Henty on a Good Mixture of Instruction and Adventure

Joshua Horn, who won second place in the 2008 Ballantyne Essay contest, had a very interesting insight that he found in one of Henty's books about writing interesting, but instructive, stories.

Here is a quote that I found from the Preface of "The Young Buglers" by G. A. Henty.

"To my Young Readers, I remember that, as a boy, I regarded any attempt to mix instruction with amusement as being as objectionable a practice as the administration of powder in jam; but I think that this feeling arose from the fact that in those days books contained a very small share of amusement and a very large share of instruction. I have endeavored to avoid this, and I hope that the accounts of battles and sieges, illustrated as they are by maps, will be found as interesting as the lighter parts of the story." -G.A. Henty

I think that this is very true. It makes history books a lot more interesting to have a fictional character who has exciting adventures in it.

Joshua also had a follow-up question.

I also have a question. I know that Henty normally placed his characters in different wars in history while Ballantyne put his characters in interesting geographical places. But Ballantyne also wrote some historical novels, such as Hunted and Harried. Did he write a lot of those? - Joshua Horn

Thank you, Joshua, for your comment and question. Ballantyne did write a number of "historical novels." Not nearly as many as Henty, but he did write a number. Here are six of the most well known "historical fiction" books by Ballantyne.

• Ungava : A Tale of Esquimaux Land

• The Norseman in the West, or America Before Columbus

• The Pioneers: A Tale of the Western Wilderness

• In the Track of the Troops: A Tale of Modern War

• The Lonely Island, or The Refuge of the Mutineers

• Hunted and Harried : A Tale of the Scottish Covenanters