Dethronements : Imaginary portraits of political characters, done in dialogue
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"Dethronements" by Laurence Housman is a collection of political dialogues written in the early 20th century. Imagined conversations portray famous statesmen at moments of reversal, probing character, conscience, and power; figures include Charles Stewart Parnell and his wife Katharine, Joseph Chamberlain, and an unnamed “Distinguished Visitor,” with a final piece centered on Woodrow Wilson. The focus is less on events than on moral stakes, private candor, and how public lives unravel. The
opening of the collection sets out Housman’s method in a preface defending fictional dialogue as character portraiture and clarifying that these are invented talks about real political crises. It then dramatizes Parnell in Brighton in 1891, quietly reckoning with defeat, Ireland’s future, and his marriage; when a former valet brings a long-withheld letter that could have altered the scandal, Parnell burns it and reaffirms love and principle despite political cost. Next, an ailing Chamberlain in 1913 reviews his “man of business” politics with Jesse Collins and, later, a tactful high-ranking visitor, conceding misjudgments over the Boer War and tariff reform while reflecting on charm, party machinery, and the difference between politicians and statesmen. At the start of the final scene excerpt, Woodrow Wilson, just out of office, confides to his secretary Tumulty that he failed to secure a just peace, recalls the closed-door bargaining and secret treaties, and explains why he chose to preserve the League’s Covenant as the one instrument that might yet redeem the future. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Housman, Laurence, 1865-1959 |
|---|---|
| LoC No. | 23006742 |
| Title | Dethronements : Imaginary portraits of political characters, done in dialogue |
| Original Publication | London: Jonathan Cape, 1922. |
| Contents | The king-maker (Brighton, October, 1891) -- The man of business (Highbury, August, 1913) -- The instrument (Washington, March, 1921). |
| Credits | Carol Brown, Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PR: Language and Literatures: English literature |
| Subject | Parnell, Charles Stewart, 1846-1891 -- Drama |
| Subject | Chamberlain, Joseph, 1836-1914 -- Drama |
| Subject | Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924 -- Drama |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 78736 |
| Release Date | May 23, 2026 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 381 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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