The White Company
1891
Doyle called this his finest work, and those who discover it understand why. The novel follows Alleyne Edricson, raised in the sheltered calm of Beaulieu Abbey, who steps into a 14th century Europe torn by the Hundred Years' War. He finds his calling among the White Company, a mercenary band of archers led by Sir Nigel Loring: a knight as unlikely as they come, short and nearly blind with a warrior's heart that defies his comic appearance. The story builds toward the Black Prince's campaign to restore Peter of Castile, culminating before the Battle of Najera. Yet the real drama lives in Alleyne's transformation from trembling novice to man of action, in the bonds of brotherhood forged in blood and ale, in Doyle's visceral rendering of medieval combat and the strange faith of men who kill and pray with equal fervor. This is historical fiction that pulses with life.
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“You are my heart, my life, my one and only thought.””
— Arthur Conan Doyle
“Streams may spring from one source and yet some may be clear and some be foul.””
— Arthur Conan Doyle
“Holy men? Holy cabbages! Holy bean-pods! What do they do but live and suck in sustenance and grow fat? If that be holiness, I could show you hogs in this forest who are fit to head the calendar. Think you it was for such a life that this good arm was fixed upon my shoulder, or that head placed upon your neck? There is work in the world, man, and it is not by hiding behind stone walls that we shall do it.””
— Arthur Conan Doyle
“The weak man becomes strong when he has nothing, for then only can he feel the wild, mad thrill of despair.””
— Arthur Conan Doyle
“By my soul! I would rather have a dry death," quoth Sir Oliver. "Though, Mort Dieu! I have eaten so many fish that it were but justice that the fish should eat me.””
— Arthur Conan Doyle
“But they must be sorry folk to bow down to the rich in such a fashion," said big John. "I am but a poor commoner of England myself, and yet I know something of charters, liberties franchises, usages, privileges, customs, and the like. If these be broken, then all men know that it is time to buy arrow-heads." "Aye,””
— Arthur Conan Doyle
“When such men, who are beyond hope and fear, begin in their dim minds to see the source their woes, it may be an evil time for those who have wronged them. The weak man becomes strong when he has nothing, for then only can he feel the wild, mad thrill of despair. High and strong the chateaux, lowly and weak the brushwood hut; but God help the seigneur and his lady when the men of the brushwood set their hands to the work of revenge! Through””
— Arthur Conan Doyle
“I am a man who am slow to change; and, if you take away from me the faith that I have been taught, it would be long ere I could learn one to set in its place. It is but a chip here and a chip there, yet it may bring the tree down in time.””
— Arthur Conan Doyle
“I have asked myself if the best which can be done with virtue is to shut it within high walls as though it were some savage creature. If the good will lock themselves up, and if the wicked will still wander free, then alas for the world!" Alleyne””
— Arthur Conan Doyle
