Ebenezer Le Page is the lead character in the novel The Book of Ebenezer Le Page

The Book of Ebenezer Le Page

The Book of Ebenezer Le Page is a novel by Gerald Basil Edwards first published in United Kingdom by Hamish Hamilton in 1981, and in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf in the same year...

by GB Edwards

Gerald Basil Edwards

Gerald Basil Edwards , was a British author.- Biography :Edwards is known for The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, which was published posthumously in 1981...

. The book takes the form of an autobiography of an archetypal

Archetype

An archetype is a universally understood symbol or term or pattern of behavior, a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated...

 Guernseyman who lives through the dramatic changes in the island of Guernsey

Guernsey

Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.The Bailiwick, as a governing entity, embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, Burhou, and Lihou and their islet...

, Channel Islands

Channel Islands

The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...

 from the late 19th century, through to the 1960s. The book is written in Guernsey English (with an occasional smattering of the Guernsey

Dgèrnésiais

Guernésiais, also known as Dgèrnésiais, Guernsey French, and Guernsey Norman French, is the variety of the Norman language spoken in Guernsey. It is sometimes known on the island by the semi-disparaging name "patois"...

 language)

Fictional biography

Ebenezer was born in the late 19th century, and dies in the early 1960s. He lived his whole life in Vale

Vale, Guernsey

Vale is one of the ten parishes of Guernsey.Until 1806 the parish occupied territory on the mainland of Guernsey, the Vingtaine de l'Epine, as well as the whole of Le Clos du Valle, a tidal island forming the northern extremity of Guernsey separated from the mainland by La Braye du Valle, a tidal...

. He never married, despite a few flings with local girls, and a tempestuous relationship with Liza Queripel of Pleinmont

Pleinmont-Torteval

Pleinmont-Torteval is an area in Guernsey. It is part of the parish of Torteval, which is split into two, by St. Pierre du Bois. The other part is often called just "Torteval" to distinguish it from "Pleinmont-Torteval"....

. He only left the island once, to travel to Jersey

Jersey

Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...

 to watch the Muratti

Muratti

The Muratti is the only annual men's football competition, inaugurated in 1905, between the Channel Islands of Guernsey, Jersey and Alderney, the prize for winning being a trophy called the Muratti Vase which is only relevant within the Islands. Both Matthew Le Tissier and Graeme Le Saux played in...

. For most of his life he was a grower and fisherman

Fisherman

A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishermen and fish farmers. The term can also be applied to recreational fishermen and may be used to describe both men...

, although he also served in the North regiment of the Royal Guernsey Militia

Royal Guernsey Light Infantry

Royal Guernsey Light Infantry was a regiment in the British Army that was formed from the Royal Guernsey Militia in 1916 to serve in World War I. They fought as part of the British 29th Division...

 (though not outside the island) and did some jobbing work for the States of Guernsey

States of Guernsey

The States of Guernsey is the parliament of the island of Guernsey. Some laws and ordinances approved by the States of Guernsey also apply to Alderney and Sark as "Bailiwick-wide legislation" with the consent of the governments of those islands...

 in the latter part of his life. Guernsey

Guernsey

Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.The Bailiwick, as a governing entity, embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, Burhou, and Lihou and their islet...

 is a microcosm of the world as Dublin is to James Joyce

James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...

 and Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

 is to Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...

. After a life fraught with difficulties and full of moving episodes, Ebenezer dies happy, bequeathing his pot of gold and autobiography (The Book of Ebenezer Le Page) to the young artist he befriends, after an incident in which the latter smashed his greenhouse.