Despite Jeffery Farnol being known for his many historical romantic adventures, not a few of them set in the Regency period, it is difficult to say which of them qualifies as a true swashbuckler. For the majority of his novels, Farnol kept to an established, and some might say "safe", formula. Young man goes walkabout (usually in rural Kent or Sussex), meets mysterious girl. They share the open road as well as a mutual dislike for each other. From here, we are treated to the odd fist fight, murder and selfless martyrdom. More than often, it culminates where boy gets girl who turns out to be a runaway heiress. Enjoyable, easy reading, but hardly applicable to a full-blooded swash of the buckle.
There are, however, a few that stand out and are worthy of closer scrutiny. Over the Hills (1930), described as "a romance of the 'fifteen. A splendid romance of a coward in the Old Pretender's ill-starred rebellion"; Sir John Dering (1923), an early eighteenth century smuggling yarn set against a background of the Sussex Downs; Beltane the Smith (1913), a medieval romance, and John o'the Green (1935) set in an obscure era and land (medieval?). Once again: good, stirring stuff. Enjoyable as these are, an adequate synopsis of these tales would prove impossible to fit into a single article. I have therefore chosen one that may reliably be categorized as a true swashbuckler.
Adam Penfeather, Buccaneer (1941) features a character both diminutive and doom laden, unique amidst the diverse heroes of Farnol's fertile creativity.
The year is 1640. Witnessing his father's execution, Adam is found in a distraught state by Absolom Troy, seaman, who takes him to "The Mariner's Joy". After an introduction to rum and a coterie of seafaring types, Adam awakes to find his hair turned white. Later that day he confronts an argumentative lout and it is here that Penfeather displays his adeptness with the sword. He joins the Brotherhood o'the Coast as a sworn comrade to Troy. Before setting out for Shoreham and their ship, the Brotherhood assists him in administering revenge on his uncle for "blackening his father's name".
En route to Shoreham, they rescue Antonia Cheevel, a girl being transported to prison for the alleged murder of her master. By dressing her in men's clothes, Adam has her entered on the crew list of the London Merchant as his brother. The scene is now set for a rip-snorting adventure upon the high seas. The novel embodies just about everything for the devotee of the genre: mutiny, shipwrecks, sea fights, slavery and a generous laying on of the cat-o'-nine tails.
The conclusion of Adam Penfeather is not typical of Farnol's adventure stories insofar as the hero doesn't get the girl but "went to face his destiny, which because of his resolute soul, was to bring him at last through peril and hardship to honour, glory and a noble dying. The which is to tell." To my knowledge, what that particular end was is not known, for Farnol never wrote of it.
Farnol penned several books in similar vein. Black Bartlemy's Treasure (1920) and its sequel Martin Conisby's Vengeance (1924). Set about twenty years after the Penfeather novel - which is a prequel - the latter is told in the first person by Martin Conisby. Penfeather plays a significant part in these novels, where his patois is originally more characteristic of the lower deck: "...'tis a pity, for I do like you more and more, such a fine blood-and-beef, dare-and-be-damned, gibbet-like figure of a rogue, shipmate, as would grace a cross-road better than most, which is one reason I was drawn to ye, d'ye see." In the prequel the younger Penfeather's enuciation is gentler.
Winds of Fortune (1934), described by Farnol as "This Romance of Perilous Seas", is also told in the first person, by a woman, Ursula Revell, in a deviation from his regular format. Abducted by Captain Japhet Bly (the real Lord Aldbourn) she is forced to accompany him on an expedition which takes them across the Atlantic. Once again, Absolom Troy and many other old names make an appearance. The voyage is richly strewn with some doughty skirmishes and cutting-out expeditions. Their ultimate destination is the South American continent. Steaming jungles, noble savages, slave hunters and mystical ceremonies are all on the menu of the day.
Jeffery Farnol was born in Birmingham on 10 February 1878. The family later moved to London. Farnol spent a few years in Lee where he was able to explore Kent, the county which supplied the background for many of his novels. He also appeared to have an appetite for the noble art of boxing as will be seen in his frequent use of "the Fancy", its patronizers and participants, evoking colourful characters such as Natty Bell, the Fighting Quaker, and Jessamy Todd. While employed in a firm of engineers and brass-founders, the young Farnol knocked a foreman down for calling him a liar. Could this have been the opening round of a successful career in literature? He was dismissed and after returning to his parents in London, was sent to the Westminster Art School. Farnol married at the age of twenty and decided to move to America. He found employment as a scene painter at the Astor Theatre, New York. In his spare time he began writing The Broad Highway. Considered to be "too English" it was rejected by the publishers. Farnol sent the manuscript to his mother in England and it was subsequently published in 1910 by Sampson Low. While discussing the works of Farnol, the name of Jasper Shrig, the metal-hatted, sharp-witted Bow Street Runner - the saviour of many a hero from the hangman's noose - may not be omitted.
Many of Farnol's romantic novels are, in context, reminiscent of the Sherlock Holmes films made during the Second World War. He used his heroes, their ideals, and the manner in which they overcame their ordeals as a morale booster for a nation embraced in the slaughter of the Great War. His prose is endowed with an innocent romanticism now unfortunately unpopular in this world of cynics. He died in the August of 1952. Nevertheless, for those of us who retain a love of adventure devoid of subjective complexity, a world where a chap will gladly shed blood for the honour of a lady, the works of Jeffery Farnol shall, we hope, always find a place on our bookshelves.