Soldiers of Fortune

by Richard Harding Davis, Brady Harrison (Editor)

A romance of America’s nascent imperial power, Richard Harding Davis’s Soldiers of Fortune recounts the adventures of Robert Clay, a mining engineer and sometime mercenary, and Hope Langham, the daughter of a wealthy American industrialist, as they become caught up in a coup in Olancho, a fictional Latin American republic. When the coup, organized by corrupt politicians and generals, threatens the American-owned Valencia Mining Company, Clay organizes his workers and the handful of Americans visiting the mine into a counter-coup force. Written on the eve of the Spanish-American War, Soldiers of Fortune casts the young American as the dashing, hypermasculine hero of the new military and economic. A huge best-seller, the novel did its part to push the nation into war against Spain, and stands as one of the most important texts in the literature of American imperialism. The appendices, which bring together primary materials by writers and politicians such as Rebecca Harding Davis, Theodore Roosevelt, Jose Martí, Mark Twain, Herbert Spencer, and others, address such issues as social Darwinism, masculinity, and ideas of Anglo-American superiority.

Genres: Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1897

About the author

Richard Harding Davis (1864–1916) was a journalist and writer of fiction and drama, known foremost as the first American war correspondent to cover the Spanish-American War, the Second Boer War, and the First World War. His writing greatly assisted the political career of Theodore Roosevelt and he also played a major role in the evolution of the American magazine. His influence extended to the world of fashion and he is credited with making the clean-shaven look popular among men at the turn of the 20th century.

Reviews

[libremilia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not this one, kids. Not this one. It's sort of about the Spanish-American war, so I realize why they had me read it for my Imperialism class, but I found the plot very boring, the main American characters and the novel's tone was overtly racist, and I just couldn't come to like the amateur writing style. This book is *not* a critique of American imperialism and racism (as in the case with Faulkner or Twain), but it is an example of imperial and racist propaganda. That's what made it so disturbing. The way they describe Latin Americans . . . just . . . 😑.

Not to mention that the big tough cowboy machismo trope is so overdone, the Annie Oakley Western Girl™ was cringe, the romance was one of those "weird flex but ok" kinds, and I had to keep myself from throwing the book out the window many times.

I'm only giving it two stars because it will definitely give me many Things to Say™ in class on Monday.

So no, I don't really have a lot to say about this book. It was just boring and not my taste.

But yeah. In the words of Uncle Roger: haiya 😔😔😔

[Perry Whitford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Miss Alice Langham is a beautiful and accomplished heiress with all the suitors her circumstances would imply, the most eligible of whom is Reggie King, similarly wealthy and leisured, from the oldest and best of American families.

However, for Alice, the man 'who could give her something else besides approval of her beauty and her mind, had not (yet) disclosed himself.'

In walks Robert Clay, a self-assured mining engineer, soldier and ex-cowboy. An experienced man, Clay has held a boyish fascination for her since seeing her picture in a society publication, motivating his career as prospector and manager of her father's mining operation in the fictional republic of Olancho so that, like Gatsby, he can win his own Daisy.

Clay's proto-typical Gatsby pre-occupations are so pronounced that it's impossible to believe that Fitzgerald was unaware of this book: "the great part of the inspiration I have had to do what little I have done came from you. You were a sort of promise of something better to me ... all that part of life that I have never known, the sweetness and the nobleness and grace of civilization".

Gatsby himself could have said that!

Alice and her younger, less beautiful yet refreshingly unconventional sister, Hope, come to stay in Olancho as an unstable political situation starts to explode. Alvarez is a corrupt governor sympathetic to the Valencia Mining Corps who wishes to be a Dictator, whilst Mendoza is a corrupt general who wishes to be President, antagonistic to Clay after a heated confrontation.

Davis was a famous war correspondent and adventurer in his time, an honorary member of Teddy Rosevelt's 'rough riders' and it shows, as all the incidental details in this book smack convincingly of first-hand experience.

It has the same kind of tone of self-interested machismo that Hemingway later made a name for himself with, and the same slightly underdone romanticism.

The romance is indeed the weak link in what was otherwise a decent, well written read. For Clay, Alice 'appealed to every ambition and to every taste he cherished', yet his affections take a surprising turn.

But little is gained by this aspect of the story as revolutionary events take centre stage, and it takes the appearance of an American filibuster named Burke to liven things up again.

[Yibbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic adventure story. The poor but noble hero just trying to do his best to help everyone, and the rich socialite out for her own pleasure meet and fall in love. Revolution intervenes threatening everything they hold dear. But what is it they hold dear? Then the Twist. I never saw that coming. The whole book hangs on that Twist and it makes the whole story. Davis writes so well and he did a marvelous job on this story.

[Humphrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

The imperialist romance that helped fuel support for the Spanish-American War isn't particularly well written, but in reading it one can see how it generated feeling in its readers. Aside from this it's a fascinating lens into the heroicization of engineer/scientist types in the early progressive era -- with a bit of help via reusing the cowboy hero type. On that note, the final page might have been the most fascinating in the whole book. It's redolent of Cooper's concluding sentiment in The Last of the Mohicans: just as in that novel the frontiersman must pass away for the rise of a civilizing mission that pales in comparison, in this one the colonial engineer must trade his glory for getting fat in a tuxedo in a Northeastern city.

[Paladin1420 · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at what things might have been like 100 years ago but heavily fictionalized, of course. A mostly implausible story, but quite enjoyable as fiction of the time.

[Malcolm · Rating 1 out of 5]

Soldiers of fortune was a best seller in the first years of the Twentieth Century; now it is more notorious. I couldn't find it in print and I imagine no publisher will be wanting to exploit the fact it is now out of copyright.
Why have its fortunes suffered such a reversal? Mostly the casual racism, particularly of the main character Robert Clay who uses the N word, "half breed" and "breed" in a casual way, not as insults, but as an unremarkable way of referring to the Latin American citizens of the fictional republic of Olanche. The third person narrator is no less sparing of this abuse, referring in one instance to an army officer who has just taken a bribe as walking with a sense of satisfaction of a job well done. The Olancean citizens are represented as simple, corruptible or corrupt, displaying no loyalty but switching sides to whomsoever will offer the biggest bribe.
The author was a leading journalist of his time. Through this novel and his journalism, he is credited with influencing American popular opinion in favour of the Spanish American war where he served as a war correspondent. He also reported on the Second Boer War. One wonders what prejudices he demonstrated in that reporting.
He wrote a considerable number of books but the writing here seems quite amateurish. Much of the first half of the novel is giving to the narrator reporting on the feelings and thoughts of the three characters who form the love interest, Robert Clay, the socialite Alice Langham and her tomboy sister Hope. (I note Davis called his own daughter Hope.) These musings are quite drawn out and quite tedious. Davis had not heard of the injunction that a novelist should "show rather than tell".
However, I knew that there was to be a revolution in Olanche because General Mendoza told Clay so. It's just that the revolution took its time to manifest itself, and when it does the novel is transformed. What we have from that moment is a thriller novel with an escape, a counter plot and a counter revolution. Clay commands with assurance and courage. We never feel that he will not triumph.
While the reader is meant, like the Langham sisters, to admire Robert Clay, he is hard to believe. Could such a young man have achieved so much, taken part in so many exploits and remained so modest? I can believe that a man is capable of such leadership and certainly there are snags and reversals which keep up the tension. The second half of the novel is an engaging read.
Davis can also write good description. He shows a convincing knowledge of the natural and built landscape of Olanche, modeled we understand on what he saw from trips to Cuba. His description of the action is also well done. He does not make use of short sentences and explicit verbs as a modern novelist might do, but the scenes are still engaging and believable.
We can see in this novel the beginnings of the negative attitude Americans who support Trump hold about Latin Americans, just as we see the fictional representation of the unpopular wife of a president such as Imelda Marcos or Grace Mugabe.
The only problem remaining, is how old was Hope Langham? I had thought she was just fourteen, while Robert Clay must have been twice her age to have done all he did. This is not the stuff of a romantic relationship. Perhaps it is not just the casual racism which is hard for a modern reader to accept.

[spoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

She really knows how to write a engrossing plot huh. And like--we gotta talk about 19thC and empire + regime change + capitalism in even if in a fictional country

[Valentina Cloitre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting plot, but unfortunately sometimes racist against South Americans and as a South American I take a bit of offense