I remember seeing it on a threat here before, but most all my Googling leads to nonfiction :smack:. The few I did find were by William Le Queux and I don’t think they were it, dealing more with invasions of Britain than a continental Great War. I know it was published shortly before WWI, maybe in 1911, or 1909, and that it was relatively popular, and I think it was published in Britain, but I just can’t remember.
The War in the Air by H. G. Wells?
Or Wells’ “The Land Ironclads” The Land Ironclads - Wikipedia
It’s not The Great Illusion (published in Britain in 1909, as Europe’s Optical Illusion), is it?)
Umm- “The Riddle of The Sands” by Erskine Childers?
The Battle of Dorking? It’s by George Chesney and is one of the first fairly modern novels (1871) about the UK being invaded.
I think we may both be wrong Meurglys. From the OP, it seems the poster doesn’t want books about the UK being invaded- more about a Continental war. If I am reading it correctly that is.
I got that book for free for my Kindle a while back. I think I’m going to move it up my to-read list.
I think he ended up being anti English. An interesting person.
I guess you’re right; it has a Franco-Prussian sort of war as background but it’s mainly set in southern England.
War in the Air is about the right time period and is damn good, but there’s not much of it’s war set in Europe.
I just looked at your link- interesting. I hadn’t heard of The Battle of Dorking.
Damn, what am amazing life. Born in England, he was mostly raised by his Anglo-Irish family. He favored Home Rule, then total Irish independence. During the Civil War, he was executed by the Free State.
Alan Judd’s The Quest for C discusses the genre of European War novels–quite popular in the early days of the 20th century. (Childers’ book is one of the few still considered readable.) Most predicted a war between England & Germany, to be settled by naval power…
I’m currently reading a book about the social aspects of WW1. There were a TON of books and plays about a war in Europe before Franz Ferdinand met that Serbians fella.
Thanks for the suggestions, but I haven’t seen it here yet. It’s a fiction book, dealing mainly with continental land war, and was written relatively just before WWI. Definitely not before 1905, but probably within a year or two from 1910.
A few books posted here I haven’t read before though, and I’ve added them to my list, so thanks, but I’m still not seeing what I’m thinking of. I know it’s in another thread on this site but after going through dozens of threads on WWI I still haven’t found it >_<