A history of the sudden and terrible invasion of England by the French, in the month of May, 1852.
ANONYMOUS
London: T. Bosworth. [1851].
Description:
First (and apparently only) edition. vi, 7-23 [1]. 213x125mm. With a single leaf paper cover replicating the title page on which is inscribed "With the Publisher's Compliments". Title page is headed with the epigraph "Coming events cast their shadows before". In excellent condition throughout. Rare, Worldcat locating five copies (four in the UK and one in the US).
Although the dedication is dated 1853, it is thought that this curious little pamphlet dates from 1851. It is described by I.F. Clarke, the leading authority on the subject, as "the first complete imaginary war of the future to be written in English". During the 1840s numerous alarms were being raised about Britain's ability to defend itself against armed invasion. France had been expanding its navy with steamships and when the Duke of Wellington's private comments on the threat posed by these were made public, uproar ensued. "Many feared that military weakness at home would invite attack from abroad; and for the rest of the century not a decade passed without an alarm of some kind".
Louis Napoleon's coup d'etat in 1851 was the immediate catalyst for this pamphlet. In it, the anonymous author attacks the scarlet uniform of the British Army ("like the inner circles of a target"), the out of date weaponry and the "utter defencelessness" of London. He then goes on to describe the invasion begun on 21st May 1852 and ending ten days later with the Sacking of London. Of course, this did not happen but the point is that it "could". The most famous example of nineteenth-century "imaginary invasion literature" is The Battle of Dorking (see next item) but this fantasy history is the first of the genre.
Description:
First (and apparently only) edition. vi, 7-23 [1]. 213x125mm. With a single leaf paper cover replicating the title page on which is inscribed "With the Publisher's Compliments". Title page is headed with the epigraph "Coming events cast their shadows before". In excellent condition throughout. Rare, Worldcat locating five copies (four in the UK and one in the US).
Although the dedication is dated 1853, it is thought that this curious little pamphlet dates from 1851. It is described by I.F. Clarke, the leading authority on the subject, as "the first complete imaginary war of the future to be written in English". During the 1840s numerous alarms were being raised about Britain's ability to defend itself against armed invasion. France had been expanding its navy with steamships and when the Duke of Wellington's private comments on the threat posed by these were made public, uproar ensued. "Many feared that military weakness at home would invite attack from abroad; and for the rest of the century not a decade passed without an alarm of some kind".
Louis Napoleon's coup d'etat in 1851 was the immediate catalyst for this pamphlet. In it, the anonymous author attacks the scarlet uniform of the British Army ("like the inner circles of a target"), the out of date weaponry and the "utter defencelessness" of London. He then goes on to describe the invasion begun on 21st May 1852 and ending ten days later with the Sacking of London. Of course, this did not happen but the point is that it "could". The most famous example of nineteenth-century "imaginary invasion literature" is The Battle of Dorking (see next item) but this fantasy history is the first of the genre.