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 1 (of 4) of Book I - 1893 to January 1917
SECTION 1 – Book I
•Historical Preface – The United Kingdom, Kingdom and Empire
•Preface
•Chapter 1 – An English Country Town – Modern Era
•Chapter 2 – 1893 et seq.,. – Oswestry – Birth – sale of Plas Wilmot, the family home
•Chapter 3 – Formative stay with his Mother at Broxton / Brown Knowl, Cheshire – April to June 1904
The Chapters – Book I – SECTION 1
•Historical Preface
An Historical Context and Perspective
The First World War was the first part of the 20th Century’s World War – the worst in recorded history.
•Preface
PREFACE
‘They want me to write in a different way. I could … but I must not …’
Anton Bruckner
Also in poverous Homage to Wilfred Owen’s ‘Preface’
This book is a biographical novel.
It has no intended ‘agenda’.
Nor does it have any ‘political intent’ – in any of the sense of any of the given meanings of that phrase.
Also, it seeks no zeitgeist – past or present.
•Chapter 1 – Book I
An English Country Town – Modern Era – connections with the past
•Chapter 2 – Book I
Birth at a lovely mansion, Plas Wilmot, Oswestry, Susan Owen’s beautiful family home – childhood – life following death of grandfather – discovery that he had lost all his money, resulting in sale of Plas Wilmot and all its contents – childhood life following this life-changing event.
•Chapter 3 – Book I
Stay at Broxton / Brown Knowl Cheshire alone with his mother – the happiest time of his childhood life – beginnings of education in finer things.
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 1 (of 4) of Book I - 1893 to January 1917
SECTION 1 – Book I
•Historical Preface – The United Kingdom, Kingdom and Empire
•Preface
•Chapter 1 – An English Country Town – Modern Era
•Chapter 2 – 1893 et seq.,. – Oswestry – Birth – sale of Plas Wilmot, the family home
•Chapter 3 – Formative stay with his Mother at Broxton / Brown Knowl, Cheshire – April to June 1904
The Chapters – Book I – SECTION 1
•Historical Preface
An Historical Context and Perspective
The First World War was the first part of the 20th Century’s World War – the worst in recorded history.
•Preface
PREFACE
‘They want me to write in a different way. I could … but I must not …’
Anton Bruckner
Also in poverous Homage to Wilfred Owen’s ‘Preface’
This book is a biographical novel.
It has no intended ‘agenda’.
Nor does it have any ‘political intent’ – in any of the sense of any of the given meanings of that phrase.
Also, it seeks no zeitgeist – past or present.
•Chapter 1 – Book I
An English Country Town – Modern Era – connections with the past
•Chapter 2 – Book I
Birth at a lovely mansion, Plas Wilmot, Oswestry, Susan Owen’s beautiful family home – childhood – life following death of grandfather – discovery that he had lost all his money, resulting in sale of Plas Wilmot and all its contents – childhood life following this life-changing event.
•Chapter 3 – Book I
Stay at Broxton / Brown Knowl Cheshire alone with his mother – the happiest time of his childhood life – beginnings of education in finer things.
