About the book: 1983 / "From now on, Guernsey is immortalized in a monumental portrait that will certainly become a classic monument of the island." These words belong to the famous English prose writer John Fowles and are taken from his preface to the book by D. Edwards “Ebenezer Le Page,” the first and only novel written by a Guernseyman about the island of Guernsey. Among all the islands located in the English Channel, Guernsey is the second largest. The book about Guernsey was published in 1981, five years after the death of its author, Gerald Edwards, who was born and raised on the island. The years of childhood and youth served as a source of inspiration for D. Edwards. “Ebenezer Le Page” is the only book of the writer, and Edwards began writing it when he was well over sixty. In his youth, by the will of his father, D. Edwards was disinherited. With a feeling of bitterness and resentment, the twenty-year-old youth left Guernsey, settled in England and became an eternal exile. In recent years he lived as a real hermit near the town of Weymouth, in Dorset. Weymouth is the closest English town to Guernsey on the island of Great Britain. D. Edwards separated from his wife in 1933 and did not maintain any contact with his four children. The writer expressed his attitude towards family life in one phrase: “I’d rather be a hermit crab than a family man.” Although by nature D. Edwards was not an absolute recluse, the following remark by the author of Ebenezer Le Page indicates how obsessed he was with the idea of ​​reclusion, isolation: “The mere thought of becoming known to the public terrifies me ... I do not intend to voluntarily introduce the public with any autobiographical information." "Ebenezer Le Page" is the memories and impressions of the main character, a detailed human document about life on the island of Guernsey between 1890 and 1970. As elsewhere, this was an era of cultural revolution, a profound shift in the life of the island. The book describes local traditions, morals and character traits that are rooted in all the inhabitants of the island: on the one hand, a sense of independence, perseverance, ingenuity, on the other - stubbornness, backwardness, suspicion of strangers.D. Fowles notes that any novel that describes a closed community risks being labeled a "provincial novel." But as D. Edwards himself writes, his book “describes from the inside the impact of world events” on a misguided, but always honest individual. One of the most remarkable features of D. Edwards’ work is the lively spoken language of the protagonist, a man without any education. He, like other islanders, speaks a local dialect, seasoned with French words - the geographical proximity of France makes itself felt. Thanks to lively speech, the reader empathizes with the narrator, despite the fact that the narrative is devoid of traditional sequence and characters appear and disappear in one episode or another completely unexpectedly. As long as the narrator's voice is heard, Ebenezer's inconsistent and even chaotic story is exciting and moving. In the words of another famous English novelist, William Golding, “you don’t just read this book, you experience it.”».