We rely on your support to help us keep producing beautiful, free, and unrestricted editions of literature for the digital age. Will you support our efforts with a donation ? It is the Middle Ages, and the Hundred Years War rages on in England and France. Alleyne Edricson, the son of an English landowner, is training as a novice at an abbey. As his training draws to a close, he's called upon to spend a year in the outside world to decide if he really wants to devote his life to prayer and contemplation. He quickly meets Hordle John, a fellow novice expelled for misbehavior, and Aylward, a French archer traveling to meet the famous knight Sir Nigel Loring and join his band of archers, the titular White Company. The three decide to travel together, and embark on a series of action-packed adventures across England, France, and Spain. Doyle was inspired to write about the time period after attending a lecture on the subject. He spent years researching the era, and his careful research is evident in the novel's detail: period-correct words and names add a flavor of verisimilitude, and nearly all of the people and places in the tale really did exist-and are moreover depicted to a great degree of historical accuracy. Arthur Conan Doyle was a significant literary figure whose work has stood the test of time. This public domain edition preserves the original text in its entirety, making it accessible to modern readers and scholars alike. As a work of classic literary fiction, The White Company exemplifies the narrative craft and social insight that defined great storytelling of its era. Literary fiction of this period was characterized by careful attention to character psychology, social milieu, and the moral questions that animated public discourse.
