God Is an Englishman

THE FIRST BOOK IN THE

“A book to get lost in…”

BELOVED CLASSIC

–New York Times Book Review

GOD IS AN ENGLISHMAN SAGA

FROM MASTER STORYTELLER R. F. DELDERFIELD

R.F.

DELDERFIELD

“If I were forced to name only one novel as a favorite
out of a long and varied list of entertaining fi ction, I might well choose

“A book to get lost in.”

R.F. Delderfi eld’s
God Is an Englishman.
”

–New York Times

Book Review

–
Belva Plain
, Washington Post Book World
Adam Swann, scion of an army family, returns home in 1858 after ENGLISHMAN

service with Her Majesty’s army in Crimea and India, determined to build his fortune in the dog-eat-dog world of Victorian commerce. Swann is soon GOD

captivated by Henrietta, the high-spirited daughter of a local mill owner. As Swann works to build his name, he and Henrietta share adventures, reversal, and fortune, from the slums to booming industrial cities to the settled pulse of the English countryside.

God Is an Englishman
is a stirring saga of England in the nineteenth century, as the Industrial Revolution takes hold, forever changing the landscape of England and her people.

“A book to get lost in…

I S A N

An epic historical novel artfully constructed.”
IS AN

G O D

–
New York Times Book Review

“A novel in the grand tradition of Thackery and Dickens.”
ENGLISHMAN

–
Milwaukee Journal

“R.F. Delderfield is a born storyteller.”

–
Sunday Mirror

“A delightful bounty of characters fairly jumps
from the pages of God Is an Englishman.”

–
Columbus Dispatch

Fiction

$14.99 U.S.

ISBN-13: 978-1-4022-1821-7

ISBN-10: 1-4022-1821-4

includes bonus reading group guide

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R . F . D E L D E R F I E L D

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A HORSEMAN RIDING BY

Long Summer Day

Post of Honour

The Green Gauntlet

THE AVENUE STORY

The Dreaming Suburb

The Avenue Goes to War

THE SWANN SAGA

God Is an Englishman

Theirs Was the Kingdom

Give Us This Day

To Serve Them All My Days

Diana

Come Home Charlie, and Face Them

Seven Men of Gascony

Farewell, the Tranquil Mind

The Adventures of Ben Gunn

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R . F . D e l D e R F i e l D

g o D i s a n

englishman

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Copyright © 1970, 2009 by R. F. Delderfield

Cover and internal design © 2009 by Sourcebooks, Inc.

Cover design by Cyanotype Book Architects

Cover photos © Getty Images; iStockPhoto.com/igs942

Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—

except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously.

Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

Published by Sourcebooks Landmark, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.

P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410

(630) 961-3900

Fax: (630) 961-2168

www.sourcebooks.com

Originally published in Great Britain by Hodder and Stoughton Limited, 1970.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Delderfield, R. F. (Ronald Frederick).

God is an Englishman / R.F. Delderfield.

p. cm.

“Originally published in Great Britain by Hodder and Stoughton Limited, 1970.” Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Family--England--Fiction. 2. British--India--Fiction. 3. Domestic fiction. I.

Title.

PR6007.E36G63 2009

823’.912--dc22

2009005926

Printed and bound in the United States of America VP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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For My Wife, May,

without whose affection,

oceans of coffee,

and classical records

this would never have been finished.

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contents

MAN WITH A CASKET: 1857–1858 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

PART ONE
Encounter: Summer, 1858
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

1

Fugitive in a Crinoline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2

The Black Dwarfs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

3

Pillion-ride . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

4

Bride-in-Waiting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

PART TWO
The Cygnet Years: 1858–1861
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

1

Cicerone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

2

Novitiate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

3

The Big City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

4

Whim of a Carriage-horse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

5

Assignation with Shires. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

6

Death of a German . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

PART THREE
Cob at Large: 1862–1863
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

1

Swann Treble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

2

Study in Soot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

3

Riverside Confessional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

4

Skirmish on Shallott. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

5

Truce Terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

6

Flight of a Sleeping Partner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

PART FOUR
Sortie Torrentielle: 1864–1865
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

1

Council of War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

2

Byblow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418

3

Valentine’s Day Breakout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

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