The Dark Lantern

A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight #1

by Henry Williamson

The Dark Lantern (1951) was the first of Henry Williamson's fifteen-volume A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlightspanning the years from the late Victorian period to the Second World War. In it we meet Richard Maddison, a countryman working in London as a City clerk, struggling to make do on a few shillings a week. He falls for Hetty Turner, youngest daughter of a prosperous merchant, but her father rates Richard an unsuitable suitor.'There is magic in Henry Williamson's novel . . . which raises it right out of the family saga class. The magic is of the steam train age of South London which is so lovingly described.' John Betjeman, Daily Telegraph'Williamson's style is romantic, though rarely sentimental, and his sensuous response to nature is fresh and surprising.' Anthony Burgess, Ninety-Nine The Best in English since 1939

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, British Literature

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

Henry William Williamson was an English soldier, naturalist, farmer and ruralist writer known for his natural history and social history novels, as well as for his fascist sympathies. He won the Hawthornden Prize for literature in 1928 with his book Tarka the Otter.

Henry Williamson is best known for a tetralogy of four novels which consists of The Beautiful Years (1921), Dandelion Days (1922), The Dream of Fair Women (1924) and The Pathway (1928). These novels are collectively known as The Flax of Dream and they follow the life of Willie Maddison from boyhood to adulthood in a rapidly changing world.

Reviews

[Paul Christensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing précis of the late Victorian, encompassing so much;
Its characters being Types, yet blooded figures you could almost touch,

From quiet, malleable Hetty, and her Wooster-like brother Hughie
And their father, a neo-Falstaffian wag who thinks Tennyson is phooey,

An embodiment of steamships and the City, such malarkey;
While Hetty's husband Richard manifests soft-patriarchy,

A near-autistic categoriser of butterflies and gloom.
And yet, already quickening inside of Hetty's womb

Is the Blackshirt generation, destined to shake the shoals of the earth
(Only at the end of the book does the star of the sequence arrive at birth.)

[Dominic · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book of the 15 book series "The chronicle of ancient sunlight" which tells the story of an English family from 1890 to 1956. It gives a brilliant insight into the social changes that took place across the 20th century.
Williamson's style is very rich and his ability to describe settings is unrivalled which makes The Chronicle all the more fascinating.
Although you can read any one of the books on its own it is well worth trying to get hold of the whole set.

[Darren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully written/told historical tale of boy-meets-girl in the 1890's London. Richard and Hetty are both drippy but good-hearted and obviously meant for each other. Williamson gives Richard a love of nature which allows for some marvellous descriptions of the countryside/wildlife, and Hetty is amost painfully too-good-for-this-earth. There's a bit of family strife surrounding them, but nothing much unusual happens, and although it is a set-up for the 14 (FOURTEEN!) following books in the series, it stands perfectly well on its own merits.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I so wanted to give The Dark Lantern four stars because Henry Williamson’s writing is just achingly beautiful, but one has to acknowledge that at times the narrative drags to the point of tedium. Aside from a few will-they-won’t-they moments, there’s little to entice the reader back to the book once it has been put down. As the first in the 15-volume series, A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight, there is clearly much scene-setting for what follows. Having ‘accidentally’ read a later volume I know that the narrative picks up, but whether I would continue with the series based purely on this first outing is doubtful.

[PAUL DEWSON · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first book in the series Chronicles of Ancient Sunlight. This is an exceptionally good read, with plenty of historical interest and natural history. Like all Williamson's books it is very well written in a poetic and atmomspheric style that I very much enjoy. Looking forward to reading the rest in the series.

[Drew]

Anthony Burgess says: "Few have read them all." !