The Complete Brigadier Gerard Stories (Canongate Classics) |
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Arthur Conan Doyle
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Pages: 400 (Paperback)
ISBN: 0862415349
Pub: Canongate Books
Pub date: 2001-01-01
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 101332
Reader Reviews:
A French Flashman bigod!! (14/14 people found this helpful)
I say a French Flashman...it would probably be more appropriate to describe George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman as an English Gerard, given that this character preceded our favourite poltroon (at least GMF's version of him) by a good seventy years. Many of the features that we might attribute to Harry Flashman, we find first belonging to Etienne Gerard: the cavalry whiskers, the way with the ladies, the good looking, and dashing officer.
I have never been a huge fan of the Sherlock Holmes novels and that is indeed all I have associated Arthur Conan Doyle with until recently - what a fool I've been. Etienne Gerard, for me at least, outstrips Holmes at every turn. ACD has created in Gerard a character that by all rights should be up there with the greats of literary fiction...I would say that it is only due to the huge popularity of Sherlock Holmes that this is not the case.
It could be argued that ACD took a risk basing his hero on a Frenchman of Napoleon's army rather than on a British officer, but it works every time. The humour is there as Gerard embarks on an impromptu fox hunt with a host of British officers with ACD managing to poke fun at both the French and British in the same few sentences. This is a common theme throughout the collection and is superbly pulled off by this wonderful author. On the flip side you can really feel your self feeling sympathy - even sadness for the French during the retreat from Waterloo as Gerard narrates in emotional style.
This edition, as the title suggests contains the complete collection of Gerard short stories and is a must have for any fans of the Flashman or Sharpe novels, indeed anyone who is interested a good novel with excellent characterisations.
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Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> Genre -> Historical
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> General
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> Short Stories -> Historical
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> Short Stories -> World -> Scottish
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> World -> Scottish
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> Historical
Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English
Books -> Refinements -> Age (feature_two_browse-bin)
Books -> Refinements -> Format (binding_browse-bin) -> Paperback