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War, the Army and Victorian Literature, and: Making Saints: Religion and the Public Image of the British Army, 1809-1885 (review)

1999; Indiana University Press; Volume: 42; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/vic.2000.0030

1527-2052

John R. Reed,

Historical and Architectural Studies

Reviewed by: War, the Army and Victorian Literature, and: Making Saints: Religion and the Public Image of the British Army, 1809–1885 John R. Reed (bio) War, the Army and Victorian Literature, by John Peck; pp. xv + 218. London: Macmillan; New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998, £42.50, $55.00. Making Saints: Religion and the Public Image of the British Army, 1809–1885, by Kenneth E. Hendrickson III; pp. 197. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; London: Associated University Presses, 1998, $36.00, £27.00. These two books share one general narrative, which depicts the British army as beginning the nineteenth century with an unsavory reputation and ending it with a heroic and even Christian aura. Both books call particular attention to the emergence of the Christian heroic type as represented in General Sir Henry Havelock, of Indian Mutiny fame, and General Charles Gordon, who died dramatically at Khartoum. Making Saints specifically concerns itself with the history of moral discipline in the army, whereas War, the Army and Victorian Literature examines manifestations of the army in various forms of Victorian literature. Kenneth Hendrickson offers a detailed look at how the meager chaplaincy of the British army at the end of the Napoleonic wars was gradually remodelled and reformed. From a casual system in which local, non-military ministers were hired at local authorities’ discretion, the chaplaincy was regularized and professionalized, especially under the supervision and advocacy of George Robert Gleig. Hendrickson admits that reform of the Chaplain Department was accelerated by the events surrounding the Crimean War, but insists that the groundwork for such reform was being laid for at least a decade before. Hendrickson also calls attention to the moral-reforming activities of military and civilian individuals and organizations focused on Aldershot, England’s chief military camp, and other barracks locations. The picture he draws is of a gradually Christianized and domesticated army, including both officers and enlisted men. Hendrickson concludes with accounts of two notable icons of military heroism—Havelock and Gordon. The first, he argues, fully deserves the title of Christian soldier. He was a good family man, belonged to a specific religious faith (he became a Baptist when he married), promoted religion and morality among his troops, and led an orderly life. By contrast, Gordon’s reputation as a Christian hero was almost entirely fabricated. He never married, never settled into domestic stability, and did not adhere to any specific religious denomination, constructing instead an eccentric faith of his own. Hendrickson argues that the English people and press craved a Christian soldier, and, when Gordon died at Khartoum, they fashioned from the elements of Havelock’s pattern the hero they desired. Hendrickson’s history of religious reform in the army and his argument about the nature of that reform and the changing character of the army are credible and often useful correctives to more general and imprecise accounts covering similar ground. Unfortunately, this short book is highly repetitive and makes for rather dry reading. It also overlooks the [End Page 377] many recommendations for Christian discipline by officers in the field—Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence is one example from India. John Peck’s book is certainly livelier reading and his ambitions are greater. There has been significant attention to the late-century imperial army in recent literary and historical research, covering much of the ground that interests Hendrickson and a substantial part of what interests Peck. Few studies, however, have engaged the relationship of the army to the literature of the period, and we should be grateful to Peck for correcting this lack. Peck opens with a summary statement about references to the army in literature, beginning with Elizabeth Gaskell and the home troops, before providing an all-too-brief review of Charles Lever’s military novels. He glances at Tennyson’s poetry, but, disenchanted by the banality of most war poetry, declines to study the genre in any depth. There follow chapters on the Crimea, William Makepeace Thackeray, India, a group of canonical novelists including Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy, as well as a chapter on heroes, where Gordon appears significantly. The study ends with chapters on Rudyard Kipling’s militarism and the Boer...