The Battle of Dorking
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Battle of Dorking is a 1871 novel of the genre which has been termed Invasion literature. It was written by George Tomkyns Chesney and has been seen as an influence on H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds. Written just after the Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian War it describes a military invasion of Britain by a foreign power which the preface makes clear is Germany.
It was first published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine, then in pamphlet form before finally appearing as a novel. It went through several editions and engaged the interest of soldiers and politicians, as well as the reading public. Chesney was a captain in the Royal Engineers and had grown concerned over the ramshackle state of Britain's armed forces. He used fiction as a device to promulgate his views after letters and journalism on the issue had failed to impact on the public consciousness. The story gains power from its point of view from after a successful invasion of Britain.
