- Paperback: 1136 pages
- Publisher: Greenhill Books (31 Aug 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 185367415X
- ISBN-13: 978-1853674150
- Product Dimensions: 23.7 x 15.9 x 5.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 477,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
John S. White, Waterloo Journal
' ... Already heralded as a classic ... The text is enriched with first-hand accounts which bring the whole narrative to life with an air of stark realism ... Britten Austin's trilogy truly ranks as a masterpiece, representing all that is to be admired in a research-based work.'
Dr Charles Esdaile, University of Liverpool, RUSI Journal
' ... Vivid and compelling ... The most detailed account of the disaster yet to become available in English.'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a superb collection of eyewitness accounts of Napoleon's infamous campaign of 1812. All life - and death - is here. It is a testament to the hardships that human beings can endure and to the courage and tenacity of the human spirit. And is is an excellent piece of scholarship by the author - it must have taken ages to piece this impressive mosaic of views and opinions together.
I have read the trilogy twice and have started for the third time - there is always something new to discover with every reading. This book is so compelling it reads like a novel. You can feel those bleak, scouring winds and hear the crisp frozen snow crack beneath your feet.
You will discover old favourites like Coignet and Bourgogne as well as a host of characters larger than life who did, nonetheless live and experience the traumas described in this book. As Napoleon waited fatally in Moscow, hoping that the Tsar would sue for peace, the Russian army surrounding him grew ever stronger. The English General Wilson (who would later be sent to jail in France by Louis XVIII for defending ex-soldiers of the Emperor) describes how the Guard ploughed through the massive Russian Army like a battleship through a fishing fleet at Krasny. Buy this trilogy, you will not be disappointed!
John Tarttelin MA, FINS
I have read the trilogy twice and have started for the third time - there is always something new to discover with every reading. This book is so compelling it reads like a novel. You can feel those bleak, scouring winds and hear the crisp frozen snow crack beneath your feet.
You will discover old favourites like Coignet and Bourgogne as well as a host of characters larger than life who did, nonetheless live and experience the traumas described in this book. As Napoleon waited fatally in Moscow, hoping that the Tsar would sue for peace, the Russian army surrounding him grew ever stronger. The English General Wilson (who would later be sent to jail in France by Louis XVIII for defending ex-soldiers of the Emperor) describes how the Guard ploughed through the massive Russian Army like a battleship through a fishing fleet at Krasny. Buy this trilogy, you will not be disappointed!
John Tarttelin MA, FINS
Format:Paperback
Wow! These books, here gathered into a single volume, amount to, as the author points out, something 'fairly vast.' Paul Britten-Austin describes his book as a "word film". And, constructed from a collage of predominantly 'allied' accounts (i.e. from the French/Grande Armee side), it does have something of that quality. The hefty use of firsthand accounts makes the book very vivid and engaging, which is fantastic. My only quibble on this score is that it's not always clear who's being quoted.
Paul Britten-Austin's writing style is quite different in tone to any of the other authors I've read so far on this subject, which is refreshing: I Iike a writer who says "i'sooth"! He's also the only author, besides Burns, that I've encountered using the term 'agley', as in 'aft gang agley', for when things go 'wrong'!
Overflowing with lively anecdotal detail from all manner of ranks (but unsurprisingly weighted towards the higher echelons), such details as the sufferings of Heinemann, a German officer of voltiguers, and survivor of a virtual massacre, as he escorts a wounded sergeant to the rear, before becoming a prisoner of some Cossacks, are just one example among many of the fascinating and touching insights the book is packed with. In this instance there's actually a happy end to the story (in fact two happy ends, but I'll let you read the book and find out what they are!), which is both rare, in a tale so dominated by such an extraordinary and monumental descent into self-destruction, and nice.
Massive, oui? Enthralling and compelling aussi? Mais, oui! Highly recommended.
Paul Britten-Austin's writing style is quite different in tone to any of the other authors I've read so far on this subject, which is refreshing: I Iike a writer who says "i'sooth"! He's also the only author, besides Burns, that I've encountered using the term 'agley', as in 'aft gang agley', for when things go 'wrong'!
Overflowing with lively anecdotal detail from all manner of ranks (but unsurprisingly weighted towards the higher echelons), such details as the sufferings of Heinemann, a German officer of voltiguers, and survivor of a virtual massacre, as he escorts a wounded sergeant to the rear, before becoming a prisoner of some Cossacks, are just one example among many of the fascinating and touching insights the book is packed with. In this instance there's actually a happy end to the story (in fact two happy ends, but I'll let you read the book and find out what they are!), which is both rare, in a tale so dominated by such an extraordinary and monumental descent into self-destruction, and nice.
Massive, oui? Enthralling and compelling aussi? Mais, oui! Highly recommended.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have recently purchased this book and can, with confidence, recommend it, even though I have not finished the first section.
If you have ever started a book and wished that it would not end then you understand where I am coming from.
The individual observations related in the collection bring history to life and the insights gained are stunning !
I cannot recommend this collection more highly.
If you have ever started a book and wished that it would not end then you understand where I am coming from.
The individual observations related in the collection bring history to life and the insights gained are stunning !
I cannot recommend this collection more highly.
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