 | |
| Author | John Buchan |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Set in | Various countries |
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton [1] |
Publication date | 1921 [1] |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 310 [1] |
The Path of the King is a 1921 novel by the Scottish author John Buchan, presented as a loosely-coupled series of short stories.
In a prologue to the novel, three men discuss around a campfire the notion that the 'spark' of masterful men may be transmitted down from generation to generation, and even though it may smoulder for generations and may seem lost, will reappear and flare up when the time is right.
"I saw the younger sons carry the royal blood far down among the people, down even into the kennels of the outcast. Generations follow, oblivious of the high beginnings, but there is that in the stock which is fated to endure. The sons and daughters blunder and sin and perish, but the race goes on, for there is a fierce stuff of life in it. ... Some rags of greatness always cling to it, the dumb faith that sometime and somehow that blood drawn from kings it never knew will be royal again. Though nature is wasteful of material things, there is no waste of spirit. And then after long years there comes, unheralded and unlooked for, the day of the Appointed Time". [2]
The novel takes the form of a loosely-coupled collection of short stories presenting a sweeping tapestry of historical episodes, from the Vikings through centuries of Norman, French, Flemish, English, Scottish and American scenes.
In the first episode, a Northern prince's golden torque is the symbol of his royal status. On his death the gold is remodelled as a ring, which is handed down from generation to generation until it is eventually inherited by the mother of Abraham Lincoln. The young Abe, using it as a sinker for his fishing line, loses it in a "crick" and is distraught. On her deathbed, Abe's mother recognises the potential for kingliness in her young son and dies content, realising that the ring is needed no more.
In an epilogue to the novel, set many years later, three men stand watching the funeral cortège after Lincoln's death. "There goes the first American" says one. The young British attaché replies, "I dare say you are right, Professor, but I think it is also the last of the Kings."
Although a favourite of GM Trevelyan, other early critics of the book were less enthusiastic. The Times Literary Supplement considered the work "disappointing", and criticised it for its "pseudo-romantic vocabulary" and "the use of slightly pretentious and unusual words and locutions where common and more vigorous ones would serve better". [3]
In The Interpreter's House (1975), David Daniell noted that The Path of the King marked the beginning of Buchan's historical writing. He considered the 'feel' of the many atmospheres to be well done, and the narratives to be 'fresh and good'. [4]
In his 2009 essay John Buchan, America and the ‘British World’, 1904-40 Peter Henshaw suggested that Buchan had the implicit purpose of fostering Anglo-American unity, and that his aim in writing the novel was to build up Lincoln as a shared hero of the British and American people. He took the epilogue as being a restatement of the view that Lincoln's highest achievement was his defence of the American Union, "a grand geopolitical association comparable in Buchan's mind to the British Empire". [5]
Writing for the John Buchan Society website, JCG Greig suggested that the fascination of this book grows on the reader gradually, and that in order to grasp the consistency of the tale little clues have to be looked for constantly. Buchan presents Lincoln's Presidency in the American Civil War as nothing less than kingly. The choice of Lincoln, the product of ordinary parents, proclaims that kingliness does not depend upon outward trappings but on inward riches. Greig considered it a book "especially for the historically minded to dwell on and even drool over". [6]
John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir was a Scottish novelist, historian, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation.
Witch Wood is a 1927 novel by the Scottish author John Buchan that critics have called his masterpiece. The book is set in the Scottish Borders during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and combines the author's interests in landscape, 17th century Calvinism, and the fate of Scotland. A significant portion of the dialogue is in Scots.
The Courts of the Morning is a 1929 adventure novel by John Buchan, featuring his character Sandy Arbuthnot. The prologue is narrated by Richard Hannay, so the novel is sometimes included in Buchan's Hannay series. The action is set in Olifa, a fictional country on the west coast of South America.
Salute to Adventurers is a 1915 historical adventure novel by the Scottish author John Buchan. Largely set among the newly-settled Virginia plantations of the late 17th century, the novel includes a number of historical characters and events, including the wild and radical preaching of John Gibb, founder of the Sweet Singers sect.
Castle Gay is a 1930 novel by the Scottish author John Buchan. It is the second of his three Dickson McCunn novels and is set in the Scottish district of Carrick, Galloway some six years after the events described in Huntingtower.
The House of the Four Winds is a 1935 adventure novel by the Scots author John Buchan. It is a Ruritanian romance, and the last of his three Dickson McCunn books. The novel is set in the fictional Central European country of Evallonia and opens two years after the events recounted in Castle Gay.
The Gap in the Curtain is a 1932 borderline science fiction novel by the Scottish author John Buchan. Part of the action is autobiographical, featuring the agonies of a contemporary up-and-coming politician. It explores the theory of serial time put forward by J W Dunne: Buchan had been reading An Experiment with Time.
Huntingtower is a 1922 novel by the Scottish author John Buchan, initially serialised in Popular Magazine between August and September 1921. It is the first of his three Dickson McCunn books, the action taking place in the district of Carrick in Galloway, Scotland.
William James de L'Aigle Buchan, 3rd Baron Tweedsmuir, also known as "William Tweedsmuir" was an English peer and author of novels, short stories, memoirs and verse. He was the second son of the writer and Governor General of Canada, John Buchan.
David John Daniell was an English literary scholar who became Professor of English at University College London. He was founder of the Tyndale Society, a specialist in William Tyndale and his translations of the Bible, and author of a number of studies of the plays of Shakespeare.
Midwinter: Certain travellers in old England is a 1923 historical novel by the Scottish author John Buchan. It is set during the Jacobite rising of 1745, when an army of Scottish highlanders seeking to place Charles Stuart onto the English throne advanced into England as far South as Derby. The Prince, otherwise known as "Bonnie Prince Charlie", the grandson of the ousted King James II, required men and money from English Jacobite sympathisers, and the novel imagines why those were not forthcoming from landowners in the Western counties and Wales. It purports to sheds light on Samuel Johnson's previously unknown activities during that period.
The Half-Hearted is a 1900 novel of romance and adventure by the Scottish author John Buchan. It was Buchan's first novel in a modern setting and was written when he was 24 while working for an All-Souls fellowship and reading for the bar.
Sir Quixote of the Moors: being some account of an episode in the life of the Sieur de Rohaine is an 1895 short novel by the Scottish author John Buchan. It was Buchan's first novel, written when he was nineteen and an undergraduate at Glasgow University. Buchan's original title was Sir Quixote, and he was annoyed by the addition of "of the Moors" by his publisher.
John Burnet of Barns is an 1898 novel by the Scottish author John Buchan, published when he was 23 years of age. His second novel, it had first appeared in serial form in Chambers’s Journal earlier that year.
A Lost Lady of Old Years is an 1899 novel by the Scottish author John Buchan. It was first published in serial form in Today. The title comes from Browning’s poem Waring.
A Lodge in the Wilderness is a 1906 political quasi-novel by the Scottish author John Buchan.
The Blanket of the Dark is a 1931 historical novel by the Scottish author John Buchan. The novel is set in the early part of the reign of Henry VIII, and explores the possible consequences had the Tudors been overthrown by a rightful descendant of Edward III.
The Free Fishers is a 1934 novel by the Scottish author John Buchan, his last work of historical fiction. The novel is set during the period of the Naploeonic wars and follows the adventures of Anthony Lammas, a young professor at St Andrews, who is drawn into a plot to kill the prime minister. He is aided by The Free Fishers, a secret mutual aid organisation.
Montrose is a 1928 biography of James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose by the Scottish author John Buchan.