When William Came

When William Came: A Story of London Under the Hohenzollerns is a novel written by the British author Saki (the pseudonym of Hector Hugh Munro) and published in November 1913.[2] It is set several years in what was then the future, after a war between Germany and Great Britain in which the former won.[3]

When William Came
AuthorSaki
Published1913
PublisherJohn Lane
Pages322[1]
Preceded byThe Unbearable Bassington 
Followed byBeasts and Super-Beasts 

Plot

The "William" of the book's title is German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II. The book chronicles life in London under German occupation and the changes that come with a foreign army's invasion and triumph. Like Robert Erskine Childers's novel The Riddle of the Sands (1903), it predicts the Great War (in which Saki would be killed)[4] and is an example of invasion literature, a literary genre which flourished at the beginning of the 20th century as tensions between the European great powers increased.[5][6]

Much of the book is an argument for compulsory military service,[7] about which there was then a major controversy. The scene in which an Imperial Rescript is announced in a subjugated London, excusing the unmilitary British from serving in the Kaiser's armies, is particularly bitter. There are also several vignettes exemplifying the differences between the English and continental systems of law - Yeovil's wife informs him that she must register his presence with the police and later he is fined on the spot for walking on the grass in Hyde Park. In another episode, he finds himself unintentionally but unavoidably fraternising with one of the invaders.[8]

Anthologies

It has been collected in:

It has been reprinted with

  • The Battle of Dorking. Oxford University Press. 1997. ISBN 0-19-283285-9.

References
  1. "When William Came; a story of". OCLC Worldcat. OCLC. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
  2. Gibson, Brian. Reading Saki: The Fiction of H.H. Munro. McFarland. p. 203. ISBN 9781476615325.
  3. Gibson, Brian (31 May 2012). "'The Unrest-Cure' and Saki's Uneasy Anti-Semitism". Jewish Culture and History. 9 (1): 27–50. doi:10.1080/1462169X.2007.10512065.
  4. Hitchens, Christopher (June 2008). "Where the wild things are: the enduring, untamable appeal of Saki's short stories". The Atlantic. 301 (5): 109.
  5. Kemp, Peter (3 October 2004). "Masters of Shock and Awe". Sunday Times (London).
  6. Jones, Nigel. Peace and War: Britain In 1914. Head of Zeus. p. 30. ISBN 9781781852583.
  7. Stearn, Tom (2008). "The Case for Conscription". History Today. 58 (4).
  8. Hitchner, Thomas (2010). "Edwardian Spy Literature and the Ethos of Sportsmanship: the sport of spying". English Literature in Transition: 1880-1920. 53 (4): 413–430. Retrieved 3 November 2014.


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