The British Empire in fiction

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Main Article: The British Empire

The British Empire has often been portrayed in fiction. Originally such works described the Empire because it was a contemporary part of life; nowadays fictional references are also frequently made in a steampunk context.

Contents 1 Historical Events 1.1 Prose 1.2 Television 1.3 Films 2 Period Fiction 2.1 Prose 2.2 Theatre 2.3 Television 2.4 Films 3 Fantastical Fiction 3.1 Prose 3.2 Comics 3.3 Audio 3.4 Films 4 Alternative Histories 4.1 Prose 4.2 Comics 4.3 Audio 4.4 Television

[edit] Historical Events

This section includes fiction that attempts to re-create historical events.

This is an incomplete list. Please add significant examples in order of date published

[edit] Prose

• "Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian" (1972) by Richard Hough is a novel describing the events on the HMAV Bounty in 1789.

[edit] Television

• "Benedict Arnold: A Question of Honor" (2003) is a dramatization of the life of Benedict Arnold who plotted to surrender the American fort at West Point, New York to the British during the American Revolution in 1780.

[edit] Films

• "The Mutiny of the Bounty" (1916), "In the Wake of the Bounty" (1933), "The Mutiny on the Bounty" (1935), "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1962) and "The Bounty" (1984) are all film versions of the story of the mutiny on the Bounty in 1789.
• "John Paul Jones" (1959) a biographical epic film about John Paul Jones, the US Navy Officer during the American Revolution.
• "La Fayette" (1961) Biography of the Marquis de La Fayette, a French diplomat during the American Revolution.
• "Zulu" (1964) is set during the British defence of Rorke's Drift during the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879. Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded in the action, the most ever awarded to a regiment in a single battle, thus ensuring its place in British military history.
• "Zulu Dawn" (1979) is a prequel to the film Zulu set during the Battle of Isandlwana in 1879 during the Anglo-Zulu War.
• "Ghandi" (1982) about about the life of Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the nonviolent resistance movement against British colonial rule in India during the first half of the 20th century.
• "The Crossing" (2000) about George Washington crossing the Delaware River and the Battle of Trenton in 1776.
• "Mangal Pandey: The Rising" (2005) is based on the life of Mangal Pandey and details his role as a leader in the Indian rebellion of 1857 which led to the downfall of the British East India Company.

[edit] Period Fiction

This section deals with fictional characters set within the wider backdrop of the British Empire.

This is an incomplete list. Please add significant examples in order of date published

[edit] Prose

• The Leatherstocking Tales (1823 onwards) by James Fenimore Cooper are a series of novels set in colonial north America between 1744 and 1804 featuring the hero Natty Bumppo. The most famous of the series is The Last of the Mohicans set during the French and Indian War.
• "King Solomon's Mines" (1885) introduces Alan Quatermain - a British explorer, but who displays a remarkably modern attitude to de-colonialisation, and shows a great respect for the African cultures. Nevertheless he is a patriot.
• The exploits of Sherlock Holmes (1887 onwards) often involve the Empire. He is asked to save it from treachery in The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans and His Last Bow, where it is revealed that his brother does work for the Foreign Office.
• "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888) two deserters from the British Army discover a hidden kingdom in the mountains and pretend to be gods to control (and rob) the natives.
• "The White Man's Burden" (1899) a poem describing empire as the duty and burden of white men.
• "Heart of Darkness (1899) a reflection on the savage Belgian empire compared to Britain's and the many kinds of evil perceived to be in Africa.
• "Kim" (1900) an orphan of British descent becomes a spy for Britain. A commentary on how 'British' you can be when you are born overseas.
• "The Four Feathers" (1902) by A.E.W. Mason tells the story of British officer Harry Faversham, who resigns his commission from his regiment just prior to the Battle of Omdurman, in the Sudan, in 1898. He questions his own true motives, and resolves to redeem himself in combat, travelling on his own to the Sudan.
• "The Tree of Liberty" (1905) by Elizabeth Page set during the American Revolution.
• "A Passage to India" (1924) by E M Forster set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the Indian independence movement in the 1920s.
• "Drums Along the Mohawk" (1936) by Walter D. Edmonds is set in the Mohawk River Valley during the American Revolution and includes a fictitious representation of the siege of Fort Stanwix.
• The Hornblower Series (1937 onwards) chronicle the life of Horatio Hornblower, an officer in the Royal Navy, during the Napoleonic Wars.
• "Tai-Pan" (1966) by James Clavell is the second book in Clavell's Asian Saga. It concerns European and American traders who move into Hong Kong in 1841 following the end of the first Opium War.
• The Flashman Series (1969 onwards) by George MacDonald Fraser shows the British Empire between 1839 and 1891 and from the eyes of the dastardly Flashman - the bully from Tom Brown's Schooldays. Many famous people from the time are mentioned usually in a bad light, or with flaws (e.g. Lord Cardigan, in Flashman and Flashman at the Charge)
• "The Far Pavilions" (1978) by M. M. Kaye is the story of an English officer during the Great Game. Based partly on biographical writings of the author's grandfather.
• The Sharpe Series (1981 onwards) Series of books which follow the career of Richard Sharpe from India, through the Napoleonic Wars and beyond.

[edit] Theatre

• "The Recruiting Officer" (1706) by the Irish writer George Farquhar, which follows the social and sexual exploits of two recruiting officers. The characters of the play are generally stock, in keeping with the genre of Restoration Comedy.
• "H.M.S. Pinafore" (1878) by Gilbert and Sullivan is a comic opera and satire set aboard the (fictional) eponymous Royal Navy vessel.
• "The Devil's Disciple" (1901) by George Bernard Shaw is the fictional story of Richard Dudgeon, a Patriot in the Revolutionary War.
• "Our Country's Good" (1988) by British playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker telling the story of Convictism in Australia in the late 1780s.

[edit] Television

• "Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans" (1957) one of several dramatizations loosely based the Leatherstocking Tales series. Another well known adaptation is the 1971 BBC version.
• "The Recruiting Officer" (1965 and 1973) Two adaptations of the play.
• "The Far Pavilions" (1983) a three part television adaptation of the book.
• "The Jewel in the Crown" (1984) is a reflection on Indian independence and the post imperial feelings in Britain when the series was produced.
• "Hornblower" (1998 onwards) is a series of loose adaptions of the novels.
• "All the King's Men" (1999) BBC dramatization of the disappearance in action of the Sandringham Company at Gallipoli in 1915.
• "Sharpe" (1993 onwards) 15 episodes based upon the Sharpe novels, starring Sean Bean.

[edit] Films

• "The Four Feathers" (1915 onwards) Seven film adaptaitions have been made of the M. M. Kaye novel.
• "America" (1924) D W Griffith's unsuccessful film set during the American Revolution.
• "The Last of the Mohicans" (1909 onwards) is one of many a dramatizations of the second of the Leatherstocking Tales series.
• "Drums Along the Mohawk" (1939) An adaptation of the novel.
• "The Howards of Virginia" (1940) An adaptation of "The Tree of Liberty".
• "The Devil's Disciple" (1959) An adaptation of the play.
• "HMS Defiant" (1962) about a mutiny aboard the fictitious ship of the title during the Napoleonic Wars.
• "The Man Who Would Be King" (1975) film of the above novel.
• "Gallipoli" (1981) Australian film, directed by Peter Weir and starring Mel Gibson, about several young men from rural Western Australia who enlist in the Australian Imperial Force during the First World War. They are sent to Turkey, where they take part in the Battle of Gallipoli.
• "A Passage to India" (1984) film of the book of the same name.
• "Revolution" (1985) stars Al Pacino as a New York fur trapper during the American Revolutionary War.
• "Tai-Pan" (1939) An adaptation of the novel.
• "The Patriot" (2000) is a fictional film about a farmer who fights against the British during the American Revolution based very loosely on Francis Marion.

[edit] Fantastical Fiction

This section also has works with fictional characters set in the Empire, but also include supernatural or fantastical elements.

This is an incomplete list. Please add significant examples in order of date published

[edit] Prose

• "The Anubis Gates" (1983) by Tim Powers The exploits of the empire in Egypt lead to a magical revenge plotted by Egyptian natives, but their failure to destroy the Empire leaves gates in time, which are exploited by businessmen in the twentieth century.

[edit] Comics

• "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" (1999) by Alan Moore depicts an empire protected by Dr. Jekyll, Alan Quartermain and other fictional characters from Victorian fiction.
• "Scarlet Traces" (2002) and its sequel "Scarlet Traces: The Great Game" (2006) by Ian Edginton and D'Israeli are Steampunk sequels to H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds in which Martian technology has been exploited by Britain.

[edit] Audio

• The "Space 1889" audio dramas (2005 onwards) are based on the roleplaying game where Thomas Edison invented a means of travelling between planets and the major European powers have each established colonies in space.

[edit] Films

• The "Pirates of the Caribbean" films (2003 onwards) are a series of fantastical films set in Port Royal, Jamaica during British control.
• "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" (2003), a film adaptation of the Alan Moore comic.

[edit] Alternative Histories

This section details books that examine what would have happened if history had unfolded differently. The most common difference is the supposition that the British won the American War of Independence.

This is an incomplete list. Please add significant examples in order of date published

[edit] Prose

• "The Battle of Dorking" (1871) established a new genre of fiction relating to the Empire - Invasion literature, in which various powers attempt (or succeed) to invade Britain or the Empire. In The Battle of Dorking this is an unnamed power that happens to speak German, catches Britain off guard and leaves Dorking devastated for fifty years.
• "A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!" (1972) by Harry Harrison. The American revolution fails - this is another 1973 as the mainland America and Britain are joined by a tunnel.
• "For Want of a Nail: If Burgoyne Had Won at Saratoga" (1973) by Robert Sobel depicts an alternate history in which John Burgoyne emerged victorious from the Battle of Saratoga, ultimately defeating the American Revolution.
• "The Difference Engine" (1990) by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling posits an Empire that developed digital computers a century earlier, and where America split into several other countries rendering it vastly less powerful than Britain.
• "The Two Georges" (1995) by Harry Turtledove & Richard Dreyfuss depicts an alternate history world in which the American Revolution did not take place thanks to a constitutional settlement worked out in the early 1770s.
• The Code Geass anime series (see below) contains the novel "Our Days " (2006).

[edit] Comics

• The Code Geass anime series (see below) contain the manga books "Lelouch of the Rebellion", "Suzaku of the Counterattack" and "Nightmare of Nunnally" all published in 2006.

[edit] Audio

• The Code Geass anime series (see below) contain the radio series' "The Rebellion Diary" and "Lots about the Rebellion " broadcast in 2006.

[edit] Television

• The "Sliders" episode "The Prince of Wails" (1995) takes place on an alternate history world in which the American Revolution was won by the British.

• "Code Geass - Lelouch of the Rebellion" (2006) depicts a futuristic British Empire that had conquered one-third of world's landmass including the whole of North America, Indonesia and Japan under absolute monarchy.