Sapper's theme in these books is one of the most important of the 20th century: the collusion between money-hungry capitalists and bloody-minded bolsheviks. Sapper gave the world Bulldog Drummond a full ten years before Leon Trotsky had fabricated the word "racist", and hence he was able to write the novel well outside the chilling influence of that ruinous neologism. Never hesitating to call an Englishman an Englishman, or a jew a jew, Sapper still retained the essential knowledge of racial reality which is indispensable for both the health of nations and for their peaceful coexistence. But preserving nations and fostering peace have never been high on the list of Marxist priorities, so the erosion of healthy racial consciousness has always been their modus operandi. That the Drummond books are now forgotten, and would be universally condemned today if appearing for the first time, tells us everything we need to know about who won the war.This, the first of the Bulldog Drummond stories, appeared in 1920 and became a national sensation in England. Reading it some ninety years later allows one to feel the steep decline in literacy that has taken place since Sapper's heyday. Although Sapper's thrillers were regarded at the time as penny dreadfuls, it's obvious that their value has endured. "Bulldog Drummond" is not only thrilling entertainment, it is also an insightful record of what an average Englishman thought of the political scene just after the Great War.Untouched by the diseased campaign to deaden all racial sensibilities which would soon envelop the West, Sapper wrote from the heart, and for the common man. Like all true Englishmen, Sapper and his hero Hugh Drummond are anti-Utopian. They resist foreign innovation for the sake of hearth and home, and they fight their enemy to the hilt. Sapper was in the trenches in France, and he put Drummond there, too. Though the story is set in the immediate aftermath of the war, the specter of political upheaval which drove that bloody affair hangs over every chapter.Consider the fact that Sapper was something of a Stephen King of the early 20th century, both in popularity and production. He was a prolific best-seller, and his books were frequently filmed. Yet what a contrast we find between what passes for popular literature today and what Every Man was reading back then. Drummond is self-consciously not an intellectual, and in fact some of his funniest lines are directed against the eggheads with guns who he is up against. And yet it would be wrong to call Drummond anti-intellectual either. He's a dashing but quixotic figure, shrewd yet refreshingly naive to the ways of the world. Trench combat has blessed him with a cool-blooded demeanor, without in any way removing his joie de vivre. He is both ugly and virile, and he possesses the wisdom of the folk. He is Falstaff on the streets of modern London."Demobilised officer, finding peace incredibly tedious would welcome diversion. Legitimate if possible; but crime, of a comparatively humorous description, no objection. Excitement essential." Thus runs Captain Hugh Drummond's peacetime advertisement in the London Times in the summer of 1919. Having been flooded with responses from interested seekers, Drummond wisely settles on a damsel in distress.As the story opens, the lovely Phyllis Benton has been drawn into a murky web of criminal intrigue through one of her father's business relations. Carl Peterson is a newcomer to the Bentons' neighborhood in Surrey, but he is a master of disguise whose putative English pedigree Phyllis immediately distrusts. Peterson has taken to meeting and dining frequently with Phyllis' father. Having seen or overheard several angry exchanges between the men, and heard even worse of Peterson's cohort, Phyllis decides to seek a meeting with the anonymous demobilised officer. Instantly intrigued by the girl's story, and taken by her large eyes, Drummond commits on the spot.The book is loaded with humor and violent action, a kind of heady blend of Wodehouse and Ian Fleming. Perfectly paced, each chapter sweeps us deeper into Peterson's world. As the full depths of his international conspiracy to undermine England are revealed, we gladly join Drummond in his relentless pursuit of the Peterson gang, from London, to Surrey, to Paris, and back for the exciting climax at the Elms. Drummond's final address to the Peterson gang is worth quoting in full:"Listen to me." Hugh Drummond's voice took on a deep, commanding ring, and against their will the four men looked at the broad, powerful soldier, whose sincerity shone clear in his face. "Not by revolutions and direct action will you make this island of ours right--though I am fully aware that that is the last thing you would wish to see happen. But with your brains, and for your own unscrupulous ends, you gull the working-man into believing it. And he, because you can talk with your tongues in your cheeks, is led away. He believes you will give him Utopia; whereas, in reality, you are leading him to hell. And you know it."
Ruthless, devil-may-care, fearless, loyal, inspiring, flippant, deadly, patriotic -- all are very descriptive of Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond, a well-to-do soldier demobilized (demobbed) after the cessation of hostilities in the Great War. Bored is another word very descriptive of Drummond, perhaps more appropriate than all the other lumped together. It is 1920, and Bulldog Drummond is finding peace a bit too tedious for his liking -- no more daring raids on the enemy, no more gun battles, no more silently stalking the battlefield and breaking the necks of Bosche soldiers. So he inserts an advert in which he offers his services as a soldier-of-fortune (thought he does not use that term), willing to do anything legal (more or less)as long as excitement and humor are guaranteed. The advert brings him into contact with young and beautiful Phyllis Benton, who is worried about her father, and after that Drummond is, as a hack writer might put it, off and running.Fortunately, Sapper (Herman Cyril McNeile) was no hack writer, though it must be admitted his forte was action, not characterization. But while much of the success of the book rests on Sapper's ability to write non-stop action, the success of Drummond the character (he survived in new tales for more than sixty years) is found in his coolness under fire, his flippancy in the face of death, his absolute loyalty to his mates, his unflagging patriotism, his boundless optimism, his iron-strong sense of fair play, his distrust of foreigners (especially Bosch and Bolsheviks), his ability to make the right decision in an instant, and his ability to take care of himself, whether he's being attacked by a gorilla, a pygmy with blowgun, or a sociopath with an acid bath...in short he was who every English schoolboy wanted to be and how every Englishman saw himself in his heart of hearts. He was Sexton Blake tempered by the fires of World War I, the template for such future English heroes as The Saint, James Bond, The Toff and The Baron.In addition to meeting his wife Phyllis in this first book of what would become a long run by Sapper and his successors, Drummond also meets his arch-nemesis Carl Peterson, an international criminal who not only wants to amass great wealth through perfidy but wants to (horrors!) change the social system of England. In this book, Peterson (probably not his real name) is presented as a protean criminal and revolutionary who routinely dons the most dangerous disguise of all -- respectability. He sit at the center of his web of evil, pulling the strings, controlling the actions of people who actually look like criminals or foreigners (same thing, really), filling the same sort of role as does Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond series.Sapper's writing, for the most part, still maintains its crispness, but modern readers might have some problems dealing with the dated slang and idioms, as well as the fact that the bodies keep piling up and no one ever does anything except pat Drummond on the back and tell him what a splendid chap he is. Also hard to digest might be the ruthless and exultant juvenility of Drummond and his gang, which was, at the time, one of the reasons why Englishmen of all ages wanted to be him. For the reader who can set aside modern prejudices and accept a protagonist who is not a dystopic anti-hero, "Bulldog Drummond" is an exciting and rewarding story.
Do You like book Bulldog Drummond (2015)?
An enjoyable adventure tale about a clearly punch-drunk soldier who yearns for more adventures after WW1, advertises for it and gets it in the form of a chance to foil a sinister conspiracy to take over the UK through a Bolshevist revolution bankrolled by foreign millionaires and masterminded by a criminal genius. The love scenes are the most inept I have ever read, the characters are a parade of stereotypes, the prose is embarrassingly bad at times and the action is fast and furious with nary a real plot twist but several cliffhanging reversals of fortune for our hero, who seems to rescue and then lose a millionaire being held captive by the villains more times than I misplace my specs on an averagely dunderheaded day. I can't in good conscience give this book more than two stars, but it's good at what it sets out to do - while away a few hours of your life with a short, sharp burst of vicarious manic action.
—Jayaprakash Satyamurthy
BOTTOM LINE: A lovely 1920s thriller, 'way, 'way over-the-top, with A Criminal Mastermind trying to rule the world, and The Good Guy and Friends trying to save humanity (and get the girl). Wonderful reread, still quite fun, and soothing, in a mad way.Hugh Drummond was in The Great War and came out of it hardened and strong, both emotionally and physically. He now knows that he is able to handle pretty much anything that life throws at him, and in this first in series he meets his Arch Enemy Carl Petersen, not-quite-a-madman, out to rule the world. This time it's financial shenanigans, labor relations, and stock manipulations (gee, not much has changed in 90 years...), superior burglary of one-of-a-kind items, and all sorts of manipulation by the bad guys, including torture, clearly - and surprisingly - represented here. Despite the period in which it was set and written, this is rather dark and, at times, quite brutal. But over all it's a nifty thriller, fast-paced, with cardboard-y characters (loveable nonetheless) doing things for what may seem to modern readers inexplicable reasons, many of them moral. Suits me, though, as I've a rather old-fashioned turn of mind. There is a love story of sorts, but it's mercifully brief and marginal, mainly working as a hook to get Drummond into the story. The fights and chases, shoot-em-ups and thugs, conspiracies and odd manners of death predominate, allowing for a lovely romp in a totally unreal universe. And it's lots of fun.
—Abbey
This was part of a four-volume collection available for the Kindle for free. Before I get to the review, some comments on the Kindle version. It's a bad OCR job, so there are a lot of typos, a lot of misspelled words, a lot of confused punctuation. More frustratingly, it seemed like entire sentences/paragraphs/? were missing in places; sometimes one sentence ended, and the next sentence started in a completely different place and I'd have to puzzle out what I had missed.Having said that, I really enjoyed this book. It's a fast, easy read - no dense Holmesian prose here, just a fairly straightforward tale about an adventurer/detective who gets sucked into a nefarious plot by a beautiful woman and, the more he discovers, the more he feels compelled to unravel the entire thing. There are certainly no surprises here and cliches abound (although I suspect this series helped create what we now view as cliches), but rollicking good fun.
—Josh Hamacher
