Thread by @jessnevins

Good morning! I thought I’d do something a little different. I’ve got something I’d like to explore here, but it’s too long for one thread, so I thought I’d do a series of daily threads rather than doing one egregiously long thread. I’ll stop at, I dunno, 30 tweets each?
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I’ll be talking about an 1878-1879 English story paper serial: “English Jack Amongst the Afghans; or, The British Flag—Touch It Who Dare!”

Let me tell you, it is a *trip*. One of the best-written story paper serials of the century, and one of the most fascinating.

2/30

1878 & 1879 are prime years for the story papers, the English equivalent of the American dime novels. 1878-1879 is when the moral panic that eventually destroyed the penny dreadful form was over, the penny dreadfuls were declining, and the story papers were on the rise.
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(Briefly: the rise in English literacy & publishing techniques led to a boom of cheap publications: the penny bloods (1830-early 1860s). After them came the more graphic & darker penny dreadfuls (early 1860s-early 1890s), whose heyday was early 1860s to the early 1870s.)
4/30

The decline of the penny dreadfuls led to the rise of the "cleaner" and less morally complicated story papers.
“English Jack” appeared in the story paper BOYS OF ENGLAND, which was *the* heavyweight among story papers at the time and remained so for 30+ years, to 1899.
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We don’t know who wrote “English Jack;” like most story paper serials, it was unsigned & we have no records to identify authorship. But what can be said about the author is that it was someone who did a *lot* of research or who’d served with the British Army in Afghanistan.
6/30

Because “English Jack” is about the experience of British servicemen in Afghanistan during the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-1842; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Ang…) & the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-1880; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_An…) & it’s written w/detail & the voice of experience. 7/30

“English Jack” is set in Afghanistan in the late 1870s. “English Jack” ran from November 1878-May 1879; the Second Anglo-Afghan War began in November, 1878. “English Jack” wasn’t written on an impulse, however; it’s too complex a work for that.
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The British public had known another war in Afghanistan was coming since the previous June, when the Russians sent an uninvited diplomatic mission to Afghanistan, an independent nation semi-controlled by Britain at the time—Britain controlled Afghanistan’s foreign affairs.
9/30

The reason for that was Afghanistan was in a prime position to threaten and invade Britain’s Indian colony, which Britain was in the middle of looting. The British were terrified of losing India to the Russians, who had influence in Afghanistan thanks to proximity.
10/30

The British fought the First Anglo-Afghan War so that they & not the Russians would control Afghanistan’s foreign affairs, which would ensure no official invasion of India by the Russians & Afghans. This was the first war of the Great Game en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great…
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[I’ve heard & read contradictory statements, from people from Afghanistan, about whether “Afghan” or “Afghani” is correct. I’m going with “Afghan.”]
That was 1839. Now, in 1878, the Russians were inserting themselves into Afghanistan *again*. The British were…not happy.
12/30

The Amir of Afghanistan tried unsuccessfully to keep the Russians out. Then the British demanded equal access. The Amir tried to keep *them* out, but when the Afghans turned back a British diplomatic mission at the Khyber Pass in Sept., Britain decided to force the issue. 13/30

Two months later, 50,000 men, mostly Indian sepoys (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepoy), invaded Afghanistan. A rapid victory was expected.
This is the jingoistic environment in which “English Jack” was written. Most story papers ran fiction about England winning this war.
14/30

But BOYS OF ENGLAND, which traditionally hadn’t had much interest in fiction about Empire, was edited by Edwin J. Brett (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Bre…). Brett loved collecting weapons and armor but was not a fan of modern wars. At all.
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Brett had been a Chartist (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartism) in his youth and retained a strong pro-reform, pro-working class set of politics. BOYS OF ENGLAND was written for working-class youth & both reflected & focused their sentiments, political views, & grievances.
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Working class youth didn’t want to go to war in Afghanistan. They didn’t want to go to war *anywhere*, British Empire or no. Brett agreed with them. So BOYS OF ENGLAND avoided Empire stories and pro-war jingo—and published the cautionary anti-war tale “English Jack.”
17/30

“English Jack” opens in “Cabul [sic], the proud capital.” Two English drummer boys, Bobby and Evan, are two of our protagonists. They are members of the “gallant Kentish Buffs, or Light Bobs, as they are more commonly called.” That is, these guys: britishempire.co.uk/forces/armyuni…
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The ruler of Afghanistan is “Shah Soojah, the king whose dynasty for good or for ill Great Britain had engaged herself to uphold...his home is guarded by British troops because the warriors of his own country cannot be relied upon.”
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“Shah Soojah” is Shah Shujah Darrani (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_Shuj…). British readers, who were well aware (in 1878) of the particulars of the First Anglo-Afghan War, would recognize that “English Jack” was set during the First Anglo-Afghan War.
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British readers would further realize that the author of “English Jack” wasn’t telling a story of the First Anglo-Afghan War for no reason—the author was deliberately drawing a comparison (“see what happened last time we went into Afghanistan?”) with the current war.
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That’s important to keep in mind, because everything that happens in “English Jack” is designed to remind the readers of just how badly the first war went. “English Jack” isn’t a story of glory; it is, as mentioned, a cautionary tale—an *anti-war-in-Afghanistan* tale.
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Our heroes Bobby and Evan are miserable and scared, because (see image)
The evil rebel chief Ackbar Khan (this guy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wazir_Akb…, who is the son of this guy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dost_Moha…; they’ll be important later) taunts the British forces from the hills.
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British officers are assassinated daily. Morale is bad.
Enter Jack Vere, Our Hero. He reproves the boys for smoking, on the grounds that it is bad for their character. Bobby and Evan quickly do as he says, for he is their idol.
24/30

Jack is 17 & had left Sandhurst military academy only ten months before. He had gained his commission by bringing into the regiment “twelve strapping recruits, all young fellows belonging to his father’s broad estate, and clothed, kilted, and armed at his private expense.”
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All of Jack’s men would happily die for him. “Jack Vere was loved besides by the whole regiment, for in addition to being handsome, he was gay, light-hearted, chivalrous, and brave, and had as kindly a word for the private soldier as for his brother officer.”
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Jack leaves the boys, feeling uncertain that they or any of the troops are going to live very long.
(5 pages into “English Jack” & the readers are already presented w/the hero of the story doubting the entire mission. This is nearly unheard-of in the story papers).
27/30

Bobby and Evan, meanwhile, see thirteen robed men sneaking by the city walls. The boys don’t like their looks, so they follow them to a “hidden temple,” in which there is an altar with the “Al Koran” open on it. [Yes, the British knew what the Koran was in 1878].
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The boys don’t like the looks of this and run to get Jack. When they return, they find the thirteen men hyping each other up, shouting “Death to the accursed British—death to the accursed ghiour!” [The author likely meant “giaour,” a derogatory term for a non-Muslim].
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“Death—death to old and young, to wives and mothers, to daughters and young children—ay, even to the babe that is unborn!”
Jack sends the boys to get help and then boldly announces himself to the thirteen and bars them from leaving the temple.
More tomorrow!
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