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Went the Day Well?: Witnessing Waterloo
Midnight, Sunday, June 18, 1815. Britain holds its breath. Since Napoleon’s escape from Elba in February, Europe has been jolted from eleven months of peace back into the frenzied panic of a war it believed had ended. “The whole complexion of the world is changed again,” writes George Ticknor, then a young American lawyer in Britain for the first time. “God only can forsee the consequences.” The nation is awash in reports and rumors. The Battle of Waterloo is close at hand.
Went the Day Well? is an astonishing hour-by-hour chronicle that starts the day before the battle that reset the course of world history and continues to its aftermath. Switching perspectives between Britain and Belgium, prison and palace, poet and pauper, lover and betrothed, husband and wife, David Crane paints a picture of Britain as it was that summer when everything changed. Drawing on a wide range of primary sources—from newspapers and journals to letters and poems—Went the Day Well? offers a highly original view of Waterloo, grand in scope but meticulous in detail.
What was Britain doing on that Sunday, from the mad king downward? Who were born to live out their lives in the Britain created at Waterloo? Who died? Who was preaching, who was writing and who was painting? Lyrically rendered in Crane’s signature prose style, Went the Day Well? freeze-frames the men and women of Britain in 1815 as they went about their business, attended lectures, worked in fields and factories—all on the cusp of a new, unforeseeable age.
From the Hardcover edition.
Went the Day Well? is an astonishing hour-by-hour chronicle that starts the day before the battle that reset the course of world history and continues to its aftermath. Switching perspectives between Britain and Belgium, prison and palace, poet and pauper, lover and betrothed, husband and wife, David Crane paints a picture of Britain as it was that summer when everything changed. Drawing on a wide range of primary sources—from newspapers and journals to letters and poems—Went the Day Well? offers a highly original view of Waterloo, grand in scope but meticulous in detail.
What was Britain doing on that Sunday, from the mad king downward? Who were born to live out their lives in the Britain created at Waterloo? Who died? Who was preaching, who was writing and who was painting? Lyrically rendered in Crane’s signature prose style, Went the Day Well? freeze-frames the men and women of Britain in 1815 as they went about their business, attended lectures, worked in fields and factories—all on the cusp of a new, unforeseeable age.
From the Hardcover edition.
417 pages, Paperback
First published January 29, 2015
12 people are currently reading
98 people want to read
About the author
David Crane
94 books6 followersDavid Crane read history and English at Oxford University before becoming a lecturer at universities in the Netherlands, Japan, and Africa.
He is the acclaimed biographer of Scott of the Antarctic and of Edward Trelawny, companion of Byron and Shelley. He also wrote The Kindness Of Sisters, an account of the relationship between Byron's widow and his sister-in-law, who bore his child. His book, Empires Of The Dead, about Fabian Ware and the building of the First World War cemeteries, was shortlisted for the 2013 Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.
He lives in northwest Scotland.
There is more than one author by the name David Crane on Goodreads
David Crane: Video Game Designer
David Crane: Screenplays
He is the acclaimed biographer of Scott of the Antarctic and of Edward Trelawny, companion of Byron and Shelley. He also wrote The Kindness Of Sisters, an account of the relationship between Byron's widow and his sister-in-law, who bore his child. His book, Empires Of The Dead, about Fabian Ware and the building of the First World War cemeteries, was shortlisted for the 2013 Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.
He lives in northwest Scotland.
There is more than one author by the name David Crane on Goodreads
David Crane: Video Game Designer
David Crane: Screenplays
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 17, 2016
Picked this one up at the Humane Society resale shop in Hayward, Wisconsin last week. It's a social history of Britain circa the time of the battle of Waterloo, a collage made up of what are intended to be representative stories. It's also about the battle, but it's more an impressionistic than an exhaustive portrayal. The point, insofar as one is discernable, is found in the conflicts between Left and Right, between Napoleon and Wellington, between Republican innovation and English traditionalism, between Whig and Tory. In opposition to the long tradition of glorifying the victory at Waterloo, author Crane decries the triumphalism of the old order.
Beautifully written, but written for a British public for which the 20-year war with France would be as familiar as the Civil War is for Americans.
Beautifully written, but written for a British public for which the 20-year war with France would be as familiar as the Civil War is for Americans.
June 27, 2017
This is an odd book in several ways, and while I'm happy with it, it could easily have been twice as long. I'll explain the "oddness" but I'm not complaining. I can recommend this one.
In a very real sense this book is an expansion of, and riff upon, Thomas De Quincey's essay "The English Mail Coach." The author essentially assumes that the reader is very familiar with that work, because he refers to it without explanation more than half the time. (I expect that the majority of this book's readers will not, in fact, be all that familiar with De Quincey, which makes this an odd choice.)
The book is subtitled "Witnessing Waterloo" and at first I thought it was going to take a world-wide perspective on the battle, as there were such early hints. In fact, this is essentially about the British view of the battle, and the effect on British politics, and the British self-image. There are brief chapters describing what was happening on the battlefield that Sunday, intercut with what was happening back in London, and a few selected places elsewhere in Britain.
The selection of persons to observe upon is both interesting and puzzling. Family members of soldiers fighting in the battle are an obvious choice. There are a couple of artists whose connection with the battle is that many of their artist models for well-known paintings were, in their day jobs, soldiers in some of the showier units, like the Life Guards Cavalry. (We then follow some of these models who are in the battle, and one who has been left behind in London.) There are a couple of young ladies who find themselves in prison, condemned to death. Their stories give a slice of the culture, so that makes sense. But there are others, like Lord Cochrane, also in jail, and Byron, who have interesting stories, but don't seem very relevant to the battles going on in Belgium. The result of the randomness of these deliberate choices is that I wasn't always sure why I was being told what I was being told, and in a few cases never did find out.
Still, the stories had interest. I especially like that Crane focuses on the anti-war leaders in Britain, and the Bonaparte sympathizers; as well as those simply weary of fighting the French.
There are citations in the back, and a few footnotes, but often the book expects you to be familiar with various legends and myths of the battle. While I am widely read on the subject of the Waterloo Campaign, I found myself having to look things up rather often; and feeling that I should have been given that one extra sentence of explanation that would have solved the issue.
Again, despite some oddities, I enjoyed reading this quite a lot. Despite all I've read about Ligny, Quatres Bras and Waterloo, I was never bored. I got some writing ideas, and I have been inspired to revisit De Quincey. A win, all around.
In a very real sense this book is an expansion of, and riff upon, Thomas De Quincey's essay "The English Mail Coach." The author essentially assumes that the reader is very familiar with that work, because he refers to it without explanation more than half the time. (I expect that the majority of this book's readers will not, in fact, be all that familiar with De Quincey, which makes this an odd choice.)
The book is subtitled "Witnessing Waterloo" and at first I thought it was going to take a world-wide perspective on the battle, as there were such early hints. In fact, this is essentially about the British view of the battle, and the effect on British politics, and the British self-image. There are brief chapters describing what was happening on the battlefield that Sunday, intercut with what was happening back in London, and a few selected places elsewhere in Britain.
The selection of persons to observe upon is both interesting and puzzling. Family members of soldiers fighting in the battle are an obvious choice. There are a couple of artists whose connection with the battle is that many of their artist models for well-known paintings were, in their day jobs, soldiers in some of the showier units, like the Life Guards Cavalry. (We then follow some of these models who are in the battle, and one who has been left behind in London.) There are a couple of young ladies who find themselves in prison, condemned to death. Their stories give a slice of the culture, so that makes sense. But there are others, like Lord Cochrane, also in jail, and Byron, who have interesting stories, but don't seem very relevant to the battles going on in Belgium. The result of the randomness of these deliberate choices is that I wasn't always sure why I was being told what I was being told, and in a few cases never did find out.
Still, the stories had interest. I especially like that Crane focuses on the anti-war leaders in Britain, and the Bonaparte sympathizers; as well as those simply weary of fighting the French.
There are citations in the back, and a few footnotes, but often the book expects you to be familiar with various legends and myths of the battle. While I am widely read on the subject of the Waterloo Campaign, I found myself having to look things up rather often; and feeling that I should have been given that one extra sentence of explanation that would have solved the issue.
Again, despite some oddities, I enjoyed reading this quite a lot. Despite all I've read about Ligny, Quatres Bras and Waterloo, I was never bored. I got some writing ideas, and I have been inspired to revisit De Quincey. A win, all around.
September 22, 2015
Not what I expected -more social than historic/military. It will interest some.
June 11, 2015
Mr. Crane presents an interesting perspective on the famous battle of Waterloo, with a timely release in its 200th anniversary year. The focus is on the state of affairs and national mood in Britain at the time of the battle. To illustrate his points, Crane details a number of contemporary personalities and events. These are interspersed with brief accounts of the significant battle developments, and the personal stories of some of the major players, during the course of the long day on June 15. Finally, Crane wraps up with an overview of the aftereffects of the battle, both on the participants and on the country. It's a fairly light read, and very interesting. I must say, however, that Crane's penchant for excruciatingly long, involved sentences, with lots of dependent clauses, and frequent hyphenated insertions--sort of like this one, but usually much longer--is very distracting, and causes readers--at least this one--to have to return to the beginning, often many times, to try to figure out where the sentence was actually going, thereby causing a loss of reading continuity and enjoyment, so be warned.
May 31, 2015
Truly extraordinary. Contrasting the hours of Waterloo with the corresponding hours in Britain, Crane exhibits the amazing intricacy and courage of the world shaping battle with its background in the Britain which led it. They're all here: the Emperor, Wellington and the rest but you'll also encounter Wilberforce and the Methodists, the great insurer Charles Lloyd and his new Quaker profession, and many political Radicals, poets, Whigs and Royals. Not a simple book, but, for the dedicated reader, an enlightening and revealing one!
August 4, 2015
Blah, blah, blah, blah, and something important is going on somewhere in Belgium, but lets talk incessantly about something else. Blah, blah, blah...
September 21, 2020
Purchase Went the Day Well here for just $8!
A great social history of the British Isles, hour by hour on the day of the Battle of Waterloo and of the aftermath. A must read for anyone interested in this critical period in world history.
Alicia, The Book Grocer
A great social history of the British Isles, hour by hour on the day of the Battle of Waterloo and of the aftermath. A must read for anyone interested in this critical period in world history.
Alicia, The Book Grocer
July 12, 2021
I really wanted to like this book but couldn’t make myself. The prose is overwritten - there are many run-on sentences and lots of purple prose. Rather than a story about Waterloo the book read more like collection of unrelated short stories over a wide and unconnected geographical area whose only connection is that they all happen on the same day.
December 3, 2017
Went the Day Well tells of the lives of the British people from all aspects, from the vagabond to the high commander. Went the Day Well explores the lives of the British and how these lives were changed by Waterloo.
May 26, 2018
Engrossing social history which complements battle focussed books really .
May 27, 2019
Interesting book that covers other events at time of Waterloo while tying back certain pieces.
November 8, 2015
Ambitious attempt to re-visit well trodden ground. Crane takes a look at what was happening to various people in the British Empire on the day of the battle. He turns up a lot of interesting characters, but his writing is curiously hard to read. Lots of convoluted sentences, and characters are introduced as if we were already familiar with them. Not bad, but I'm halfway through and don't think I'll finish.
October 1, 2015
The "Waterloo" part of the title merely sets a date for the events that happen in the book. Rather than explore the battle, the book explores the social and political scene in London.
I made it a third of the way through the book. I found the narratives of each chapter too disjointed and trite. Time to give up and put it down.
I made it a third of the way through the book. I found the narratives of each chapter too disjointed and trite. Time to give up and put it down.
January 11, 2016
This book contains historical details of the days around the battle of Waterloo.
I was expecting a study of the actual battle whereas this was a general account of the times. My rating of 3 stars is mainly for the few accounts of the battle contained in this book, I found the rest of it a bit confusing.
I was expecting a study of the actual battle whereas this was a general account of the times. My rating of 3 stars is mainly for the few accounts of the battle contained in this book, I found the rest of it a bit confusing.
May 27, 2015
Not just the battlefield but life in England of the time. Fascinating look at English and Scottish society as Britain moved into her Empire years. Large selection of illustrations, brightly and crisply reproduced.
January 18, 2018
This was a tedious read. The author uses lot of commas and some sentences were a whole paragraph in length. Also, it was difficult to keep track of of the characters and landmarks. The is not a book I could recommend to the casual reader of British history.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews