Books with author A. Henty

George Alfred Henty (1832-1902) was an English novelist, war correspondent and imperialist who wrote 122 books, mostly for children. As a young man, Henty volunteered for the Army Hospital Commissariat in the Crimean War. In letters to his father, he wrote vivid descriptions of the appalling conditions for British soldiers, which his father sent to be published in the newspaper. This led to his post as a Special Correspondent, and he proceeded to report on wars and rebellions all over the world. His storytelling skills, he claimed, stemmed from entertaining his children after dinner, and his brave, intelligent, honest, resourceful characters are beloved amongst readers as much today as they were over a century ago. "The Young Carthaginian" is set in ancient times, and tells the story of young Malchus, an officer in Hannibal's army, on his journey with the army across southern Europe and the Alps.

George Alfred Henty (1832-1902) was an English novelist, war correspondent and imperialist who wrote 122 books, mostly for children. As a young man, Henty volunteered for the Army Hospital Commissariat in the Crimean War. In letters to his father, he wrote vivid descriptions of the appalling conditions for British soldiers, which his father sent to be published in the newspaper. This led to his post as a Special Correspondent, and he proceeded to report on wars and rebellions all over the world. His storytelling skills, he claimed, stemmed from entertaining his children after dinner, and his brave, intelligent, honest, resourceful characters are beloved amongst readers as much today as they were over a century ago. "The Young Carthaginian" is set in ancient times, and tells the story of young Malchus, an officer in Hannibal's army, on his journey with the army across southern Europe and the Alps.

My series of stories dealing with the wars of England would be altogether incomplete did it not include the period when the Romans were the masters of the country. The valour with which the natives of this island defended themselves was acknowledged by the Roman historians, and it was only the superior discipline of the invaders that enabled them finally to triumph over the bravery and the superior physical strength of the Britons. The Roman conquest for the time was undoubtedly of immense advantage to the people -- who had previously wasted their energies in perpetual tribal wars -- as it introduced among them the civilization of Rome. In the end, however, it proved disastrous to the islanders, who lost all their military virtues. Having been defended from the savages of the north by the soldiers of Rome, the Britons were, when the legions were recalled, unable to offer any effectual resistance to the Saxons, who, coming under the guise of friendship, speedily became their masters, imposing a yoke infinitely more burdensome than that of Rome, and erasing almost every sign of the civilization that had been engrafted upon them. How far the British population disappeared under the subsequent invasion and the still more oppressive yoke of the Danes is uncertain; but as the invaders would naturally desire to retain the people to cultivate the land for them, it is probable that the great mass of the Britons were not exterminated. It is at any rate pleasant to believe that with the Saxon, Danish, and Norman blood in our veins, there is still a large admixture of that of the warriors who fought so bravely against Caesar, and who rose under Boadicea in a desperate effort to shake off the oppressive rule of Rome.

When Roger Hankshaw boards the merchant ship Swan for a perilous journey to the New World, little does the young Englishman know what adventure awaits him. After a shipwreck strands him in Pre-Columbian Mexico, Roger must find a way to avoid becoming one of the many human sacrifices offered to the Aztec gods. Proving himself to be honorable and trustworthy, Roger builds enduring friendships with many of the natives. Later, when the Spanish noble and explorer Hernando Cortez arrives, Roger is placed in a difficult position. How can an Englishman explain his presence in Mexico? Cortez, with a military force intent on converting the heathen Aztecs, will also plunder their riches. Can Roger help his native friends survive the turmoil of the Spanish conquest of Mexico? Will Roger ever be able to return to England and see his family? These questions and more will be answered in G. A. Henty’s By Right of Conquest: Or with Cortez in Mexico. Set in early-sixteenth century England and Mexico, this book includes more than ninety geographical, historical, and explanatory footnotes to aid the modern reader.

As many boys into whose hands the present volume may fall willnot have read my last year’s book, With Moore in Corunna, of whichthis is a continuation, it is necessary that a few words should be said,to enable them to take up the thread of the story. It was impossible,in the limits of one book, to give even an outline of the story of thePeninsular War, without devoting the whole space to the militaryoperations. It would, in fact, have been a history rather than a tale;and it accordingly closed with the passage of the Douro, and theexpulsion of the French from Portugal.

Return to the days of the Norman invasion of England and fight alongside a nobleman serving the last of England's Anglo-Saxon monarchs. Wulf of Steyning, a Saxon thane loyal to King Harold Godwinson, boldly captures a castle in the Welsh wars, risks his life to rescue his shipwrecked sovereign, and combats Norsemen at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Wulf and his comrades resolutely stand by King Harold in a series of adventures that climax at the Battle of Hastings. Generations of readers have thrilled to this tale of loyalty and courage in eleventh-century Britain and Normandy. Author G. A. Henty created it in conjunction with his popular series of storybooks in which young characters, inspired by their encounters with real-life figures, perform heroic deeds. Historical fiction at its very best, Wulf the Saxon offers boys and girls an exciting adventure in the medieval world.

The book "Redskin and Cowboy" was written in 1891 and described the Wild West as it was at the time.Here is the extract from the author's preface:"The principal part of the tale is laid among the cow-boys of the Western States of America, a body of men unrivalled in point of hardihood and devotion to work, as well as in reckless courage and wild daring... The picture I have given of their life can be relied upon, and its adventures and dangers are in no degree coloured, as I have taken them from the lips of a near relative of my own who was for some years working as a cow-boy in New Mexico. He was an actor in many of the scenes described, and so far from my having heightened or embellished them, I may say that I have given but a small proportion of the perilous adventures through which he went, for had I given them in full it would, I am sure, have seemed to you that the story was too improbable to be true. In treating of cow-boy life, indeed, it may well be said that truth is stranger than fiction."