The Prelude to Adventure

The Prelude to Adventure is a novel by Hugh Walpole, first published in 1912, and the second novel in the Four Fantastic Tales series. Set largely in Cambridge during the early twentieth century, the story follows the intense inner life of Olva Dune, a young undergraduate whose impulsive act of violence against a cruel fellow student becomes the turning point of his life. In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Olva experiences a profound and unsettling conviction that he is being pursued by a higher moral or spiritual force, and the novel unfolds as he struggles to reconcile his pride, guilt, and desire for independence with this growing sense of destiny.

In this, one of his earlier novels, Walpole experiments with a more introspective and symbolic approach. The result is a thoughtful Edwardian psychological novel that combines campus drama, moral conflict, and spiritual questioning.