Ebenezer Le Page is the lead character in the novel ''

The Book of Ebenezer Le Page ''The Book of Ebenezer Le Page'' is a novel by English writer Gerald Basil Edwards first published in the United Kingdom by Hamish Hamilton in 1981, and in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf in the same year. It has since been published by Pen ...

'' by G. B. Edwards. The book takes the form of an autobiography of an

archetypal The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that ...

Guernseyman who lives through the dramatic changes in the island of

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

from the late 19th century, through to the 1960s. The book is written in Guernsey English (with an occasional smattering of the

language)

Fictional biography

Ebenezer was born in the late 19th century, and dies in the early 1960s. He lived his whole life in

Vale A vale is a type of valley. Vale may also refer to: Places Georgia * Vale, Georgia, a town in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region Norway * Våle, a historic municipality Portugal * Vale (Santa Maria da Feira), a former civil parish in the municipali ...

. He never married, despite a few flings with local girls, and a tempestuous relationship with Liza Queripel of Pleinmont. He left the island only once, to travel to

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...

to watch the

Muratti Vase The Muratti Vase is an annual men's and women's football competition, inaugurated in 1905, between teams representing the Channel Islands of Alderney, Guernsey and Jersey. The larger islands of Guernsey and Jersey dominate the competition, wit ...

, a football match. For most of his life he was a grower and

fisherman A fisher or fisherman is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishers may be professional or recreati ...

, although he also served in the North regiment of the

Royal Guernsey Militia The Royal Guernsey Militia has a history dating back 800 years. Always loyal to the British Crown, the men were unpaid volunteers whose wish was to defend the Island of Guernsey from foreign invaders. Militias were also created in the Bailiwick ...

(though not outside the island) and did some jobbing work for the

States of Guernsey The States of Guernsey (french: États de Guernesey), sometimes referred to as the Government of Guernsey, is the parliament and government of the British Crown dependency of Guernsey. Some laws and ordinances approved by the States of Guern ...

in the latter part of his life.

is a microcosm of the world as

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

is to

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

and

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

is to

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...

. After a life fraught with difficulties and full of moving episodes, Ebenezer dies happy, bequeathing his pot of gold and autobiography (''The Book of Ebenezer Le Page'') to the young artist he befriends, after an incident in which the latter smashed his greenhouse.

References

John Fowles John Robert Fowles (; 31 March 1926 – 5 November 2005) was an English novelist of international renown, critically positioned between modernism and postmodernism. His work was influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, among others. Aft ...

, ''Wormholes'' (London, 1998), pp. 166–74 *

Edward Chaney Edward Chaney (born 1951) is a British cultural historian. He is Professor Emeritus at Solent University and Honorary Professor at University College London (School of European Languages, Culture and Society (SELCS) – Centre for Early Modern ...

,
Genius Friend: G. B. Edwards and The Book of Ebenezer Le Page
'
Blue Ormer Publishing
2015). * G. B. Edwards: The Author of the Book of Ebenezer le Page, Edward Chaney, Review of the

Guernsey Society The Guernsey Society is an organisation for people with an interest in the Bailiwick of Guernsey. Society aims The Guernsey Society aims are to promote, maintain and stimulate interest in all matters concerning the Bailiwick of Guernsey, its past, ...

, Parts 1–3, 1994–5.
Extraordinary Ebenezer follow-up
Edward Chaney, ''The Arran Voice'', 30 October 2008. Fictional Guernsey people Guernsey culture Characters in British novels {{Guernsey-stub