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They Were Defeated: The Classic Novel Set in the Reign of King Charles I
Real 17th-century poets (including Robert Herrick) mingle with fictional characters in a tragic and beautiful historical novel by award-winning author, Rose Macaulay. She paints a vivid portrait of one of England's most turbulent periods.
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1932
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About the author
Rose Macaulay
68 books119 followersEmilie Rose Macaulay, whom Elizabeth Bowen called "one of the few writers of whom it may be said, she adorns our century," was born at Rugby, where her father was an assistant master. Descended on both sides from a long line of clerical ancestors, she felt Anglicanism was in her blood. Much of her childhood was spent in Varazze, near Genoa, and memories of Italy fill the early novels. The family returned to England in 1894 and settled in Oxford. She read history at Somerville, and on coming down lived with her family first in Wales, then near Cambridge, where her father had been appointed a lecturer in English. There she began a writing career which was to span fifty years with the publication of her first novel, Abbots Verney, in 1906. When her sixth novel, The Lee Shore (1912), won a literary prize, a gift from her uncle allowed her to rent a tiny flat in London, and she plunged happily into London literary life.
From BookRags: http://www.bookrags.com/biography/ros...
From BookRags: http://www.bookrags.com/biography/ros...
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 9, 2021
After reading "The Towers of Trebizond" I went straight on to this book, another enthralling read. And it introduced me to the poetry of Robert Herrick and his contemporaries. I was never so astonished! I'd no idea poetry could be so naughty! But that's a different review, of a different book... "They Were Defeated" is beautiful and sad. I liked the way the relationship between brother and sister was depicted, although if I remember correctly the brother turns out to be a mitigated ass.
January 5, 2025
Like George Eliot’s ‘Romola,’ the only historical work of the reclusive novelist Rose Macaulay (1881-1958) is ‘The Shadow Flies.’ Both novels are set during a period of intense religious, political and intellectual upheaval, and both are studies of religious division, political dissension and dogmatism, using the framework story of a young woman’s infatuation and disillusion. For both women, these were their personal favourites, very different from anything else they had written, their usual concerns being a preoccupation with the way in which religion or politics or even the physical world act on the psychology and emotions of (mostly) rural men and women.
The action of ‘The Shadow Flies’ takes place in the eight turbulent years between 1640 and 1647. The great events of the age are seen as in a shadow play while the main action is played out onstage. Thus we hear of the election of Oliver Cromwell to Parliament, the increasing levies and taxes imposed for “bribing the Scots,” without the approval of the Commons, the rising persecution of Catholics despite the protection and indulgence afforded them by Henrietta Maria, Charles I’s powerful Queen, violence between town and gown, atrocities of the Star Chamber, or those committed by Lord Stafford (Black Tom) in Ireland, and Archbishop Laud’s insistence of the authority of the bishops versus the independence of parish clergymen, but they rarely impinge on our consciousness.
Against this backdrop, the characters of Macaulay’s novel find themselves taking sides for Church and King, or a benign tolerance, or a shift towards the Roman Catholic Church, or Puritan principles, or even for downright heresy, superstition and witch-hunting. Each personality is etched with a diamond-hard clarity as they move inexorably to the denouement that they bring on themselves through ignorance or indifference to the consequences of their decisions. The least seen of the cast has perhaps the most important rôle of all, though he appears only in a very few brief scenes towards the end. Of course, the focus of the book is on the young dreamer-poetess, Julian Conybeare, whose pale loveliness offsets her determination to study Greek and Latin, to be given the opportunity to meet her brother’s Cambridge tutor, the poet and cynic John Cleveland. Her seriousness is in direct contrast to her tomboy friend, the Squire’s daughter, merry Meg Yarde, who lives only for the outdoor life of horses and dogs, and who finds seventeenth century Cambridge intolerably lifeless.
The historical persons of the novel blend so perfectly with the fictional ones that after a point, it is hard to tell which is which. Robert Herrick is real, but are his friends the doctor, who is seriously infected with the scientific spirit of the age (he is eager that Cambridge should teach his son some of Descartes’ ideas), or the Squire, who is as seriously a witch hater, equally real? As Macaulay says in her Foreword, “As it seems to be the habit to furnish such information, I would add that only a very few of the people in this novel are imaginary.”
While it might be useful to have some idea of the turbulent ideas and people then churning the politics, religion and literature of the period to a bloody climax, it is not essential, since Rose Macaulay's novel lays it all out so clearly before you. One very natural impulse on reading about the poets is to search out your battered and forgotten school anthology of English verse, and see how come you missed so much grace, sly wit and charm when you had to pass the Eng Lit exam.
The title is taken from the epigraph:
The rose withers, the blossom blasteth,
The flowers fade, the morning hasteth,
The sun sets, the shadow flies,
The gourd consumes; and man he dies.
___________________From “Man’s Mortality,”
Anon. 1628
Certainly the sense of the brevity of a man’s tenure of life, loss and devastation, of passion and a kind of hopeless longing, whether for knowledge, for God, a person or for power, colours the whole atmosphere with a sad foreboding.
‘The Shadow Flies' might arguably be one of the most memorable historical novels of the twentieth century by an English author. The problem is that it is so elusive, that it is all but forgotten. A rare find even in a second-hand bookshop. I listened to a simply enthralling recording of it by Thomas Copeland on Librivox. However, only the written text conveys the clever use of actual seventeenth century orthography. There is a borrowable copy also on the Internet Archive. Fadedpage, a Gutenberg affiliate out of Canada, has other books by Rose Macaulay, but not this one. Incidentally, the original British edition carries the title ‘They Were Defeated;’ the American edition bears the title ‘The Shadow Flies.'
The action of ‘The Shadow Flies’ takes place in the eight turbulent years between 1640 and 1647. The great events of the age are seen as in a shadow play while the main action is played out onstage. Thus we hear of the election of Oliver Cromwell to Parliament, the increasing levies and taxes imposed for “bribing the Scots,” without the approval of the Commons, the rising persecution of Catholics despite the protection and indulgence afforded them by Henrietta Maria, Charles I’s powerful Queen, violence between town and gown, atrocities of the Star Chamber, or those committed by Lord Stafford (Black Tom) in Ireland, and Archbishop Laud’s insistence of the authority of the bishops versus the independence of parish clergymen, but they rarely impinge on our consciousness.
Against this backdrop, the characters of Macaulay’s novel find themselves taking sides for Church and King, or a benign tolerance, or a shift towards the Roman Catholic Church, or Puritan principles, or even for downright heresy, superstition and witch-hunting. Each personality is etched with a diamond-hard clarity as they move inexorably to the denouement that they bring on themselves through ignorance or indifference to the consequences of their decisions. The least seen of the cast has perhaps the most important rôle of all, though he appears only in a very few brief scenes towards the end. Of course, the focus of the book is on the young dreamer-poetess, Julian Conybeare, whose pale loveliness offsets her determination to study Greek and Latin, to be given the opportunity to meet her brother’s Cambridge tutor, the poet and cynic John Cleveland. Her seriousness is in direct contrast to her tomboy friend, the Squire’s daughter, merry Meg Yarde, who lives only for the outdoor life of horses and dogs, and who finds seventeenth century Cambridge intolerably lifeless.
The historical persons of the novel blend so perfectly with the fictional ones that after a point, it is hard to tell which is which. Robert Herrick is real, but are his friends the doctor, who is seriously infected with the scientific spirit of the age (he is eager that Cambridge should teach his son some of Descartes’ ideas), or the Squire, who is as seriously a witch hater, equally real? As Macaulay says in her Foreword, “As it seems to be the habit to furnish such information, I would add that only a very few of the people in this novel are imaginary.”
While it might be useful to have some idea of the turbulent ideas and people then churning the politics, religion and literature of the period to a bloody climax, it is not essential, since Rose Macaulay's novel lays it all out so clearly before you. One very natural impulse on reading about the poets is to search out your battered and forgotten school anthology of English verse, and see how come you missed so much grace, sly wit and charm when you had to pass the Eng Lit exam.
The title is taken from the epigraph:
The rose withers, the blossom blasteth,
The flowers fade, the morning hasteth,
The sun sets, the shadow flies,
The gourd consumes; and man he dies.
___________________From “Man’s Mortality,”
Anon. 1628
Certainly the sense of the brevity of a man’s tenure of life, loss and devastation, of passion and a kind of hopeless longing, whether for knowledge, for God, a person or for power, colours the whole atmosphere with a sad foreboding.
‘The Shadow Flies' might arguably be one of the most memorable historical novels of the twentieth century by an English author. The problem is that it is so elusive, that it is all but forgotten. A rare find even in a second-hand bookshop. I listened to a simply enthralling recording of it by Thomas Copeland on Librivox. However, only the written text conveys the clever use of actual seventeenth century orthography. There is a borrowable copy also on the Internet Archive. Fadedpage, a Gutenberg affiliate out of Canada, has other books by Rose Macaulay, but not this one. Incidentally, the original British edition carries the title ‘They Were Defeated;’ the American edition bears the title ‘The Shadow Flies.'
May 12, 2020
A real slow-burn which took a good 100 pages to get into. The close attention to dialect and the interweaving of plot and historical event reminded me strongly of Blackmore's 'Lorna Doone.' Even towards the end it wasn't absolutely clear what direction the book was going in - there was potential for it to develop into an epic just like Lorna Doone, if only there were more pages to go... Very suddenly it became clear that the novel is a tragedy, and thinking about it as a whole, it seems to be written against war, bigotry, xenophobia, and zealotry - all in Macaulay's own context of rising Fascism in Europe in the early 1930's. Satisfying, well researched and likable characters, but pretty stodgy, requiring fairly close concentration.
JM 12/05/20
JM 12/05/20
August 9, 2025
The most brilliant 18th century novel set in the 17th, written in the 20th.
January 5, 2025
Like George Eliot’s ‘Romola,’ the only historical work of the reclusive novelist Rose Macaulay (1881-1958) is ‘The Shadow Flies.’ Both novels are set during a period of intense religious, political and intellectual upheaval, and both are studies of religious division, political dissension and dogmatism, using the framework story of a young woman’s infatuation and disillusion. For both women, these were their personal favourites, very different from anything else they had written, their usual concerns being a preoccupation with the way in which religion or politics or even the physical world act on the psychology and emotions of (mostly) rural men and women.
The action of ‘The Shadow Flies’ takes place in the eight turbulent years between 1640 and 1647. The great events of the age are seen as in a shadow play while the main action is played out onstage. Thus we hear of the election of Oliver Cromwell to Parliament, the increasing levies and taxes imposed for “bribing the Scots,” without the approval of the Commons, the rising persecution of Catholics despite the protection and indulgence afforded them by Henrietta Maria, Charles I’s powerful Queen, violence between town and gown, atrocities of the Star Chamber, or those committed by Lord Stafford (Black Tom) in Ireland, and Archbishop Laud’s insistence of the authority of the bishops versus the independence of parish clergymen, but they rarely impinge on our consciousness.
Against this backdrop, the characters of Macaulay’s novel find themselves taking sides for Church and King, or a benign tolerance, or a shift towards the Roman Catholic Church, or Puritan principles, or even for downright heresy, superstition and witch-hunting. Each personality is etched with a diamond-hard clarity as they move inexorably to the denouement that they bring on themselves through ignorance or indifference to the consequences of their decisions. The least seen of the cast has perhaps the most important rôle of all, though he appears only in a very few brief scenes towards the end. Of course, the focus of the book is on the young dreamer-poetess, Julian Conybeare, whose pale loveliness offsets her determination to study Greek and Latin, to be given the opportunity to meet her brother’s Cambridge tutor, the poet and cynic John Cleveland. Her seriousness is in direct contrast to her tomboy friend, the Squire’s daughter, merry Meg Yarde, who lives only for the outdoor life of horses and dogs, and who finds seventeenth century Cambridge intolerably lifeless.
The historical persons of the novel blend so perfectly with the fictional ones that after a point, it is hard to tell which is which. Robert Herrick is real, but are his friends the doctor, who is seriously infected with the scientific spirit of the age (he is eager that Cambridge should teach his son some of Descartes’ ideas), or the Squire, who is as seriously a witch hater, equally real? As Macaulay says in her Foreword, “As it seems to be the habit to furnish such information, I would add that only a very few of the people in this novel are imaginary.”
While it might be useful to have some idea of the turbulent ideas and people then churning the politics, religion and literature of the period to a bloody climax, it is not essential, since Rose Macaulay's novel lays it all out so clearly before you. One very natural impulse on reading about the poets is to search out your battered and forgotten school anthology of English verse, and see how come you missed so much grace, sly wit and charm when you had to pass the Eng Lit exam.
The title is taken from the epigraph:
The rose withers, the blossom blasteth,
The flowers fade, the morning hasteth,
The sun sets, the shadow flies,
The gourd consumes; and man he dies.
___________________From “Man’s Mortality,”
Anon. 1628
Certainly the sense of the brevity of a man’s tenure of life, loss and devastation, of passion and a kind of hopeless longing, whether for knowledge, for God, a person or for power, colours the whole atmosphere with a sad foreboding.
‘The Shadow Flies' might arguably be one of the most memorable historical novels of the twentieth century by an English author. The problem is that it is so elusive, that it is all but forgotten. A rare find even in a second-hand bookshop. I listened to a simply enthralling recording of it by Thomas Copeland on Librivox. However, only the written text conveys the clever use of actual seventeenth century orthography. There is a borrowable copy also on the Internet Archive. Fadedpage, a Gutenberg affiliate out of Canada, has other books by Rose Macaulay, but not this one. Incidentally, the original British edition carries the title ‘They Were Defeated;’ the American edition bears the title ‘The Shadow Flies.'
The action of ‘The Shadow Flies’ takes place in the eight turbulent years between 1640 and 1647. The great events of the age are seen as in a shadow play while the main action is played out onstage. Thus we hear of the election of Oliver Cromwell to Parliament, the increasing levies and taxes imposed for “bribing the Scots,” without the approval of the Commons, the rising persecution of Catholics despite the protection and indulgence afforded them by Henrietta Maria, Charles I’s powerful Queen, violence between town and gown, atrocities of the Star Chamber, or those committed by Lord Stafford (Black Tom) in Ireland, and Archbishop Laud’s insistence of the authority of the bishops versus the independence of parish clergymen, but they rarely impinge on our consciousness.
Against this backdrop, the characters of Macaulay’s novel find themselves taking sides for Church and King, or a benign tolerance, or a shift towards the Roman Catholic Church, or Puritan principles, or even for downright heresy, superstition and witch-hunting. Each personality is etched with a diamond-hard clarity as they move inexorably to the denouement that they bring on themselves through ignorance or indifference to the consequences of their decisions. The least seen of the cast has perhaps the most important rôle of all, though he appears only in a very few brief scenes towards the end. Of course, the focus of the book is on the young dreamer-poetess, Julian Conybeare, whose pale loveliness offsets her determination to study Greek and Latin, to be given the opportunity to meet her brother’s Cambridge tutor, the poet and cynic John Cleveland. Her seriousness is in direct contrast to her tomboy friend, the Squire’s daughter, merry Meg Yarde, who lives only for the outdoor life of horses and dogs, and who finds seventeenth century Cambridge intolerably lifeless.
The historical persons of the novel blend so perfectly with the fictional ones that after a point, it is hard to tell which is which. Robert Herrick is real, but are his friends the doctor, who is seriously infected with the scientific spirit of the age (he is eager that Cambridge should teach his son some of Descartes’ ideas), or the Squire, who is as seriously a witch hater, equally real? As Macaulay says in her Foreword, “As it seems to be the habit to furnish such information, I would add that only a very few of the people in this novel are imaginary.”
While it might be useful to have some idea of the turbulent ideas and people then churning the politics, religion and literature of the period to a bloody climax, it is not essential, since Rose Macaulay's novel lays it all out so clearly before you. One very natural impulse on reading about the poets is to search out your battered and forgotten school anthology of English verse, and see how come you missed so much grace, sly wit and charm when you had to pass the Eng Lit exam.
The title is taken from the epigraph:
The rose withers, the blossom blasteth,
The flowers fade, the morning hasteth,
The sun sets, the shadow flies,
The gourd consumes; and man he dies.
___________________From “Man’s Mortality,”
Anon. 1628
Certainly the sense of the brevity of a man’s tenure of life, loss and devastation, of passion and a kind of hopeless longing, whether for knowledge, for God, a person or for power, colours the whole atmosphere with a sad foreboding.
‘The Shadow Flies' might arguably be one of the most memorable historical novels of the twentieth century by an English author. The problem is that it is so elusive, that it is all but forgotten. A rare find even in a second-hand bookshop. I listened to a simply enthralling recording of it by Thomas Copeland on Librivox. However, only the written text conveys the clever use of actual seventeenth century orthography. There is a borrowable copy also on the Internet Archive. Fadedpage, a Gutenberg affiliate out of Canada, has other books by Rose Macaulay, but not this one. Incidentally, the original British edition carries the title ‘They Were Defeated;’ the American edition bears the title ‘The Shadow Flies.'
July 22, 2012
I first read this about 25 years ago and was enthralled by it. This time round I have struggled and I can't pinpoint quite why the discrepancy has been so huge, when so many of my favourite books from late teens and early adulthood are still favourites. However, more or less the same has been true when I have re-read Rose McCauley's final book "The Towers of Trebizond".
This is a book unlike any other that I have read. Set in the immediate pre English Civil War period, it seems to presuppose a knowledge of the politics of that period, not to mention the poetry, that I don't have - and I suspect I know more than many contemporary readers. All the dialogue is written in [what the author supposes to be] the idiom of the day, but that actually works well and effectively. The book follows the story of Julian Conybeare, a 15 year-old girl and her father, brother and connected circle, including poets from both the pastoral and metaphysical schools. It moves from Devon to Cambridge, and, briefly, to London and addresses themes of religious belief and superstition, feligious conflict, the history of the Church of England, poetry, philosophy, the politics of the day and love. Perhaps it tries to do too much and tell too many stories and I think this may be why I lost my way this time - my main memory of reading it in the past was of the love story. Perhaps it is one of those books that is best read in late teens or early adult-life and that describes first love and the awakening of adolescent eyes to the cynicism of adult life - another examples for me is "I Capture the Castle"
I would recommend it to those who are interested in the historical setting, and devotees of metaphysical poets. And to idealistic, romantic young women.
This is a book unlike any other that I have read. Set in the immediate pre English Civil War period, it seems to presuppose a knowledge of the politics of that period, not to mention the poetry, that I don't have - and I suspect I know more than many contemporary readers. All the dialogue is written in [what the author supposes to be] the idiom of the day, but that actually works well and effectively. The book follows the story of Julian Conybeare, a 15 year-old girl and her father, brother and connected circle, including poets from both the pastoral and metaphysical schools. It moves from Devon to Cambridge, and, briefly, to London and addresses themes of religious belief and superstition, feligious conflict, the history of the Church of England, poetry, philosophy, the politics of the day and love. Perhaps it tries to do too much and tell too many stories and I think this may be why I lost my way this time - my main memory of reading it in the past was of the love story. Perhaps it is one of those books that is best read in late teens or early adult-life and that describes first love and the awakening of adolescent eyes to the cynicism of adult life - another examples for me is "I Capture the Castle"
I would recommend it to those who are interested in the historical setting, and devotees of metaphysical poets. And to idealistic, romantic young women.
December 22, 2014
Macaulay’s historical novel, written in the 1930s but set in the 1640s, is remarkable for recapturing the linguistic vibrancy of the era. Any admirer of 17th century English prose can only be impressed with her accomplishment, though he may quibble over a point or two. Macaulay herself was a great lover and a bit of a scholar of the era, its history, its language, and its characters. Several historical figures (particularly Robert Herrick and Sir John Suckling) play important roles in her tale – and it’s well told, a pleasure to read. It’s not her best work, however, and needs some editing, in my opinion. Macaulay overindulges her virtuosity. For example, she presents us at the end of the first section with the full text of letters sent by three separate characters, each with a different style of diction and spelling appropriate to the era and to the three characters themselves, as they vary in interests, maturity, and education. This kind of thing is unnecessary and doesn’t really serve the story, though I admit it’s kind of fun.
October 25, 2015
I read half the book, quite enjoying it, left it for a while, came back to it and couldn't put it down, perhaps because the second half of the book in Cambridge is more lively than the first part set in a Devon village, and I came to care for young Julian's joys and distresses. The historical vernacular of the characters in their speech and letters worked for me, because the first showed people like, and not like, our modern selves, and the second fleshed out their characters and were often quite funny.
Macaulay gives a good insight into the dilemmas that the real people (Herrick, Suckling, Cleveland, etc) faced as religious and political factions fought (sometimes literally) for control of the church and Parliament, not knowing, as we do, how things would turn out. In the foreground, Julian's blossoming into love and her conflict of mind and body is well conveyed. The ending is a bit sudden, but things like that do happen, and the postscript satisfies the need to know how the characters survived in the Civil War.
Macaulay gives a good insight into the dilemmas that the real people (Herrick, Suckling, Cleveland, etc) faced as religious and political factions fought (sometimes literally) for control of the church and Parliament, not knowing, as we do, how things would turn out. In the foreground, Julian's blossoming into love and her conflict of mind and body is well conveyed. The ending is a bit sudden, but things like that do happen, and the postscript satisfies the need to know how the characters survived in the Civil War.
March 19, 2012
From the back cover:
" 'There are two things in which the people expect to be satisfied, religion and justice. And the King must now satisfy 'em....the rabble is cowards, and mayn't consider 'emselves safe even with royalty fettered; they may want to do away with royalty, all-thing'.
Autumn 1640. A time of unrest, as fears of religious persecution grow. In Cambridge, three friends talk of poetry and philosophy and a young girl falls in love. The menacing policial situation, with parliament threatening the King, is forgotten....at least for a while."
" 'There are two things in which the people expect to be satisfied, religion and justice. And the King must now satisfy 'em....the rabble is cowards, and mayn't consider 'emselves safe even with royalty fettered; they may want to do away with royalty, all-thing'.
Autumn 1640. A time of unrest, as fears of religious persecution grow. In Cambridge, three friends talk of poetry and philosophy and a young girl falls in love. The menacing policial situation, with parliament threatening the King, is forgotten....at least for a while."
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews