Book Description
Charles Hamilton Smith's illustrations of soldiers of the British Army are a faithful and delightful record of how Wellington's troops were uniformed and equipped. Wellington's Army presents a collection of these sought after plates in a special, large format and provides a superb evocation of British military uniforms during the closing years of the Peninsular War and at the epic battle of Waterloo. The plates, drawn from life and completed in 1814, cover all the branches of service including line infantry; light infantry and rifles; heavy and light cavalry; general officers; foreign troops; artillery and engineers; and cadets and veterans. Each plate is accompanied by an incisive text by the leading expert on Wellington's troops - Philip Haythornthwaite - which discusses the unit in question, the uniform and its significant features. Wellington's Army also includes an extensive introduction analyzing the evolution of the British Army of the period and examining the colorful life of Charles Hamilton Smith.
Book Description
This volume covers the last horse troops of the French Imperial Guard: gendarmes, honor guards and horse artillery, not forgetting the Lithuanian tartars, last proof of Napoleon's will to make out of his Guard a model of a Greater Europe.
Customer Reviews:
Part of a useful series of booklets.......2007-06-14
These series of drawings by Joineau are quite useful in identifying and tracking changes in uniforms of the various units. The author has gleaned from other sources (especially French) and has translated the info into clear precise drawings. Given the varying and sometimes conflicting sources, the author has done a decent job.
Book Description
In 1806 an enthusiastic young Frenchman Maurice de Tascher embarked on a career as a soldier in Napoleon's Grand Arme'e. He was inspired by the emperor's triumphs and determined to win glory and serve his country. In 1813, disillusioned by war and doubtful about the honor of the French cause, de Tascher died in Berlin, a victim of Napoleon's disastrous war against Russia. This is his story.
Amazon.com
In 1985 Jeanette Winterson won the Whitbread Award for best first fiction for the semi-autobiographical Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, an often wry exploration of lesbian possibility bumping up against evangelical fanaticism. She was 25. Two years later, The Passion, her third novel, appeared, the fantastical tale of Henri--Napoleon's cook--and Villanelle, a Venetian gondolier's daughter who has webbed feet (previously an all-male attribute), works as a croupier, picks pockets, cross-dresses, and literally loses her heart to a beautiful woman. Written in a lyrical and jolting combination of fairy tale diction and rhythm and the staccato, the book would be a risky proposition in lesser hands. Winterson has said that she wanted to look at people's need to worship and examine what happens to young men in militaristic societies. The question was, how to do so without being polemical and didactic? Only she could have come up with such an exquisite answer. In the end, Henri, incarcerated on an island of madmen, becomes aware that his passion, "even though she could never return it, showed me the difference between inventing a lover and falling in love. The one is about you, the other about someone else."
Book Description
A magical, wonderful novel about the destinies of Napoleon's faithful cook and the daughter of a Venetian boatman. You will not soon forget this reading experience.
Customer Reviews:
Trust me I'm telling you stories.......2007-07-10
A mate of mine and I catch up every three months over a coffee and invariably the topic of our conversation drifts to our favourite films and books. A few years ago he recommended this book to me as his favourite book of all time - lofty praise and he tends to have pretty good taste.
So I read it, and to be honest, the first time it didn't grab me.
And then I read it again about a year later, and the second time round, it really captured me.
This book has some amazing lines - times where you will read a group of maybe 6 words, or a whole paragraph, and realise, oooooo!!, that was good, and have to read it again. It's like when you dip a spoon in honey and hold it above your mouth and let a drop slide through space onto your tongue.
The passge "I was happy but happy is an adult word. You don't have to ask a child about happy, you see it ..." is one that struck me.
"I'm telling you stories. Trust me".......2007-03-04
Set in the years between Napoleon's aborted attempt at crossing the Channel in 1805 and the disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812, Winterson's "The Passion" reads more like a fairy tale than a war story. Napoleon himself is offstage for most of this short novel; instead the narrative switches between Henri, a cook who satisfies the emperor's gluttonous appetite for chicken, and Villanelle, a web-footed daughter of a boatman who works above and beneath the law in Venice's casinos.
Villanelle loses her heart to a married woman, both figuratively and (yes) literally; the latter aspect underscores the book's fanciful nature. The fates of the two characters intertwine and they eventually traverse the continent together in a journey whose abridged horrors rival "Doctor Zhivago." Henri soon worships the remote Villanelle, yet his love, too, necessarily remains unrequited.
Both characters are storytellers; both know their stories may not be believed ("I'm telling you stories. Trust me" is the refrain). Indeed, Winterson pushes the notion of the unreliable narrator to its limit. But the "truth" is largely irrelevant to their stories; as Henri says, "I was learning not to ask her too many questions; truth or lie, they were usually unsatisfactory."
Winterson's prose is elegantly lyrical, but she often employs clipped, imprecise, recurring phrases to emphasize her themes (I found this quality a bit more grating now than I did when I first read the book nearly 20 years ago). Just when the repetition threatens to become soporific, the gruesome brutality of the war and of urban violence era interrupts the story's phantasmagorical romanticism. It's a strange, disconcerting blend of realism and fabulism and it's far too much for 160 pages, yet Winterson surprisingly pulls it off.
Repetition isn't Passion.......2007-01-05
I have to report that I wasn't seduced by either the tale or the telling. By the time Henry and friends defect from Napoleon's Muscovian campaign I was preparing my own escape from Winterson's passion tale. The outline is there, but the interests, the interior lives of the protagonists is set before us in sequences of sharp pronouncements. Is this the language of passion, perhaps? I found the manner too preachy, the clever phrases passing as truths or insights. 'Oranges' had a greater candour, less artifice, a ring of urgency, a story that needed to be out there. The so called magic realism, a term too readily coughed up, is here offered as a style to cover a thinness of plot and easy divergence without shedding much light on war, Napoleon, his wife, the binding glue amongst Henry's friends, or his Venetian mermaid. The passages on Venice are the best. I don't know what's developed in Winterson's writing since this book, but there's a dated feel to this one, regardless of the grand plaudits heaped upon it on publication. And, so far as the humour vaunted on the dust jacket, this totally eluded me. And humour, a Vonnegutian dark brushing, would have served these reflections well. A superior fiction referring to Napoleon, though not Passion, is Simon Leys,'Death of Napoleon'. It reeks of the gloomy battlefields; the antithesis of romantic passion and Winterson's sensibility.
Fantastic Writing.......2006-10-31
This is a beautiful piece of writing. Winterson has an amazing ability to write that pulled this reader in and would not let go. Not only was the story incredible and the characters true to life, but the flow of text was a joy to read.
I have never read a piece of historical fiction with such enthusiasm. I've read a few other Winterson novels, but this one is far and above the best.
A lover gave this to me.......2006-10-18
and I fell completely in love with him, if only for his taste in books. This is my favorite book. I give this book to everyone I meet. I took it with me to boot camp and lovingly underlined all sentences and paragraphs that had meaning to me personally. Guess what? I ended up underlining the whole book! This book is like a glistening jewel, and if I may be crude, will ensure you the "love" of anyone you gift it to.
I've had to buy this book 8 times for myself, because people borrow it and never give it back.
Customer Reviews:
Alan Forrest does it again!.......2006-12-14
Alan Forrest is one of the great writers on French military history. His focus is not on the battles itself but the social construct of the army. No one does it better and this book focuses on the structure and political make up of the army. Forrest argues that the army was politically aware and reacted to ideological changes. It was made primarily of volunteers who were enthusiastic to fight and it would be a mark of pride for them to have taken arms to fight for the revolution. This budding nationalism allows for the success of the military and Forrest weaves a beautiful verbal tapestry that allows the reader to see what the French army really looked like.
Average customer rating:
- Excellent insignt into the lives of the 'grunts' of a Napoleonic Army
- Very good historical fiction
- Entertaining and informative
- Sweeping Saga of the Grande Armee
- There are many other better choices
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Seven Men of Gascony (Classics of Military Fiction)
R.F. Delderfield
Manufacturer: McBooks Press
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Binding: Paperback
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Too Few for Drums (Classics of Military Fiction)
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The Battle: A Novel
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Napoleon's Marshals
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The Retreat
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Bonaparte's Invaders
ASIN: 0935526978 |
Book Description
Comrades and heroes, the seven warriors slog through the swirl and tumult of the Napoleonic Wars, fighting for their lives across Europe, until they confront their destiny at Waterloo. This stirring saga is drawn from true stories left behind by the soldiers of the First Empire, a dramatic tale of triumph and defeat.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent insignt into the lives of the 'grunts' of a Napoleonic Army.......2007-01-08
Delderfield has done an excellent job at protraying the life and experiences of average French soldiers during 1809-15. The novel follows six recruits and their veteran sergeant as they fight their way across Europe with Napoleon's armies. The 'petit corporal' himself makes a cameo appearance or two, as do several of the Marshals.
Aspects of camp life are excellently explained, and the 'cantinere' (female camp follower and regimental shop owner) plays a major role.
The seven men, Voltigeurs (light infantrymen) participate in the 1809 campaign on the Danube, getting their baptism of fire at the slaughterhouse of Aspern-Essling, and then Wagram. They then are transferred to Spain, where they experience the brutalities of the Guerilla war, fighting at Bussaco in 1810 and marching with Massena's army to the Lines of Torres Vedras. They then spend a spell as POWs in England before travelling back to France to take part in the futile Russian campaign in 1812 and the 1813-14 battles in Germany and France. The portrayal of the combat at Leipzig is particularly intense. The final combat for the Voltigeurs is on the bloody field of Waterloo.
While anyone could pick up this book and enjoy the story (my girlfriend did) a bit of background knowledge of the Napoleonic era makes the book doubly rewarding. If you are interested in this book, do check out Delderfield's 'Napoleon's Marshals', which is of similar style.
Highly reccomended.
Very good historical fiction.......2006-02-11
This novel follows seven French voltigeurs (skirmishers) through the later years of the Napoleonic wars. We join them on Lobau Island, on the eve of the battle of Aspern-Essling, and follow them through Wagram, the occupation of Vienna, Massena's peninsular campaign of 1810, a stint as POWs in England, the 1812 catastrophe in Russia, the desperate campaigning of 1813 and 1814, the first restoration of the Bourbons, the 100 days and Waterloo. By the end, there is only one left, the others having fallen along the way. There is a beautiful young Cantiniere who is also in the mix, and marries two of the men at different times.
Delderfield writes very well, although there is, occasionally, a jarring note, as when one of the men refers to the "gods of the First Empire." While a German in the 1940s might refer to the "Third Reich," a Frenchman in the Napoleonic wars would not, for obvious reasons, refer to the "First Empire." He also has them referring to the battle as "Aspern" or "Aspern-Essling" whereas I believe the French refer to it only as Essling. But the few minor slip-ups do not detract from the wonderful, clear and lucid writing style.
Delderfield's female characters are strong and decisive. They are not wilting flowers. This is true of the Cantiniere, Nicholette, and also true of an Englishwoman whose path they cross in England. This seems to be true of many of his female characters, because his other novel on the Napoleonic wars, "Too Few For Drums," also features a very wise and decisive female character.
Delderfield doesn't try to overwhelm you with historical detail. Although the backdrop is the Napoleonic wars, the story is about people, not battles. Only Waterloo is described in any detail at all. Delderfield does, however, weave in many factual anecdotes, as well as some trenchant, incisive historical commentary.
Although you will probably be able to guess who will survive, the ending is no less poignant. Delderfield even writes a postcript in which the survivor, many years later--in a dream sequence similar to the ending of "Titanic"--at last joins his comrades in death.
Entertaining and informative.......2003-07-14
I have been a Delderfield fan (female) for 30 years but had not yet read any of his Napoleonic tales. Having recently enjoyed the Hornblower books, and Sharpe and Hornblower video series, I decided to give my library-sale copy a try. I read it on vacation this past week and truly enjoyed it. The story of the seven comrades drew me into the story of the war from a French perspective (moderated, of course, by Delderfield's inherent Britishness). While steering away from melodrama, I would not consider the book at all "plodding," as another reviwer put it. The scenes featuring Napoleon brought on the tingles created by the best of fiction or drama. Recommended.
Sweeping Saga of the Grande Armee.......2002-11-28
Despite what others have said about this book I have always found it worthwhile. I recently re-read it after many years and still found it to be a sweeping saga of the Napoleanic wars. Perhaps readers are too taken with the more sleek, action packed yarns of today to allow themselves to get into Delderfield's world of the Napoleanic wars. Yes the book starts off a bit slow, and yes its not as action packed as some other historical fiction on the same period. But Delderfield's strength lies in his story-telling, and this book gradually enfolds you into the epic of what was the campaigns of Napolean. After a while you find yourself swept up into the episodic writing of this story which takes its seven Voltiguers on a tour-de-force of Napoelean's battles. The author has a deep love for the period which is reflected in his style of writing. Delderfield is a writer of the old school. His story and characters slowly grow on you if you allow time for it to do so. While I agree with one reader that it would have been nice if some description of the kind of skirmish tactics the French Voltigeurs employed on the battlefield were provided, I didn't find that it detracts from the story that much. This book was written many years ago before the plethora of military historical fiction was available. I'am sure this book served as inspiration for many of the Sharpe novels et al that we see today. C.H. Forester and R.F Delderfield were the fathers of Napoleanic military historical fiction. These works stand up well over time, and since there are few books in English on the French perspective out there this makes "Seven Men" even more important. Give this book time and allow it to enfold you into its sweeping, epic events that were the horror and grandeur of the
wars of Napolean.
There are many other better choices.......2002-09-21
This book started out very slow and was a continual disappointment throughout. The character development is shallow and devoid of insight into the Napoleonic campaigns it addresses. The book provides only superficial glimpses into the life of these men and their comrades. Please exhaust your reading of Cornwell, O'Brien, Pope, Shaara, Mallinson (often overlooked), Forrester and others before you subject yourself to this quagmire of a read. It is unfortunate that we cannot get a better effort from the perspective of the French while there are so many that address this era from the side of the British.
Book Description
The most famous Rifleman account in its complete and original form - unedited and unabridged Benjamin Harris' story has rightly won its place amongst the best and most well known British Army accounts of life on campaign during the war in Spain against Napoleon's French Army. It graphically tells of the gruelling retreat to Corunna, but it is the human detail of Harris' recollections on the march and on the battlefield that have made this a classic Napoleonic period memoir. This is Harris' full story - not readily available in this form for many years - in fact the Compleat Rifleman Harris!
Book Description
THE ADVENTURES OF A SOLDIER OF THE 95TH (RIFLES) IN THE PENINSULAR & WATERLOO CAMPAIGNS OF THE NAPOLEONIC WARS
Customer Reviews:
The adventure of a soldier of the 95th rifles in the Peninsular & Waterloo Campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars.......2007-01-19
This was the best book of all the books I have read by soldiers of the 95th Rifles.
Book Description
To Napoleon's troops, the sharp shooters of the 95th (Rifle) Regiment were 'the rascals in green', famed throughout Europe for their bravery, skill, and dash. Kincaid's Adventures in the Rifle Brigade was the first book to be published by a veteran, recounting the amazing escapades of this legendary unit in the war against French armies in Portugal and Spain. His second volume, Random Shots From a Rifleman, is just as vivid and memorable as the first, and finishes with a remarkable first-hand description of the Waterloo campaign from the ordinary soldier's point of view. The two volumes, here bound together in abridged form, add up to one of the most enthralling eyewitness records of regimental soldiering ever written. Although other Rifles memoirs quickly followed, none achieved the commercial or critical success of Kincaid's collection of unforgettable anecdotes.
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