The Major

by Ralph Connor

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Adventure

330 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1917

About the author

University of Toronto educated Charles William Gordon, ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1890. Under the pseudonym Ralph Connor, he published more than thirty novels, including The Man from Glengarry (1901) and Glengarry School Days (1902). These novels made him an internationally best-selling author.

Reviews

[L. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Canada - Good

Germany - Bad

Hulk - Smash

[Toni Wyatt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book struggled a bit with what it wanted to be. The author, Ralph Connor (real name Charles Gordon) was a Canadian writing this during the height of WWI, so, of course his sense of pride in his country, and the barbarism of what the Germans did in Belgium is included in this work.

He diverts from character work into a history lesson about German militarism with barely any space between. It makes for stilted reading, but it doesn’t mean that what he conveys wasn’t true.

Unfortunately, the character work, timeline, and plotting are in a jumbled mess. The characters are likable, but the story jumps around just when we begin to get a sense of them. In the end, we are moved by the vague love story that is woven throughout, but the circumstances are hardly feasible in the real world.

There is racism and religious bigotry which should have played no part. It felt as if the author wanted to get down the sentiments in a rush. As of publication, the war was still ongoing.

There are much better novels of this time period. But, after reading L. M. Montgomery’s journals, I can say that the Canadian feelings during this time are exactly what this author writes them to be.