The king’s men

A tale of to-morrow

By

Robert Grant, John Boyle O’Reilly

J. S. Dale And

John T. Wheelwright

*

Published

NEW YORK

CHARLES SCRIBER’S SONS

1884

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Brown cloth hard cover, measures 5 x 7 inches, 270 pages with 10 pages at the back of book with book advertisements.

Bumped/rubbed corners and spine ends.  Light toning.

 In good condition. 

Robert Grant's The King's Men (1884) is subtitled "A tale of to-morrow" - it is an early work of political speculative fiction: a world where a (polite) revolution in Britain overthrows the monarchy and forcing King George to flee to America. After an initial 'honeymoon' period, the country polarizes into anarchist and royalist factions, with a few Great Men (the true republicans) desperately holding everything together.

 

With this as the backdrop, The King's Men is essentially a historical romance - of the Robert Chambers, Stanley Weyman - school. Great Men are Great, lesser men are envious and cruel. Women are equally polarized (although obviously "Greatness" is beyond them and their frail constitutions, they can at least choose the Right Side to stand by). Despite all its period posturing, The King's Men is good fun and weirdly even-handed politically. Grant notes the tragic nobility of the fallen aristocrats and the beautiful pathos of their plight, but his heart is clearly with the republicans, and the forces of change. He sets things up nicely though, gleefully dropping in many of the omens and portents of knighthood and nobility, only to switch them up as the story presses on. Grant's thesis seems to be that although chivalry is not dead, its allegiance to the monarchy is wholly undeserved, and the best that we should do is look forwards, not to the past.

 

Although intriguing as a contribution to the republican debate, Grant was an American (a rather prominent one at that). The book is less a call to arms for global revolution than a reminder of American belief in its righteous destiny - a combination of reassuring jingoism and carefully coached contrasts between the US and Great Britain. Given that the US was barely a century old and less than a generation removed from its own, very much non-fictional, civil war, a little reassurance doesn't seem too far-fetched.

 

The King's Men has quite a bit going for it: the characters are fun (in their slightly overblown 19th century way), the plot is genuinely intriguing and there's a nice little story behind it all. The use of the speculative elements adds intrigue: even though the revolutionary conflict is a familiar one, by setting the scene in the 'future' the book adds tension - unlike a historical novel, the reader has no idea how it is going to end.