The Complete Brigadier Gerard Stories (Canongate Classics)
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Of course I read every Sherlock Holmes story, but the works I like even more than the detective stories are his great historical stories. --Winston Churchill
Brigadier Gerard is, after Holmes and Watson, Conan Doyle's most successful literary creation.
--Julian Symons
Brigadier Gerard is, after Holmes and Watson, Conan Doyle's most successful literary creation.
--Julian Symons
Product Description
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Brigadier Gerard stories surely constitute the finest series of historical short stories in literature, mingling the comedy and the tragedy, the pathos and the irony, or, in Napoleon's phrase, the sublime and the ridiculous. It is Napoleon and his Europe, his dedicated followers and the awakened nationalisms of the peoples they enraged, possessing our minds in savage realism and enrapturing romance. And in Brigadier Etienne Gerard, Arthur Conan Doyle created a hero worthy to take his place in the great line stretching from Homer's Odysseus to George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman, nearest of all perhaps to Stevenson's Allan Breck and Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If Conan Doyle had not written his sherlock Holmes stories his historical works would receive more attention. They are all well researched, well written and very readable. Brigader Gerard is, by his own estimation, the bravest and most dashing of French Hussars. He is probably also the most vaingloriuos,self-opinionated but not the most intelligent of Napoleon's officers. His exploits are both exciting and amusing.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A series of short adventure stories in which Conan Doyle pokes gentle fun at his creation; a brave, loyal, chivalrous but egotistical and stupid cavalry officer in Napoleon's army. A pleasant easy read, great fun and with more humour than usual.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Amusing
While Conan Doyle's second string creation was clearly an influence on George MacDonald Fraser, Etienne Gerard is actually in many ways an anti-Flashman (or possibly that should be... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Graham R. Hill
Good Soldier Svejk meets Biggles
Though Sherlock Holmes was by a large margin the most successful fictional creation of Arthur Conan Doyle, he was keen to write of other characters. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Mark Pack
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