The Great War in England in 1897
Cover illustraion of the first edition
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| Author | William Le Queux |
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| Illustrators | Captain Cyril Field T.S.C. Crowther |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Invasion literature |
| Publisher | Tower Publishing Co. |
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Publication date
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1894 |
| Media type | Print, Hardback |
| Pages | 330 |
| OCLC | 55152025 |
| Text | The Great War in England in 1897 at Project Gutenburg |
The Great War in England in 1897 was written by William Le Queux and published in 1894.
Le Queux's work is an early example of Invasion literature genre, which began with The Battle of Dorking in 1871, where the British are soundly defeated by an invading German army. The Battle of Dorking was written by army veteran George Tomkyns Chesney, originally as a warning against the further demobilisation of the British armed forces.
Le Queux's novel depicts Britain being invaded by coalition forces led by France and Russia, who make several early advances, but the brave English patriots fight on and eventually manage to turn the tide, especially after Germany enters the war on the side of the British.
By the end of the story, the invasion goes the other way as the victors divide the spoils: Britain seizes Algeria and Russian Central Asia, thus decisively winning The Great Game, while Germany annexes more of mainland France in addition to Alsace-Lorraine, thus leaving the enemies crushed and both the British and German empires the dominant forces of Europe.
In historical perspective, the book is interesting in depicting the precise reverse of the alliances of the actual World War I which broke out two decades after its publication: France and Russia, which were to become Britain's World War I allies, are depicted as its implacable cruel foes, while Imperial Germany is the gallant ally coming to Britain's aid at the nick of time.
As evidenced by the book's great popularity, the scenario of such an alliance seemed plausible to the British public in 1894; only four years later, Britain and France were indeed on the verge of war during the Fashoda Incident.
The fate of the story's treacherous villain who, with all his plots unmasked flees to Spain and there meets an ignominious end, might have been inspired by the fate of Richard Pigott. The author of the "Pigott forgeries" had in 1889 tried to defame Charles Stewart Parnell, and after his plot was discovered fled to Madrid and there killed himself. At the time of writing, this was a recent and well-known scandal.
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