The Adventures of Gerard

What we have here is a collection of eight stories purportedly written about a Colonel of the Hussars in Napoleon Bonaparte's Grande Armee. His stories take us from the Spanish battlefields of the Penninsula campaign, through Russia (and the retreat), the Battle of Waterloo, and a fanciful failed rescue of L'Emporer from St.Helena. THese are stories of dashing doo and have all the Doyle hallmarks of Honor and Gentle-Manliness. One has to keep in mind that these stories were written eighty to one hundred years after the actual battles. Many of the people he wrote about, had been known to people of his parents age. So that Doyle had great insight into how these people thought and acted. The reading (I listed to the tape read by Bolen) of the stories prevents me from commenting on the character of Etienne Gerard. Some of the comments are very drole and may be Doyles way of making the Colonel less conceited that he comes off on tape. As it is, he has little of Flashy's insight into luck and cowardice and is totally consumed by his own abilities (very french indeed). The Flashman suceeds often in spite of himself (and is the first to admit it), Gerard always suceeds because he is the best swordsman, the best horseman, the greatest......(fill in the blank). The stories are worth reading for their marvelous description of the life of the cavalry in the early nineteenth century, and the romanticism of that time at the fin de siecle.