wrote 17 plays. Many of his adventure narratives featured elements of crime or mystery, but they all thrived on action. Although Wallace's handling of plot was superb and he was respected for his ability to blend suspense with humor, he was less successful with his characters, who tended to be two-dimensional and stereotyped. One of his early crime adventures, The Four Just Men (1906), introduced what was to become a trademark for Wallace---lurid sensationalism coupled with dramatic violence. Wallace published in a wide range of genres, including poetry, short fiction, autobiography, and epic political history. Regrettably, much of what he wrote has lapsed into obscurity today. As sometimes is the problem with popular fiction, perhaps it was too hurriedly written---too intimately connected with its contemporary audience---to stand the ultimate test of time. But Wallace's work was highly influential, especially in the American pulp magazine markets of the Great Depression, and stands today, despite its many flaws, as some of the most effective literary adventures ever written. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Keepers of the King's Peace
- Original title
- The Keepers of the King's Peace
- Alternate titles*
- Die Hüter des Friedens
- Original publication date
- 1917
- People/Characters
- Mr. Commissioner Sanders
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- Members
- 52
- Popularity
- 581,934
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.63)
- Languages
- 6 — Czech, English, German, Hungarian, Polish, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 33
- ASINs
- 3
