Under the Goad

Rare first edition of this British political thriller charting the rise of Saul Wade, an illegitimate orphan driven by a ruthless hunger for power. Abused in childhood and hardened by adversity, Saul grows into a man of intelligence, physical strength, and cold ambition. His path leads from rural Lincolnshire poverty through the trenches of the Great War and into the turbulent world of postwar politics, where he finds opportunity among communist revolutionaries plotting to overthrow the government. Manipulated by a hunchbacked agitator named Cumberbirch, Saul becomes a figurehead for an underground movement, though his motives are personal rather than ideological. As rebellion brews, his faith in the cause falters, and the novel resolves in unlikely fashion through identity, family, and a measure of redemption.

Under the Goad captures the political anxieties and class tensions of interwar Britain, drawing on widespread fears of Bolshevist revolution that were very real to contemporary readers. Little is known about the author, and the book appears to be exceedingly scarce.

Hardcover. First Edition. Octavo, bound in olive cloth stamped in black. London: Hutchinson & Co., [1926]. #11394.
Very good.