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The Peacemaker
A bitterly ironic story about an ineffectual schoolmaster whose mathematical genius leads him to construct a machine which will demagnetize iron at a distance. He is led by unfortunate circumstance to use the machine in a hopeless attempt to blackmail England into initiating a program of disarmament.
174 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1934
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63 people want to read
About the author
C.S. Forester
238 books997 followersCecil Scott Forester was the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith, an English novelist who rose to fame with tales of adventure and military crusades. His most notable works were the 11-book Horatio Hornblower series, about naval warfare during the Napoleonic era, and The African Queen (1935; filmed in 1951 by John Huston). His novels A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours were jointly awarded the 1938 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 20, 2016
Oh, Dear, Forester's such a hero of mine. he writes like an angel in the old fashioned style where there are no expletives and the writer doesn't exist. As these publishers are quick to point out, he wrote the Hornblower series - the wonderful four-master, top-gallant books about a cabin boy who rose to become Lord of the seas. Incidentally, Forester was the writer who inspired Roald Dahl. Take that as a compliment or how you will.
Oh, yes, Forester can write. He chats along easily and takes the reader with him, an old-fashioned John Grisham, if you will, both of them complete masters of the narrative and fun to read. The trick is to keep the story on the rails.
The Peacemaker - the research is breathtaking - is about a scientist who hold London to ransom. But he's no ordinary scientist and this is no ordinary story. He's a mild mannered math teacher in love with his principal's daughter. Two problems - no, three. One, Pethwick, that's his name, is a genius who's found a way to disempower magnets. Two, the object of his affections - the headmasters daughter Dorothy - is a pacifist, with the result that Pethwick becomes a pacifist too. And three, poor old Pethwick is married - to a drunken sod of a woman with more tricks up her skirt than a conjurer.
The result is that Pethwick, to prove himself worthy of the woman he loves who has taken to the hills as a result of one of the wife's more heinous tricks - pretending she's pregnant - becomes what he thinks is a pacifist, too. That's why he holds London to ransom.
And that's where the thing goes off the rails. Quite clearly, as a writer Forester shares the same quirk of character that Dahl has. But where as Dahl's weirdness is as attractive as a magnet that's properly functioning to kids, Forester in the Peacemaker strains credulity just a little too far. He skids over the science and leaves the reader unconvinced that this could happen.
So there you have it. Beautiful writer, beautiful story that unfortunately goes awry. The thing lost the magnetism that should have held it together - that is , the rather delightful and convincing love story - and consequently its attraction for the reader. Making it an " Oh dear" story instead of a 'wow".
Oh, yes, Forester can write. He chats along easily and takes the reader with him, an old-fashioned John Grisham, if you will, both of them complete masters of the narrative and fun to read. The trick is to keep the story on the rails.
The Peacemaker - the research is breathtaking - is about a scientist who hold London to ransom. But he's no ordinary scientist and this is no ordinary story. He's a mild mannered math teacher in love with his principal's daughter. Two problems - no, three. One, Pethwick, that's his name, is a genius who's found a way to disempower magnets. Two, the object of his affections - the headmasters daughter Dorothy - is a pacifist, with the result that Pethwick becomes a pacifist too. And three, poor old Pethwick is married - to a drunken sod of a woman with more tricks up her skirt than a conjurer.
The result is that Pethwick, to prove himself worthy of the woman he loves who has taken to the hills as a result of one of the wife's more heinous tricks - pretending she's pregnant - becomes what he thinks is a pacifist, too. That's why he holds London to ransom.
And that's where the thing goes off the rails. Quite clearly, as a writer Forester shares the same quirk of character that Dahl has. But where as Dahl's weirdness is as attractive as a magnet that's properly functioning to kids, Forester in the Peacemaker strains credulity just a little too far. He skids over the science and leaves the reader unconvinced that this could happen.
So there you have it. Beautiful writer, beautiful story that unfortunately goes awry. The thing lost the magnetism that should have held it together - that is , the rather delightful and convincing love story - and consequently its attraction for the reader. Making it an " Oh dear" story instead of a 'wow".
March 29, 2021
A mild mannered scientist with a brutish wife makes a world shaking discovery. A naïve and idealistic young girl convinces him to use his discovery to bring about worldwide disarmament. His actions lead to predictable results and inevitable tragedy that everyone can foresee except him.
Mostly a psychological study. Dr. Pethwick is a shy man with little experience in the world. He expects everyone to act logically and is confounded when it doesn't happen the way he expects. Mankind's basic animalistic tendencies overcome him. While the theme of the book is disarmament it's really about a repressed man trying to assert himself for the first time.
Everyone in this novel is single-minded. Pethwick is the absent-minded professor who just wants to get along without bother. His wife is a lazy, mean drunk. The girl is an aimless twenty-something looking for a cause to protest, and since her father is a General she is naturally against the military. None of them can see beyond their personal prejudices. The only character with a realistic view of the world is an auto mechanic who teaches Pethwick to drive a car.
Not unlike other Forester novels with a dysfunctional husband and wife. Odd how that keeps coming up.
Mostly a psychological study. Dr. Pethwick is a shy man with little experience in the world. He expects everyone to act logically and is confounded when it doesn't happen the way he expects. Mankind's basic animalistic tendencies overcome him. While the theme of the book is disarmament it's really about a repressed man trying to assert himself for the first time.
Everyone in this novel is single-minded. Pethwick is the absent-minded professor who just wants to get along without bother. His wife is a lazy, mean drunk. The girl is an aimless twenty-something looking for a cause to protest, and since her father is a General she is naturally against the military. None of them can see beyond their personal prejudices. The only character with a realistic view of the world is an auto mechanic who teaches Pethwick to drive a car.
Not unlike other Forester novels with a dysfunctional husband and wife. Odd how that keeps coming up.
September 7, 2020
I'm a big fan of C.S. Forester having read many of his books, not just Hornblower which I've read about 20 times. I happened on this book and read it because it was available on the Kindle. It's one of C.S. Forester's rare non-military books.
Spoilers:
It's about a scientist/school teacher who discovers a magnet neutralizing ray. He's trapped in a loveless marriage and meets a like-minded young lady and they fall in love. But his wife suspects/finds out and sets out to nip it in the bud. The young lady decides to leave and because of this, the protagonist decides to use his ray on the world.
I did not finish this book. The protagonist is one of those tortured individuals that CS Forester is so fond of. But he doesn't have many redeeming qualities that his military characters often have. Because the book was so depressing, I decided to dnf it.
Spoilers:
It's about a scientist/school teacher who discovers a magnet neutralizing ray. He's trapped in a loveless marriage and meets a like-minded young lady and they fall in love. But his wife suspects/finds out and sets out to nip it in the bud. The young lady decides to leave and because of this, the protagonist decides to use his ray on the world.
I did not finish this book. The protagonist is one of those tortured individuals that CS Forester is so fond of. But he doesn't have many redeeming qualities that his military characters often have. Because the book was so depressing, I decided to dnf it.
June 16, 2023
What a fantastic read. The writing is artful and filled with so many clever turns of phrases. Forester again writes passionately about pacifism and disarmament and the methods of the Peacemaker are very similar to those of Extinction Rebellion or Just stop oil protesters. Above all, Pethwick is also such a fabulous character, as is his wife Mary, too.
June 25, 2025
Read on holiday in a degree of desperation due to a shortage of books available in English.
In it's day, this might have been a good read. Now, it seems dated and irrelevant. I read it quickly but can't say I enjoyed it.
In it's day, this might have been a good read. Now, it seems dated and irrelevant. I read it quickly but can't say I enjoyed it.
October 6, 2015
This isn't a Forester classic, but it's still very well worth reading, I think. The Peacemaker was written in 1934 and tells of Edward Pethwick, a diffident schoolmaster whose personal timidity and unfulfilled personal life coupled with a brilliance at physics leads to potentially Earth-shaking consequences. As a plot, it doesn't add up to all that much, really, and the ending in particular has a rather damp-squib feel about it, but I still found it involving and enjoyable. It is principally a novel of character, as many of Foresters books are, and it is this and his superb skill as a storyteller which make the book worthwhile.
The Peacemaker is a period-piece in many ways; certainly the meticulous build-up (which I found fascinating) would nowadays be crammed into a few pages - probably with references to childhood abuse to explain everything - and the "action" in the second half, rather than being fast and furious with car chases and Conspiracies Which Go Right To the Top is more concerned with Pethwick's character and his responses to events, and an often unflattering portrait of the press and public in the face of a threat to established attitudes. Forester was a genius at painting the minutiae of character which shape events (it is part of what makes the Hornblower series *so* good, I think) and he does it very well here, too. He also shows how relatively small, sometimes apparently insignificant actions can have the profoundest effect on the course of major events. It's a theme in a lot of Forester's work (like the excellent Brown On Resolution, or Hornblower mounting a horse and rallying the troops outside Riga in The Commodore, for example) and it is convincingly done here, too
I have loved Forester's books for decades but have only just got round to this. I'm glad I have and I would recommend this to anyone who likes a well-written and intelligent story.
The Peacemaker is a period-piece in many ways; certainly the meticulous build-up (which I found fascinating) would nowadays be crammed into a few pages - probably with references to childhood abuse to explain everything - and the "action" in the second half, rather than being fast and furious with car chases and Conspiracies Which Go Right To the Top is more concerned with Pethwick's character and his responses to events, and an often unflattering portrait of the press and public in the face of a threat to established attitudes. Forester was a genius at painting the minutiae of character which shape events (it is part of what makes the Hornblower series *so* good, I think) and he does it very well here, too. He also shows how relatively small, sometimes apparently insignificant actions can have the profoundest effect on the course of major events. It's a theme in a lot of Forester's work (like the excellent Brown On Resolution, or Hornblower mounting a horse and rallying the troops outside Riga in The Commodore, for example) and it is convincingly done here, too
I have loved Forester's books for decades but have only just got round to this. I'm glad I have and I would recommend this to anyone who likes a well-written and intelligent story.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews