A Lodge in the Wilderness

A Lodge in the Wilderness is a 1906 political quasi-novel by the Scottish author John Buchan.[2]

A Lodge in the Wilderness
1st edition cover
AuthorJohn Buchan
LanguageEnglish
GenreQuasi-novel
PublisherWilliam Blackwood & Sons[1]
Publication date
1906[1]
Media typePrint
Pages378[1]

Plot

The book relates an imagined conference arranged by a multi-millionaire, Francis Carey, to discuss Empire. The guests are contemporary figures from the upper and professional classes, nine men and nine women[2] who have in common superb articulateness, wide experience, and an interest in understanding how Empire might be a positive influence.[3] Buchan uses the opportunity to set out a variety of views on political and social issues, and to play devil's advocate.[2]

Critical reception

David Daniell, in The Interpreter's House (1975), called the work "an extraordinary book, like nothing else". It is mostly serious discussion, but there is also a lot of fun especially in the portrait of Lady Flora Brume, based upon the real-life Susan Grosvenor who was later to become Buchan's wife.[3]

Writing for The John Buchan Society website in 2002, Edwin Lee noted that while the book has some aspects of a novel it is not a novel in the ordinary sense of the word. Rather, he suggested, Buchan is using the imagined conference, via the utterances of his characters, as a means of defending the ideals and practical benefits of Empire.[2]

In his 2009 essay John Buchan and the South African War Michael Redley noted that the book drew on Buchan's South African experiences. The author's intention "was to rescue [Lord] Milner's best ideas from the wreckage of his South African policy when British politics lurched to the left in January 1906".[4]

Andrew Lownie, in his 2013 biography John Buchan: The Presbyterian Cavalier, suggested that while the attitudes appearing in the book may appear patronising to a late 20th-century reader, Buchan “shows himself to be far in advance of many of his contemporaries with his view of the empowerment of the individual and the Empire as a liberalising force for good”.[5]

References
  1. "British Library Item details". primocat.bl.uk. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  2. Lee, Edwin (2002). "The Vision Splendid: A synthesis of John Buchan's A Lodge in the Wilderness". No 27. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  3. Daniell, David (1975). The Interpreter's House. Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd. pp. 103–105. ISBN 0 17 146051 0.
  4. Redley, Michael (2009). "John Buchan and the South African War". In Macdonald, Kate (ed.). Reassessing John Buchan: beyond the Third-Nine Steps. London: Pickering & Chatto. p. 73. ISBN 978-1851969982.
  5. Lownie, Andrew (2013). John Buchan: The Presbyterian Cavalier. Thistle Publishing. pp. 87–88. ISBN 978-1-909609-99-0.
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