5 h 4 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 5 h 4 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does honour mean when the demands of home meet the trials of war?
In VC: A Chronicle of Castle Barfield and of the Crimea, David Christie Murray brings English home life into contact with a distant conflict. Castle Barfield anchors the story at home; the Crimea brings the test of war. Between them lie duty, reputation and the pressures that test ordinary people.
This Victorian adventure explores a world where character is proved through action and a good name carries weight. Its title points to the Victoria Cross, the medal for bravery created during the Crimean War. Honour and the hope of redemption give the story questions that reach beyond the battlefield: what do people owe others, and themselves?
What you’ll discover
- Home meets the battlefield Follow a chronicle that connects life in Castle Barfield with the conflict in the Crimea.
- The weight of reputation Explore a Victorian world where a person's good name matters alongside the pull of duty.
- Courage under pressure Consider what bravery means when war puts ordinary people to the test.
- The hope of redemption Encounter the question of whether action can mend a wrong or restore a name.
- A Victorian sense of adventure Enter Murray's fiction, where English social life meets public events and the demands of war.
Who will love it
Readers who love old-fashioned adventure with a moral backbone will enjoy it, as will anyone drawn to the Crimean War, to fathers and sons, or to a young man's honor tested by love, class and battle.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A stormy night brings war news to Beacon Hill
- The cousins' old fraud comes back to haunt them
- Polson sees the truth and walks out into the night
- A gentleman takes the Queen's shilling
- A father begs for one handshake
- The Alma, a glove, and a Christmas pig
- What the story says about honor, fathers and rank
- How Murray tells the tale and how to read it
Who’s who
- Polson JervaseA proud, honest young man who gives up a commission and his home rather than live on his father's stolen money.
- John JervasePolson's blustering, tearful father, a rich former seaman who built his fortune on a fraud and begs his son's forgiveness.
- James JervoyceJervase's timid cousin and partner, a churchgoing hypocrite whose fear brings their old crime to light.
- General BoswellA tall, gentle Waterloo veteran who has put his savings in the cousins' firm and insists on repaying money he thinks is stained.
- Irene BoswellThe General's daughter, who loves Polson, hides her sorrow at their parting, and faces trouble with a soldier's courage.
- Captain VolnayPolson's rich, cheerful old schoolmate and an officer in the dragoons, who befriends him in the ranks.
- Major de BlacquaireA scented, sneering officer who owns the robbed mine and eventually relents toward Polson and his father.
- Paddy ErrollAn impoverished Irish nobleman who enlists beside Polson and becomes a bold, cheeky forager in the trenches.
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- Hardcover
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VC: Eine Chronik von Schloss Barfield und der Krim
by David Christie Murray · 1891
A storm drives a rich man home to Beacon Hill with news of war, and a friend arrives soon after with ruin.
Medium level5–10 hours to readDeutsch
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In short
What would you do if, in one stormy night, you learned that your father's fortune rests on a theft? Polson Jervase, twenty-three, with an army commission almost in his hand, must answer before dawn.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A stormy night brings war news to Beacon Hill
The story begins on the evening of 27 March 1854, in a gale no one around Castle Barfield can remember. Oaks and elms crash down, and rain falls in ropes. Through it a stout, soaked man climbs Beacon Hargate toward a gray-stone house glowing with firelight. He is John Jervase, called Jack, a retired seaman who has grown rich and respected.
Jervase finds farm hands drinking his brew in the kitchen. He mutters angrily, then walks in beaming. He tells them the Queen has declared war on the Czar, and he offers a pound to any man who takes the Queen's shilling. The men cheer, but none truly wants to go. Murray shows in a few lines that Jervase keeps one manner for the kitchen and another for the parlor.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 9 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1891
- Language
- Deutsch
- Reading time
- 3 h 20 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Murray, David Christie. VC: A Chronicle of Castle Barfield and of the Crimea. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/vc-a-chronicle-of-castle-barfield-and-of-the-crimea.
Murray, D. C. (2026). VC: A chronicle of Castle Barfield and of the Crimea. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/vc-a-chronicle-of-castle-barfield-and-of-the-crimea (Original work published 1891)
Murray, David Christie. VC: A Chronicle of Castle Barfield and of the Crimea. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/vc-a-chronicle-of-castle-barfield-and-of-the-crimea.
@book{murray2026vc,
author = {Murray, David Christie},
title = {VC: A Chronicle of Castle Barfield and of the Crimea},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/vc-a-chronicle-of-castle-barfield-and-of-the-crimea},
note = {First published 1891}
}
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What is VC: A Chronicle of Castle Barfield and of the Crimea about?
It follows Polson Jervase, a young Midlands gentleman who learns that his father's wealth rests on a fraud. He gives up his commission, enlists as a private, and fights in the Crimean War, while his love for Irene Boswell endures.
When was VC by David Christie Murray written and is it a true story?
It is a Victorian novel by David Christie Murray, who died in 1907. The characters are invented, but the Crimean War setting is real, with the Alma, Sevastopol, Lord Raglan and Florence Nightingale all appearing in its pages.
What does VC stand for in the title?
VC means the Victoria Cross, the British medal for gallantry created during the Crimean War. The novel's young hero is recommended for it, so the title points to the honor that Polson earns through courage in the field.
The author
David Christie Murray
1847–1907 · English novelist and journalist
David Christie Murray (1847–1907) was an English journalist and novelist. He was born in West Bromwich and died in London. He worked as a journalist before writing novels. His books, published in the late nineteenth century, include Aunt Rachel, In Direst Peril, and VC: A Chronicle of Castle Barfield and of the Crimea.
More by David Christie Murray
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