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 Guernsey born 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 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, History of psychology#Emergence of German experimental psychology, historical psychology, philosophy and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a stat ...

Guernseyman who lives through the dramatic changes in the island of

Guernsey Guernsey ( ; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; ) is the second-largest island in the Channel Islands, located west of the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy. It is the largest island in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, which includes five other inhabited isl ...

Channel Islands The Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They are divided into two Crown Dependencies: the Jersey, Bailiwick of Jersey, which is the largest of the islands; and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, ...

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 municip ...

. 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 ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

to watch the Muratti Vase, a football match. For most of his life he was a grower and

fisherman A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million Commercial fishing, commercial and Artisan fishing, subsistence fishers and Fish farming, fi ...

, although he also served in the North regiment of the Royal Guernsey Militia (though not outside the island) and did some jobbing work for the

States of Guernsey The States of Guernsey (), officially the States of Deliberation and 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 ...

in the latter part of his life.

is a microcosm of the world as

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

is to

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta 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 influentia ...

and

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

is to

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

. 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, critically positioned between modernism and postmodernism. His work was influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, among others. After leaving Oxford Uni ...

, ''Wormholes'' (London, 1998), pp. 166–74 * Edward Chaney,
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, Parts 1–3, 1994–5.
Extraordinary Ebenezer follow-up
Edward Chaney, ''The Arran Voice'', 30 October 2008. Fictional Guernsey people Culture of Guernsey Characters in British novels {{Guernsey-stub