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A Far Country
Hugh Paret, corporate lawyer on American eastern seabord, narrates his home life, best friend Nancy, extra classes for Harvard, tangle with corrupt politics, unhappy late marriage to Maude. Fellow student Hermann Krebs works his way through college, takes honest socialist road to Hugh's capitalist striving.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1915
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About the author
Winston Churchill
389 books111 followers
This is not the British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Spencer Churchill. This is the American novelist, Winston Churchill.
Churchill was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Edward Spalding and Emma Bell (Blaine) Churchill. He attended Smith Academy in Missouri and the United States Naval Academy, where he graduated in 1894 and became an editor of the Army and Navy Journal. He resigned from the navy to pursue a writing career. While he would be most successful as a novelist, he was also a published poet and essayist.
His first novel was The Celebrity (1898). (Mr. Keegan's Elopement was published in 1896 within a magazine. In 1903 it was republished as an illustrated hardback book.) Churchill's next novel—Richard Carvel (1899)—was a phenomenon, selling as many as two million copies in a nation of only 76 million, and made Churchill rich. His next two novels, The Crisis (1901) and The Crossing (1904), were also very successful.
Churchill's early novels were historical but his later works were set in contemporary America. He often sought to include his political ideas into his novels. Churchill wrote in the naturalist style of literature, and some have called him the most influential of the American naturalists.
In 1899, Churchill moved to Cornish, New Hampshire. He became involved in politics and was elected to the state legislature in 1903 and 1905. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor in 1906. In 1912, he was nominated as the Progressive candidate for governor but did not win the election. He did not again seek office. In 1917, he toured the battlefields of World War I and wrote about what he saw, his first non-fiction work.
Sometime after this move, he took up watercolors, and also became known for his landscapes. Some of his works are in the collections of Cornish Colony Museum in Windsor, Vermont, Hood Museum of Art (part of Hopkins Center for the Arts Dartmouth College) in Hanover, New Hampshire, and Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire.
In 1919, Churchill decided to stop writing and withdrew from public life. As a result of this he was gradually forgotten by the public. In 1940, The Uncharted Way, his first book in 20 years, was published. The book examined Churchill's thoughts on religion. He did not seek to publicize the book and it received little attention. Shortly before his death he said, "It is very difficult now for me to think of myself as a writer of novels, as all that seems to belong to another life."
Churchill died in Winter Park, Florida in 1947. He is the great-grandfather of Albany, New York, journalist Chris Churchill.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston...]
Churchill was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Edward Spalding and Emma Bell (Blaine) Churchill. He attended Smith Academy in Missouri and the United States Naval Academy, where he graduated in 1894 and became an editor of the Army and Navy Journal. He resigned from the navy to pursue a writing career. While he would be most successful as a novelist, he was also a published poet and essayist.
His first novel was The Celebrity (1898). (Mr. Keegan's Elopement was published in 1896 within a magazine. In 1903 it was republished as an illustrated hardback book.) Churchill's next novel—Richard Carvel (1899)—was a phenomenon, selling as many as two million copies in a nation of only 76 million, and made Churchill rich. His next two novels, The Crisis (1901) and The Crossing (1904), were also very successful.
Churchill's early novels were historical but his later works were set in contemporary America. He often sought to include his political ideas into his novels. Churchill wrote in the naturalist style of literature, and some have called him the most influential of the American naturalists.
In 1899, Churchill moved to Cornish, New Hampshire. He became involved in politics and was elected to the state legislature in 1903 and 1905. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor in 1906. In 1912, he was nominated as the Progressive candidate for governor but did not win the election. He did not again seek office. In 1917, he toured the battlefields of World War I and wrote about what he saw, his first non-fiction work.
Sometime after this move, he took up watercolors, and also became known for his landscapes. Some of his works are in the collections of Cornish Colony Museum in Windsor, Vermont, Hood Museum of Art (part of Hopkins Center for the Arts Dartmouth College) in Hanover, New Hampshire, and Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire.
In 1919, Churchill decided to stop writing and withdrew from public life. As a result of this he was gradually forgotten by the public. In 1940, The Uncharted Way, his first book in 20 years, was published. The book examined Churchill's thoughts on religion. He did not seek to publicize the book and it received little attention. Shortly before his death he said, "It is very difficult now for me to think of myself as a writer of novels, as all that seems to belong to another life."
Churchill died in Winter Park, Florida in 1947. He is the great-grandfather of Albany, New York, journalist Chris Churchill.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston...]
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 16, 2016
Yet another book wherein I note that if there were half stars on this website I'd use a half star. Call this 4.5 stars. With that said . . .
I've always been somewhat curious about Churchill's books. Here we have a guy who was a best-selling author, a former military man, and something of a failed politician at the turn of the century (the 20th century). At one point in time, everything he released seemed to end up on the best-seller lists. And, at one point in time, no one would confuse him for that guy who would later become Prime Minister of Great Britain during the second world war. If anything, they would see a book by that Churchill and wonder if the American Churchill had written it. Then the American Churchill retired from public life in 1919, had one unsuccessful book appear in roughly 1940 and became completely overshadowed by Sir Winston Churchill. But enough of the reasons why I was interested, more on the book itself.
A Far Country has an oddly modern feel to it. Men and women struggling with transition, the changing nature of marriage, the changing nature of power, economics, politics. If this book hadn't been written around 1915, but was only set in 1915, I'd have some vague feeling that it was too modern. I'm trying to think of exceptions to the modern feel, and the only thing I can think of would be the somewhat limited use of cars at the time, and in the book.
A man grows up in an upper-middle class household. Maybe even upper class. There seemed to be the idea in Hugh's mind, the main fella in the book, that his father hadn't been as rich as he actually turned out to be. But no matter, for all intents and purposes, Hugh was born in a leading family, in the higher class of a city. The city is never named, though I got the impression it was a mid-western city. Not sure if it was supposed to be St. Louis or not, but I was thinking of St. Louis as I was reading the book, mostly because Churchill himself was from there.
Got distracted there. Right, so, man grows up in a leading family, father and mother deeply religious, father a high-class and much respected lawyer, mother a housewife. Has many friends. Some of which from the lower classes. One particular female seems to hang around him, and there was some indication that she rather fancied him. And eventually they . . . went their separate ways during then after high school due to misunderstandings.
Hugh had the potential to be the best student in school, but didn't see any reason to push himself, so he just coasted. To the point that his father got him an opportunity to have a good job in business, instead of sending him to college. This both woke Hugh up, and lead to the misunderstandings that lead him and Nancy to part from each other. Not wanting to be "other", Hugh pushed himself and got into Harvard.
Estranged from religion, for the most part, and from love, also for the most part (due to the split from Nancy), Hugh went for power. Paths kept coming up, opportunities that would have lead one way or another and he always seemed to chose the one that went a particular direction. A direction that eventually lead to him being a lawyer. A "corporate lawyer". A very powerful man.
Quite interesting book. With much talk about the economics, politics, religion, and people of the time. Paths that might have been taken. Paths that should be taken in the future. Shortly after the mid-point in the book, the story turned heavily into Nancy-Hugh stuff. A turn that lead me to skimming. That section was important to the overall story, but could probably have been reduced from 20% of the book down to . . . oh, 10%. Or less. Enough to have its impact. But not so much that it would lead to skimming.
Well, I've read at least one book by the two fellas named Winston Churchill who were living at roughly the same time. Both, based on the several books I've read by Sir Winston S. Churchill (Winston S. Churchill being what he himself put on his books, after noticing the other Winston Churchill publishing books, the S not being a middle name but a part of his last name, Spencer-Churchill), and the one book by this Winston Churchill, I'd say that both are worthwhile reads. And enjoyable in their own ways. Though one mostly wrote fiction (this Churchill here), while the other mostly wrote non-fiction (that other Churchill).
I've always been somewhat curious about Churchill's books. Here we have a guy who was a best-selling author, a former military man, and something of a failed politician at the turn of the century (the 20th century). At one point in time, everything he released seemed to end up on the best-seller lists. And, at one point in time, no one would confuse him for that guy who would later become Prime Minister of Great Britain during the second world war. If anything, they would see a book by that Churchill and wonder if the American Churchill had written it. Then the American Churchill retired from public life in 1919, had one unsuccessful book appear in roughly 1940 and became completely overshadowed by Sir Winston Churchill. But enough of the reasons why I was interested, more on the book itself.
A Far Country has an oddly modern feel to it. Men and women struggling with transition, the changing nature of marriage, the changing nature of power, economics, politics. If this book hadn't been written around 1915, but was only set in 1915, I'd have some vague feeling that it was too modern. I'm trying to think of exceptions to the modern feel, and the only thing I can think of would be the somewhat limited use of cars at the time, and in the book.
A man grows up in an upper-middle class household. Maybe even upper class. There seemed to be the idea in Hugh's mind, the main fella in the book, that his father hadn't been as rich as he actually turned out to be. But no matter, for all intents and purposes, Hugh was born in a leading family, in the higher class of a city. The city is never named, though I got the impression it was a mid-western city. Not sure if it was supposed to be St. Louis or not, but I was thinking of St. Louis as I was reading the book, mostly because Churchill himself was from there.
Got distracted there. Right, so, man grows up in a leading family, father and mother deeply religious, father a high-class and much respected lawyer, mother a housewife. Has many friends. Some of which from the lower classes. One particular female seems to hang around him, and there was some indication that she rather fancied him. And eventually they . . . went their separate ways during then after high school due to misunderstandings.
Hugh had the potential to be the best student in school, but didn't see any reason to push himself, so he just coasted. To the point that his father got him an opportunity to have a good job in business, instead of sending him to college. This both woke Hugh up, and lead to the misunderstandings that lead him and Nancy to part from each other. Not wanting to be "other", Hugh pushed himself and got into Harvard.
Estranged from religion, for the most part, and from love, also for the most part (due to the split from Nancy), Hugh went for power. Paths kept coming up, opportunities that would have lead one way or another and he always seemed to chose the one that went a particular direction. A direction that eventually lead to him being a lawyer. A "corporate lawyer". A very powerful man.
Quite interesting book. With much talk about the economics, politics, religion, and people of the time. Paths that might have been taken. Paths that should be taken in the future. Shortly after the mid-point in the book, the story turned heavily into Nancy-Hugh stuff. A turn that lead me to skimming. That section was important to the overall story, but could probably have been reduced from 20% of the book down to . . . oh, 10%. Or less. Enough to have its impact. But not so much that it would lead to skimming.
Well, I've read at least one book by the two fellas named Winston Churchill who were living at roughly the same time. Both, based on the several books I've read by Sir Winston S. Churchill (Winston S. Churchill being what he himself put on his books, after noticing the other Winston Churchill publishing books, the S not being a middle name but a part of his last name, Spencer-Churchill), and the one book by this Winston Churchill, I'd say that both are worthwhile reads. And enjoyable in their own ways. Though one mostly wrote fiction (this Churchill here), while the other mostly wrote non-fiction (that other Churchill).
June 27, 2015
An amazing epic. One of the best books I have read.
November 12, 2020
I read about 35% and it’s just too tedious. Perhaps I’ll go back to it some day. I have too many promising books stacked up on my desk, to subject myself to this. In addition, the Kindle version I got is TERRIBLE. Not interactive, and the smallest print I’ve ever seen. Maybe that’s what you get when you buy an obscure book on Kindle. I bought several books by Winston Churchill when I learned that, unlike the Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill who also wrote some books, this man was a successful American author who got dibs on the author name, requiring the Prime Minister to include the “S” in his name in order to publish under his name. I hope one of the other books by Churchill is better than this one!
January 27, 2024
Admittedly, I picked this up at my library's used books sale because it was by Churchill, and the edition was published in 1915 (not a first edition, but an early one).
Originally, I thought I would read the first 100 pages and then add it to my collection. However, it turned out to be an engrossing story about the politics and lives of upper-middle-class Americans during the Gilded Age. In addition to fully developed characters, there were multiple plots (e.g., marriages, loves, politics), which provided tension and motivated me to continue reading. The conflicts echoed in our present day and evidence that some issues are eternal.
Originally, I thought I would read the first 100 pages and then add it to my collection. However, it turned out to be an engrossing story about the politics and lives of upper-middle-class Americans during the Gilded Age. In addition to fully developed characters, there were multiple plots (e.g., marriages, loves, politics), which provided tension and motivated me to continue reading. The conflicts echoed in our present day and evidence that some issues are eternal.
August 27, 2019
3 and a half stars. Hugh was a narcissistic dick and I would have liked him to get more of a comeuppance but I suppose the whole point of the story was for him to come to realise the errors in his ways. Very interesting to see that over 100 years ago politics and the law are still very much the same as they are today!
April 22, 2024
4.5 stars. Churchill does not convincingly pull off the American dialect. His writing often sounds like exactly what it is, a Brit trying to sound like an American. Other than that, the business side of Hugh’s life could occasionally get pretty dry, but the family side (the main story) was very well done and often both convicting and inspiring. A great story, well worth the read.
January 13, 2021
This book is a socialistic parable which reminded me of "The Jungle". While Sinclair focuses on more material matters in talking about how socialism might benefit the lower classes, Churchill offers a similar message, but directed at the "spiritual" matters of the middle and upper classes. The protagonist, while on his journey to capitalistic success, fails to find real fulfillment. In the end, as this is spelled out by an ancillary character in the final chapters (as with Sinclair's socialist community organizer), he is compared to the Prodigal Son who fritters away his inheritance in a far country and realizes his consequences of his choices. But, as in the Gospel, he is offered the way home though a change in his thinking and priorities.
January 5, 2014
Not by British Sir Winston Churchill. Yawn. Hugh Paret, Eastern U.S. seaboard corporation lawyer, narrates his growing ambition for power, descent into Yankee corrupt politics. He takes night classes to enter Harvard. Fellow student Hermann Krebs works while studying, continually crosses paths, marks the honest high road untaken. Is title the vast distance from innocence to dishonor?
Childhood friends Tom and Nancy warn him before drifting apart. Marrying late, in 30s, he expects to mold Maude, barely notices three children, of course she takes them away. Same old tune from breadwinner, too busy working.
Elegant 1915 dresses more old-fashioned than male attire; 8 illustrations are attractive part of book. Overly political, philosophical. I skimmed, gave up 2/3 way through. Seems more about a conflict between single railway and pals monopolies versus socialism than about people. Big boast - I will be a better person, put family before work.
Childhood friends Tom and Nancy warn him before drifting apart. Marrying late, in 30s, he expects to mold Maude, barely notices three children, of course she takes them away. Same old tune from breadwinner, too busy working.
Elegant 1915 dresses more old-fashioned than male attire; 8 illustrations are attractive part of book. Overly political, philosophical. I skimmed, gave up 2/3 way through. Seems more about a conflict between single railway and pals monopolies versus socialism than about people. Big boast - I will be a better person, put family before work.
May 19, 2013
A very engaging book delineating the mores of turn of century American in the early 1900's. It indeed is by Winston Churchill, but not Winston Spencer Churchill of British notoriety. It is an illluminating piece of Americana that chronicles in a microcosm the breaking of the big monopolies by Theordore Roosevelt. It is a well written novel on its subject, entertwining personal ambition with personal affections and aspirations.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews