Under Two Flags (novel)

First edition title page

Under Two Flags (1867) was a best-selling novel of the late 1860s by Ouida. Perhaps "her best" novel.^[1]

Plot

The novel is about The Hon. Bertie Cecil (nicknamed Beauty of the Brigades).^[2][3]

At the beginning of the novel, Bertie has strong homoerotic ties to his best friend and servant.

He exiles himself to Algeria where he joins the Chasseurs d'Afrique, a regiment comprising soldiers from various countries, rather like the French Foreign Legion.

Bertie's "inconvenient" admirers are erased, with the result that Bertie is converted to a person whose identity is socially acceptable.^[4]

Adaptations

The book has also served as a basis for a number of stage and film adaptations.

• Under Two Flags, a 1901 Broadway play by Paul M. Potter that ran for 135 performances at the Garden Theatre, starring Blanche Bates and Maclyn Arbuckle, staged (directed) by David Belasco, and produced by Charles Frohman.^[5]
• Under Two Flags (1912 film), a 1912 film
• Under Two Flags (1916 film), a 1916 film starring Theda Bara
• Under Two Flags (1922 film), a 1922 film directed by Tod Browning
• Under Two Flags (1936 film), featuring Ronald Colman, Claudette Colbert, Victor McLaglen and Rosalind Russell

Classics Illustrated # 86 Under Two Flags is an excellent adaptation with outstanding comic art by Maurice del Bourgo.

E-Text

• An etext is available

References

1. ↑ http://www.ulib.niu.edu/badndp/ramee_louise.html
2. ↑ http://fp.arizona.edu/mesassoc/Bulletin/35-2/35-2Driss.htm
3. ↑ The Forgotten Female Aesthetes: Literary Culture in Late-Victorian England, by Talia. Schaffer; pp. x + 298. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press
4. ↑ Schaffer, Talia. "Under Two Flags". The Literary Encyclopedia. 24 January 2002. accessed 1 July 2009.
5. ↑ Mantle, Burns, and Garrison P. Sherwood, eds., The Best Plays of 1899-1909, (Philadelphia: The Blakiston Company), 1944, pp. 387-388.