GRAND EPIC NOVEL – THE LIFE AND TIMES OF WILFRED OWEN
A biographical novel is written, perhaps, to tease out the meaning of a life.
It seeks to describe the life of an artist – in this case the life of a Poet – but it may be impossible to portray such a life in all its true fullness; just as Shelley wrote of the somewhat esotericism surrounding poets …
‘Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present; the words which express what they understand not; the trumpets which sing to battle, and feel not what they inspire; the influence which is moved not, but moves. Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.’
Shelley – A Defence of Poetry
So … following now the ‘device’ of a Latin Title, as Wilfred Owen did for one of his Poems …
Apologia quoad Wilfred Owen historia libro scribens
[Apologia for writing a Wilfred Owen biographical novel]
This is an epic and monumental novel.
The Silver Swan
It has no ‘agenda’ – its original, and always-unresolvable ‘quest’, was to ‘enquire’ into the creative process and its originations … in this case the poetic processes pursued by Wilfred Owen.
It traces the life of this man from (before) birth to (after) death.
The biographical Novel itself, AS A WHOLE, is divided into 3 PARTS; thus into 3 separate BOOKS.
Each of these 3 BOOKS is then divided into 4 separate SECTIONS.
In this way, the Novel, AS A WHOLE, is divided into 3 BOOKS and then, out of those 3 BOOKS, into 12 separate SECTIONS.
These books being:-
BOOK I “PRESENTIMENTS”
BOOK II “INFERNAL SURVIVALS”
BOOK III “CHANCE’S STRANGE ARITHMETIC or THE GODS’ INDIFFERENCE”
It is, strictly, a biographical novel.
Overall, BOOK I of this biographical novel covers the period of Wilfred Owen’s life from his birth in March 1893 to his first arrival at the Western Front in January 1917.
Book I describes the national and social context of the late 19th Century into which Wilfred Owen was born; his family background; his life from childhood; his experiences in France as a language teacher; his decision to volunteer to join up; his joining up; his officer-training; his arrival, in the extraordinarily bitter winter of early 1917, in Flanders / North-East France, as an Officer to fight on the Front Line.
This is Section 2 (of 4) of Book I - 1893 to January 1917
SECTION 2 of Book I – 1913-1905 contains
•Chapter 4 – Book I
Dunsden October 1911 – February 1913 – the unhappiest time of his civilian life – psychological and emotional crisis – Reverend Wigan and relationship – surrounded by poverty whilst living in luxury at Wigan’s Vicarage – Henley Regatta – health breakdown – leaves Dunsden – abandons evangelical religion. Train journey outing to Swanage for boys. Assignations with Vivian Rampton and others.
•Chapter 5 – Book I
Bordeaux – Bagnères-de-Bigorre, Hautes Pyrénées – The Battle of the Frontiers – Time in Bordeaux as teacher of English – stay with Léger family at Bagnères-de-Bigorre, Hautes Pyrénées – outbreak of war – Battle of the Frontiers – meets poet Laurent Taillhard – An important ‘formative’ chapter. (experiences for poem – particularly ‘Strange Meeting’ ref: George Eliot’s ‘Middlemarch’)
A biographical novel is written, perhaps, to tease out the meaning of a life.
It seeks to describe the life of an artist – in this case the life of a Poet – but it may be impossible to portray such a life in all its true fullness; just as Shelley wrote of the somewhat esotericism surrounding poets …
‘Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present; the words which express what they understand not; the trumpets which sing to battle, and feel not what they inspire; the influence which is moved not, but moves. Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.’
Shelley – A Defence of Poetry
So … following now the ‘device’ of a Latin Title, as Wilfred Owen did for one of his Poems …
Apologia quoad Wilfred Owen historia libro scribens
[Apologia for writing a Wilfred Owen biographical novel]
This is an epic and monumental novel.
The Silver Swan
It has no ‘agenda’ – its original, and always-unresolvable ‘quest’, was to ‘enquire’ into the creative process and its originations … in this case the poetic processes pursued by Wilfred Owen.
It traces the life of this man from (before) birth to (after) death.
The biographical Novel itself, AS A WHOLE, is divided into 3 PARTS; thus into 3 separate BOOKS.
Each of these 3 BOOKS is then divided into 4 separate SECTIONS.
In this way, the Novel, AS A WHOLE, is divided into 3 BOOKS and then, out of those 3 BOOKS, into 12 separate SECTIONS.
These books being:-
BOOK I “PRESENTIMENTS”
BOOK II “INFERNAL SURVIVALS”
BOOK III “CHANCE’S STRANGE ARITHMETIC or THE GODS’ INDIFFERENCE”
It is, strictly, a biographical novel.
Overall, BOOK I of this biographical novel covers the period of Wilfred Owen’s life from his birth in March 1893 to his first arrival at the Western Front in January 1917.
Book I describes the national and social context of the late 19th Century into which Wilfred Owen was born; his family background; his life from childhood; his experiences in France as a language teacher; his decision to volunteer to join up; his joining up; his officer-training; his arrival, in the extraordinarily bitter winter of early 1917, in Flanders / North-East France, as an Officer to fight on the Front Line.
This is Section 2 (of 4) of Book I - 1893 to January 1917
SECTION 2 of Book I – 1913-1905 contains
•Chapter 4 – Book I
Dunsden October 1911 – February 1913 – the unhappiest time of his civilian life – psychological and emotional crisis – Reverend Wigan and relationship – surrounded by poverty whilst living in luxury at Wigan’s Vicarage – Henley Regatta – health breakdown – leaves Dunsden – abandons evangelical religion. Train journey outing to Swanage for boys. Assignations with Vivian Rampton and others.
•Chapter 5 – Book I
Bordeaux – Bagnères-de-Bigorre, Hautes Pyrénées – The Battle of the Frontiers – Time in Bordeaux as teacher of English – stay with Léger family at Bagnères-de-Bigorre, Hautes Pyrénées – outbreak of war – Battle of the Frontiers – meets poet Laurent Taillhard – An important ‘formative’ chapter. (experiences for poem – particularly ‘Strange Meeting’ ref: George Eliot’s ‘Middlemarch’)
