Two Men: A Romance of Sussex by Alfred Ollivant

by Alfred Ollivant

"Two brothers, one strong physically and open-minded, the other deformed and small-minded, grow up opposite each other and take opposite ways to the love of the same woman."
New York Times Saturday Review of Books and Art

317 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1919

About the author

Alfred Ollivant (1874–1927) was an English novelist best known for his children's classic Bob, Son of Battle. Ollivant also wrote about a dozen other novels ranging from small-scale cautionary tales to grand historical epics.

Alfred Ollivant was born in Nuthurst, Sussex, in 1874 and became an author after a horse-riding injury ending his brief military career. Bob, Son of Battle, his first novel, was published in 1898. Set in rural Cumbria, in northern England, the novel centers on a suspected sheepkilling collie Bob.

Even though most of the book's dialogue is written in the Cumbrian dialect, it gained a popular following in the United States. Ollivant even published a sequel, Danny, in 1902. He was also a short story contributor to The Atlantic Monthly and the Boston Evening Transcript. Alfred Ollivant died in London on January 19, 1927.