The Battle of Dorking (Fantasy and Horror Classics)

<p><strong>From the mind of Sir George Tomkyns Chesney (G. T. Chesney) a distinguished British military officer comes a pioneering and explosively influential work of speculative fiction that created a national panic.</strong></p><p><em>The Battle of Dorking</em> was first published anonymously in <em>Blackwood's Magazine</em> in 1871 terrifying Victorian Britain. Written in the form of a memoir from a survivor fifty years after the event the story narrates the shocking fictional invasion of England by a superior foreign power (implied to be Germany). The memoir recounts the complete and utter defeat of the unprepared British forces in a disastrous battle fought near the town of Dorking. Chesney wrote the tale as a stark urgent warning against Britain's complacency its lack of military preparedness and its over-reliance on the Royal Navy.</p><p>This short novel is a foundational work of Invasion Literature a key progenitor of modern Warfare Fiction and a chilling classic of early speculative horror. It is essential reading for fans of Victorian fiction and works that use fear of the future to critique the present.</p>