Sergeant Lamb novels

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First editions (publ. Methuen)

Sergeant Lamb of the Ninth (released in America as Sergeant Lamb's America) and Proceed, Sergeant Lamb are two historical novels by Robert Graves, published in 1940 and 1941 respectively. They relate the experiences of Roger Lamb as a British soldier in the American Revolutionary War, and are based on the actual Roger Lamb's autobiographical works.

Synopsis

Roger Lamb, a young

Fort Edward, Lamb is charged with a lone mission to return through the forest to Ticonderoga, there to organize the transport of military stores. This he does, but on the way again chances on Kate, who is giving birth to their child. Kate leaves the baby to be looked after by a Quaker settler. Lamb takes part in a battle at Bemis Heights, in the course of which he learns by another accidental encounter that "Gentleman" Harlowe had long ago married and deserted another wife. Hostilities at Saratoga end with the surrender of Lamb's regiment. They are marched to Cambridge, Mass.
, in expectation of being shipped back to Britain.

As Proceed, Sergeant Lamb opens Lamb and his comrades learn that they are not to be returned home, as stipulated by the terms of surrender, but kept prisoner indefinitely. Months pass and conditions become more unbearable, provoking desertions. Finally they are ordered to march to

battle of Guildford Court House, in the course of which Lamb encounters his old adversary Harlowe, now an American officer, and shoots him dead. They march to Wilmington, where many, Lamb among them, are trained up as cavalrymen, then ride far into Virginia, where Lamb takes part in an attempt to capture Jefferson at Monticello. The regiment is sent to Yorktown, where, as they prepare for the French attack, he discovers that the mysterious mistress of his general Lord Cornwallis is Lamb's own Kate. She promises to eventually marry Lamb, but is killed in the first bombardment by the French. Cornwallis surrenders, and Lamb goes on the run rather than endure another imprisonment. Making for New York he gets as far as Frederick Town before being recaptured. He again escapes, and gets as far as York, Pennsylvania, where he rejoins his first regiment, the Ninth, who are still in captivity. Once more he breaks out, this time with seven other soldiers. They separate into two parties of four to attract less attention. After losing one of their number, and the British deserter who acted as their guide, Lamb's party makes it to New York. Briefly relating the remaining events of his life, Lamb tells us of the final British surrender
, his voyage to England, his departure from the service and return to Ireland, his marriage and career as a schoolteacher, and his long-lost American daughter's rediscovery of him in Dublin.

Composition

Graves began work on Sergeant Lamb of the Ninth in the autumn of 1939. Newly returned from an extended visit to America, he was mainly concerned to make a little money with which to support his girlfriend Beryl Hodge (later his second wife), and also his various needy friends who could be employed for secretarial and research work.[1][2] It has been suggested that another motive was the urge to interpret his turbulent love-life. He had lost a struggle with the American farmer-poet Schuyler Jackson over the affections of Graves's former lover Laura Riding, and his account of the American Revolutionary War might be seen as a recasting of his own story on the national scale. The recurring minor character of John Martin, a Satanic figure, closely resembles an earlier love-rival, Geoffrey Taylor (né Phibbs).[3][1] Another motive lies in Graves's strong disagreement with the sympathetic, Whiggish view of the American revolutionary cause held by, for example, Trevelyan, which he felt impelled to correct.[4] He may well also have felt driven to immerse himself in a war of the past out of frustration at being too old to take an active part in hostilities as the Second World War broke out, the fact that it involved his own former regiment, the Royal Welch Fusiliers, making the subject all the more attractive.[5]

It was suggested to Graves that he write a novel based on the American Revolutionary War by Methuen, who had recently taken over the role of publishers of his I, Claudius and Claudius the God after the failure of the firm of Arthur Barker.[6][7] The book was originally to form one novel, but as the manuscript expanded it was split into two novels in accordance with wartime library requirements, the second one being provisionally titled Sergeant Lamb of the Twenty-Third.[3][8] The intention was to use real characters and events, and stick closely to historical sources, only making them more readable.[6] His most important sources were Roger Lamb's own Journal (1809) and Memoirs (1811), but Graves drew on many others, there being, as he himself said "too much, rather than too little, material to draw upon".[9] When he turned to composition it proceeded quickly, at one point at the rate of two chapters a week.[4] Graves was so engrossed in Lamb's story that Beryl often saw him absent-mindedly lay a place for the sergeant at dinner.[3]

Publication

Methuen published Sergeant Lamb of the Ninth on 12 September 1940, and Proceed, Sergeant Lamb on 13 February 1941; they were reprinted in 1945 and 1947 respectively.

Hutchinson.[13][14] Both works were edited by Caroline Zilboorg as part of Carcanet's complete edition of Graves's works in 1999.[15]

Critical reception

Sergeant Lamb of the Ninth appeared to generally good reviews.

Good-bye to All That, an act of devotion towards the regiment with which he still feels a tie".[19] Some thought he had not sufficiently digested his historical research,[20] the New Yorker, for instance, calling it "lively reading, with perhaps too much history and not enough novel".[21] But the caveats disappeared with the publication of Proceed, Sergeant Lamb. "[I] have never had so many bouquets plugged at me", Graves exulted, and found an explanation for the difference in tone: "the first volume was a slightly new taste for people and after a time they decided that they liked it, so this one was easy money".[22] Reviewers especially praised the style, comparing it to William Cobbett and Daniel Defoe.[23]

Modern judgements have been more diverse. The journalist Neil Powell and

Anthony Quinton believed that the Sergeant Lamb books would continue to be read for as long as anything Graves had written.[26]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c Powell 1999, p. 19.
  2. ^ Graves 1998, p. 319.
  3. ^ a b c Seymour 1996, p. 284.
  4. ^ a b c Seymour-Smith 1983, p. 378.
  5. ^ Seymour 1996, pp. 284, 299.
  6. ^ a b Graves 1991, p. 319.
  7. ^ Seymour-Smith 1983, p. 358.
  8. ^ Graves 1998, p. 11.
  9. ^ Graves 1941, p. v.
  10. ^ Higginson 1966, pp. 83–84, 88–89.
  11. ^ Higginson 1966, p. 84.
  12. ^ "Sergeant Lamb of the Ninth". Penguin Classics UK. Penguin Books. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  13. ^ Higginson 1966, pp. 84–85, 90.
  14. ^ "Poet in exile: Robert Graves". British Book News: 386. 1985. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  15. ISBN 1590335902
    . Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  16. ^ Graves 1941, p. 324.
  17. ^ "Graves, Robert, Sergeant Lamb's America". The Book Review Digest. 36: 372. 1941. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  18. ^ "Graves, Robert, Sergeant Lamb's America". The Book Review Digest. 36: 372. 1941. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  19. ISBN 0436203626
    . Retrieved 29 August 2015.
  20. ^ Benét, Stephen Vincent (1940). "[Book review]". Saturday Review of Literature: xxii. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  21. ^ "Graves, Robert, Sergeant Lamb's America". The Book Review Digest. 36: 372. 1941. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  22. ISBN 0091477204
    . Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  23. ^ Graves 1998, p. 28.
  24. ^ Graves 1998, p. 18.
  25. ^ Seymour 1996, pp. 284–285.
  26. ^ Quinton, Anthony. "Intensely English bard of the White Goddess". The Times (27 May 1982): 11. Retrieved 9 August 2015.

References

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