Check To Your King
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Markings: No markings
A landmark work of New Zealand modernist fiction, Check to Your King chronicles the extraordinary life of Charles de Thierry, a nineteenth-century French baron who audaciously declared himself Sovereign Chief of New Zealand and attempted to establish an independent kingdom in the colonial wilderness. Robin Hyde reconstructs this remarkable and largely forgotten historical figure with a blend of lyrical prose and sharp psychological insight, presenting de Thierry as both a visionary dreamer and a tragic fool undone by his own grandiose ambitions. The novel captures the turbulent collision of European imperialism and Māori sovereignty with a tone that is at once compassionate and unsparingly ironic. Hyde illustrates how de Thierry's doomed enterprise mirrors the broader absurdities and cruelties of the colonial project, grounding grand historical forces in one man's deeply human failings. A rich and underappreciated gem of antipodean literature, it stands as a testament to Hyde's formidable talent for breathing vivid life into the margins of history.
Author: Robin Hyde
Format: Hardback
Published: 1975, Golden Press
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Markings: No markings
A landmark work of New Zealand modernist fiction, Check to Your King chronicles the extraordinary life of Charles de Thierry, a nineteenth-century French baron who audaciously declared himself Sovereign Chief of New Zealand and attempted to establish an independent kingdom in the colonial wilderness. Robin Hyde reconstructs this remarkable and largely forgotten historical figure with a blend of lyrical prose and sharp psychological insight, presenting de Thierry as both a visionary dreamer and a tragic fool undone by his own grandiose ambitions. The novel captures the turbulent collision of European imperialism and Māori sovereignty with a tone that is at once compassionate and unsparingly ironic. Hyde illustrates how de Thierry's doomed enterprise mirrors the broader absurdities and cruelties of the colonial project, grounding grand historical forces in one man's deeply human failings. A rich and underappreciated gem of antipodean literature, it stands as a testament to Hyde's formidable talent for breathing vivid life into the margins of history.