They both fall in love with the same woman and their travels take them between the Isle of Man and Iceland, crossing personal upheavals, political revolutions and natural disasters.

In his autobiography, Hall Caine claimed that he identified the key thematic base for the novel as early as 1883, when he first began to consider fiction writing.

Caine was particularly impressed by his friend William Morris’ four-volume translation from the Icelandic of the Saga of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Nibelungs, published in 1876.

[4] An Icelandic fisherman, Stephen Orry, bears two sons, one to the governor's daughter in Reykjavík, another to the lowest of women on the Isle of Man.

The Manx-born son, Michael "Sunlocks", is brought up by the Deputy Governor of the Isle of Man, alongside his daughter, Greeba, as Stephen could not support him or keep him from bad influences.

After surviving shipwreck in Ramsey bay, Jason is called upon to save Stephen Orry from his own boating accident off Maughold Head.

However, when she then receives a letter from Michael, she goes to marry him in Iceland, where he has risen to become governor of the country newly independent of Danish rule.

However, although Jason gains his freedom, Michael is again imprisoned, this time on Grimsey, a small island off the north coast of Iceland.

The next day Jason is shot by the Danish soldiers and he dies satisfied knowing that Michael is with Greeba safely sailing home to the Isle of Man.

On the first leg of the trip he and his wife were overcome by seasickness but an onboard doctor curiously prescribed them opium, which successfully cured them.

"[8] However, he also suggested significant changes to the historical references of the novel, which were glaringly inaccurate at that stage and which Leighton thought exposed Caine to the charge of taking "improbable liberties with circumstance.

Caine had been introduced to Wolcott Balestier, the business partner of William Heinemann, not long before by his friend, Bram Stoker.

Gladstone, then the Prime Minister, responded to the copy of the novel that Heinemann had sent on Caine's request, saying that, “The Bondman is a work of which I recognise the freshness, vigour and sustained interest no less than its integrity of aim.

"[2] Caine's biographer in 1901 wrote that the critics "proclaimed it as one of the masterpieces of the century",[4] describing the book as:[4] "one of the most powerful novels ever written, great by reason of its strength of thought and directness of utterance.

Good luck to her!” The sensation of the book's success set in motion the media obsession with Caine and his work that would remain with him for the rest of his life.

[16] By this time, investment in the production was easier to arrange because many other plays by Caine had been successfully produced and an audience was effectively guaranteed for anything written by him.

This version of the play had changed significantly from the story of novel, most notably through a shift of location from Iceland to Sicily and with an ending that avoided the death of Red Jason.

[18] In April 1906 Collins and Caine had gone on a research trip to Sicilly where they spent a day with Leone Testa, the inspector-general of Sicily's sulphur mines.

Testa visited London and after seeing the play he commented that "In combining the two for dramatic purpose, Mr Collins has attained a better scenic effect than could be got out of either alone.

[20] Upon its announcement The New York Times reported that some people were shocked and quoted a writer in The St James's Gazette : "the cow-milking business is a kind of shoddy realism that mocks at serious drama and belittles the players, the audience, and the poor defenceless cow.

Although he was listed simply as "Mr Derwent" in the programme notes to avoid undue attention because of his father, the press eventually revealed his true identity, but by that time he had already left the cast to prepare for his role in another of Hall Caine's plays, The Christian.

During their European tour Japanese playwright Matsui Shōyō and actor Ichikawa Sadanji II saw the Dury Lane production.

Sidney newspaper The Sunday Sun reported that at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne Rignold "was received on his first entrance with loud and continued applause, which was repeated throughout the progress of the drama.

[28] The second, The Red Samson (Hungarian: A Vörös Sámson) released in 1917 in Hungary, directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Gyula Csortos, Ica von Lenkeffy and Tivadar Uray.

[29] The third film version was released in 1929, directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Norman Kerry as Jason and Donald Macardle as Michael.