The crisis

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

The Crisis (German translation: "The crisis") is the title of a 1901 novel by the American writer Winston Churchill .

action

The plot of the novel is set in the American Civil War . The protagonist is the young New Englander Stephen Brice , who, after successfully completing his law degree, joins the law firm of judge Silas Whipple in St. Louis. The close professional collaboration creates a personal closeness between the two men, which is reinforced by their joint commitment in the abolitionist movement. Stephen eventually falls in love with Virginia Carvel , a southern belle though and great-granddaughter of the title character of Churchill's first work "Richard Carvel" from 1899. Virginia reciprocated the feelings Stephen it has for, but is reluctant to internally against their drawn awareness to it, being a Yankee is and because he bought a young black woman at the slave market that she wanted to buy herself and immediately gave her freedom. Her southern patriotism leads Jinny to get engaged to her unloved cousin Clarence Colfax , a dashing old-school gentleman. Meanwhile, Steven met Abraham Lincoln in Illinois - an encounter that had a lasting impact on him. With the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, the actors found themselves on different sides: Colfax served in the Southern Army, Stephen joined the Army of the North. After all sorts of vicissitudes - Stephen gains the trust of General Sherman and the President, among other things - the eponymous hero finally saves his rival Colfax's life and enables him to return to the south. Colfax, knowing that his opponent was so generous only out of love for Jinny, is arrested as the war draws to a close. When his bride comes to Lincoln to ask for his sparing, she has to learn that it was Stephen who stood up for her fiancé. In a dramatic conversation between Lincoln, Stephen and Virginia, she realizes for the first time that her American homeland is bigger than the southern states and that it takes a man of Lincoln's stature to unite the divided country. Now she no longer opposes her love for Stephen.

criticism

The neutrality of this article or section is disputed. A reason is given on the discussion page . You can get more information here .

The book is still worth reading today, less because of the topic of the “beloved enemy”, which is often treated in a similar form, but mainly because of Churchill's remarkable art of characterization, which is able to give historical personalities plasticity and liveliness. Above all, the portrait of Lincoln - albeit somewhat one-sidedly positive - is convincing and is brilliantly rounded off by many virtuously integrated, authentic anecdotes about the man behind the myth .

expenditure

• Churchill, Winston: The Crisis, New York 1901.
• Ders .: Daselb., New York 1962.
• Ders .: Daselb., Norwood 1981.
• Ders .: Daselb., Cutchogue 1984.

Dramatization

• Churchill, Winston: The Crisis, New York 1927.