Summary
Summary of The Red Planet
The Red Planet at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 6 h 45 min5 h 25 min fast, 8 h 5 min slow
- Length
- 96,800 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1917by William John Locke
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
Grief arrives beside ordinary duty
Major Duncan Meredyth arrives at Wellings Park to find his oldest friends mourning their only son, Oswald, killed in France. Yet Sir Anthony is already watching the time: he has a committee to chair. Private sorrow and public duty sit together from the opening scene.
Meredyth, a retired gunner who has not walked in years, tells the story himself. His warmth, anger and humor bring the town close, while an unexplained death from the summer before the war casts a shadow over its households.
Key idea 2
Duty cannot answer every loss
Sir Anthony goes on working because his son did not shirk his duty, and he believes he must do the same.
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Key idea 3
Betty chooses marriage before departure
Betty Fairfax tells Meredyth that she will marry Captain Willie Connor almost at once, before his regiment leaves for France.
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Key idea 4
Boyce carries a troubling reputation
Leonard Boyce has the appearance and charm of a soldier people readily follow.
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Key idea 5
Randall's certainty meets personal stakes
Randall Holmes claims that writing poetry and political articles serves his country better than fighting, which he dismisses as work for yokels.
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Key idea 6
Threats meet gaps in memory
Daniel Gedge speaks against the war and threatens to bring the town's great people down.
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Key idea 7
Betty keeps caring through grief
Betty brings Meredyth a wounded corporal, Tufton, whose wife has pawned their furniture, drunk the money and attacked him.
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Key idea 8
Public courage leaves private doubts
Honors and accounts of daring make Boyce's reputation stronger.
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Key idea 9
Kindness matters among flawed people
Through Meredyth's eyes, Wellingsford becomes a place where a great war reaches into private homes.
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Who it’s for
Readers who enjoy First World War home front stories, English country town life and warmhearted, sharp-tongued narrators will love this novel. It also suits those drawn to mysteries of character.
What this book is
February 1915. A car carries Major Duncan Meredyth, who has not walked in years, to Wellings Park, the great house of his oldest friends. Sir Anthony and Lady Fenimore sit crying. Their only son Oswald, aged twenty-one, is dead in France. Within minutes Sir Anthony is looking at his watch, because he has a committee to chair.
That scene sets the tone of The Red Planet, a novel by William John Locke, written while the First World War was still being fought. Meredyth, a retired gunner crippled by a Boer shell, tells the story himself. You get a warm, funny, furious narrator, a one-eyed servant named Sergeant Marigold, and a death from the summer before the war that no one can explain.
In this summary
- 1Grief arrives beside ordinary dutyFree
- 2Duty cannot answer every loss
- 3Betty chooses marriage before departure
- 4Boyce carries a troubling reputation
- 5Randall's certainty meets personal stakes
- 6Threats meet gaps in memory
- 7Betty keeps caring through grief
- 8Public courage leaves private doubts
- 9Kindness matters among flawed people
A cripple and his sergeant hold a household together
Duncan Meredyth is a retired major of the Royal Field Artillery, forty-seven years old, paralyzed from the waist down by a Boer shell. He lives in a small house in Wellingsford and gets about in a wheelchair or a donkey carriage. He is cheerful, vain about his wit, and quick to lose his temper.
Beside him stands Sergeant Marigold, struck down by the same shell. Both men feel the shame of staying home while younger men go.
Meredyth began a war diary of the town, then found that friends kept bringing him their troubles. He promises to set down events as he learned them. That promise matters, because he is telling a mystery as well as a chronicle.
A narrator who admits his flaws earns trust, and loyal friendship can carry two broken men a long way.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
Why does Sir Anthony continue his committee work after his son's death?
Right. “Sir Anthony goes to chair his committee that same afternoon, since the boy did not shirk his duty, so neither will he.”Not quite. “Sir Anthony goes to chair his committee that same afternoon, since the boy did not shirk his duty, so neither will he.”
What unsettles Meredyth about Boyce's admired reputation?
Right. “A Cockney named Somers claimed that Boyce then shaped a false report to save himself.”Not quite. “A Cockney named Somers claimed that Boyce then shaped a false report to save himself.”
What belief about people underlies the major's outlook?
Right. “You also keep the major's belief that every person, however flawed, holds a spark of beauty that kindness can fan.”Not quite. “You also keep the major's belief that every person, however flawed, holds a spark of beauty that kindness can fan.”
Go deeper: the whole of The Red Planet
About 7 h to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 96,800 words
- Reading timeAbout 6 h 45 min
Questions about The Red Planet
What is The Red Planet about?
It follows life in the English town of Wellingsford during the First World War, told by a crippled retired major. Grief, hasty marriage, a reluctant poet and a much-admired soldier all meet around an unsolved drowning.
Who is Sergeant Marigold?
Marigold is Major Meredyth's devoted servant and old comrade from the Boer War. He has one eye, a curly wig and a stiff manner, and he is the book's best source of dry humor and loyalty.
What does the title The Red Planet mean?
The title refers to Mars, the planet of war. The epigraph says its red light hides not only over battlefields but over the sheltered vales of home, and the novel shows its glow on every family.
Is The Red Planet a true story, and when is it set?
It is a novel, not a true account. Locke wrote it during the First World War, and the story runs from February 1915 into the start of 1917, in a country town.
Is The Red Planet easy to read?
Yes, in the sense that matters. Chapters are brief, dialogue carries many scenes, and the narrator's lively voice, jokes and clear affection for his friends make the pages move easily.
Cite this edition
Locke, William John. The Red Planet. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-red-planet.
Locke, W. J. (2026). The red planet. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-red-planet (Original work published 1917)
Locke, William John. The Red Planet. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-red-planet.
@book{locke2026red,
author = {Locke, William John},
title = {The Red Planet},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-red-planet},
note = {First published 1917}
}
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