The Battle of Dorking: Reminiscences of a Volunteer is an 1871 novella by George Tomkyns Chesney, starting the genre of invasion literature and an important precursor of science fiction. Written just after the Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian War, it describes an invasion of Britain by a German-speaking country referred to in oblique terms as The Other Power or The Enemy. Excerpt: "You ask me to tell you, my grandchildren, something about my share in the great events that happened fifty years ago. 'Tis sad work turning back to that bitter page in our history, but you may perhaps take profit in your new homes from the lesson it teaches. For us, in England, it came too late. And yet we had plenty of warnings if we had only made use of them."

The Battle of Dorking: Reminiscences of a Volunteer is an 1871 novella by George Tomkyns Chesney, starting the genre of invasion literature and an important precursor of science fiction. Written just after the Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian War, it describes an invasion of Britain by a German-speaking country referred to in oblique terms as The Other Power or The Enemy. Excerpt: "You ask me to tell you, my grandchildren, something about my share in the great events that happened fifty years ago. 'Tis sad work turning back to that bitter page in our history, but you may perhaps take profit in your new homes from the lesson it teaches. For us, in England, it came too late. And yet we had plenty of warnings if we had only made use of them."

This fictitious invasion classic is introduced by G.H. Powell, and followed by "What Happened After The Battle of Dorking 1871" and the pamphlet "The Lull Before Dorking 1871." The Battle of Dorking: Britain is invaded by a country similar to Germany in this vivid account of troops marching across eastern England to the heart of London. George Tomkyns Chesney's classic, written after the Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian War, led to the genre of invasion fiction and science fiction. The novel spawned copycat stories including What Happened After The Battle of Dorking and led to more serious debate about Britain's lack of preparedness for war in the House of Commons.

The Battle of Dorking: Reminiscences of a Volunteer is a novella written by George Tomkyns Chesney in 1871 that established the invasion literature genre and served as a forerunner to science fiction. It describes an invasion of Britain by a German-speaking country referred to in ambiguous terms as The Other Power or The Enemy. It was written shortly after the Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian War. This is a true story that you should read.

Set several years the future, after a war between Germany and Great Britain in which the Germans won, "When William Came" chronicles life in London under German occupation and the changes that come with a foreign army's invasion and triumph. The "William" is actually Kaiser Wilhelm II of the House of Hohenzollern.

You ask me to tell you, my grandchildren, something about my own share in the great events that happened fifty years ago. 'Tis sad work turning back to that bitter page in our history, but you may perhaps take profit in your new homes from the lesson it teaches. For us in England it came too late. And yet we had plenty of warnings, if we had only made use of them. The danger did not come on us unawares. It burst on us suddenly, 'tis true; but its coming was foreshadowed plainly enough to open our eyes, if we had not been willfully blind. We English have only ourselves to blame for the humiliation which has been brought on the land. Venerable old age! Dishonorable old age, I say, when it follows a manhood dishonored as ours has been. I declare, even now, though fifty years have passed, I can hardly look a young man in the face when I think I am one of those in whose youth happened this degradation of Old England---one of those who betrayed the trust handed down to us unstained by our forefathers.

The Battle of Dorking: Reminiscences of a Volunteer is George Chesney's classic 1871 account of a fictional invasion of England.Written in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian war, Chesney's stirring tale of an Englishman swept up in the defence of his country served as a protest at what the author saw as the decline of the British army in the face of growing threats from abroad.Influential on later writers such as HG Wells for its coining of the popular 'invasion literature' genre, this ever popular classic is now available with a new introduction to the text for the modern reader.