The Great War in England in 1897

"The Great War in England in 1897" was written by William Le Queux and published by Tower Publishing Co., London in 1894. An important book in the invasion literature genre, it depicts the invasion of Britain by the French with their Cossack allies, with the invading forces penetrating into London - but unlike the earlier The Battle of Dorking, where the British are soundly defeated, in Le Queux's depiction the brave patriots fight on and eventually manage to turn the tide. 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.

In historical perspective, the book is interesting in depicting the precise reverse of the alliances of the actual First World War which broke out two decades after its publication: France and Russia, which were to become Britain's WWI 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, in 1894 the scenario of such an alliance seemed plausible to the British public. (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 Piggott. The author of the 'Piggott forgeries' had in 1889 tried to defame 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.

It is considered to have influenced, directly and indirectly, many subsequent works. Specifically, H. G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds", published four years later (1898) seems to have borrowed many plot elements. In Wells' book, as in Le Queux's, a relentless enemy makes a devastating surprise attack and penetrates to the heart of London. In many ways, however, Wells' book seems a deliberate antithesis to Le Queux's nationalism: in the Wells book, the attack is extra-terrestrial with the invading Martians posing a deadly threat to all humanity equally; human weapons are futile against the invaders, who are overcome only by earthly microbes; and in the aftermath, the nations of chastened humanity are drawn closer together.

Anthologies

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