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Exploits and Adventures of Brigadier Gerard New York Review Books Classics Sir Arthur Conan Doyle George Macdonald Fraser Books

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Exploits and Adventures of Brigadier Gerard New York Review Books Classics Sir Arthur Conan Doyle George Macdonald Fraser Books

Great character. Doyle did half of G.M. Faser's work for him before he created Harry Flashman. Where Flashman was cowardly and intelligent enough to hide it and knows he's worthless, the brigadier is immensely brave and rather simple and thinks very highly of himself. They both are often the dupes of great men, but Flashman goes kicking and screaming, while Gerard goes tearing off filled with military desire to please. Fortunately for him, he almost lives up to his high opinion of himself. He's almost as entertaining as Flashman and far more believable.


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Exploits and Adventures of Brigadier Gerard New York Review Books Classics Sir Arthur Conan Doyle George Macdonald Fraser Books Reviews

One of the funniest books I have ever read...actually laughed out loud a points. I've bought 3 copies of this for friends and relatives because I just wanted to share its genius. It is awesome to see Arthur Conan Doyle really get to show off the humor that you see glimpses of in his Sherlock stories
Etienne Gerrard is a delight, cocky, self important, vain as a peacock, he is also brave to a fault, resourceful, energetic and the best swordsman in all of Napoleon's cavalry. He is also a bit thick in the head. He struts through the most hair raising adventures, and almost always comes out in one piece. You will be convinced in each story that he could not possible carry out his mission successfully, but he almost always does. At a time in Great Britain when the human costs of the Napoleanic Wars were still felt and France and England had only recently mended fences, Conan Doyles "typical" Frenchman was a delight to the British reader. This is not Sherlock's cold intellect. It is the passion of a very decent, courageous man who is devoted to his sovreign, and who will take on any task from wooing a beautiful woman to a Russian Regiment of cavalry. If you enjoy the Flashman books you will love this one just as much.
Conan Doyle's Gerard may well have inspired Fraser's later Flashman series. The similarities are obvious but there are profound differences between these two fictional 19th century military heroes beyond the fact that they would have found themselves on opposite sides. Flashman is an admitted rogue and coward who has gained his reputation by mere chance and misunderstanding. He knows it and the readers he addresses in his fictional memoirs are in on the secret. Gerard by contrast is oblivious that his superiors see him as rather dim and while brave in the extreme he has an acutely exaggerated opinion of himself. The difference is that with Flashman the joke is on them... with Gerard the joke is on him.
Gerard's adventures during the Napoleonic campaigns are true page turners. The settings are just about anywhere that the French armies engaged from Poland to Portugal. His overblown confidence extends to his conceit about his irresistibility to women, although unlike Flashman this takes place mostly in Gerard's mind. Before this I had known Conan Doyle ,as most probably do,as the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories. This is another side of him and quite humorous, well written and worthwhile. Anyone who enjoys the Flashman novels will love this as well.
The success of the Sherlock Holmes stories has overshadowed the fact that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote many other stories of entirely different character. The New York Review of Books Classics has brought the `Exploits and Adventures of Brigadier Gerard' back to life. The Gerard character is said to be Conan Doyle's second best fictional invention.

The eight `Exploits' stories were published between 1894 and 1895 while the ten `Adventures' were published after a five year hiatus between 1900 and 1903. Like the Holmes tales, these pieces were published as serials in The Strand Magazine. Once again we owe a debt of happy gratitude to the NYRB for reviving this quirky, funny, heroic series of adventure tales.

The eponymous Gerard is one Etienne Gerard, a Hussar (a light cavalryman) in the French Army during the Napoleonic Wars. In other words, a character about as far removed from the dyspeptic intellectual detective of Baker Street as one can imagine. In the excellent introduction (one of the hallmarks of the NYRB Classics series), George Macdonald Fraser remarks on the courage Conan Doyle showed in showcasing a French hero fighting against the British less than 80 years after Napoleon was finally defeated (As Fraser notes "even today [the French ] are not notably popular north of the Channel"). Quite a feat of imagination.

Like Harry Flashman (Flashman A Novel (Flashman)) and the lesser known Otto Prohaska (A Sailor of Austria In Which, Without Really Intending to, Otto Prohaska Becomes Official War Hero No. 27 of the Habsburg Empire (The Otto Prohaska Novels)), Gerard is in his old age when he spins his stories to the reader. Gerard boasts that he is the greatest swordsman, horseman, and lover as well as the most loyal servant of Napoleon in the entire French army. And Conan Doyle permits Gerard to excel in all these measures and yet his excessive pride makes him obtuse. As Fraser put it Gerard is "vain, touchy, obstinate, reckless, boastful, and none too bright." He is entirely ingenuous, which repeatedly leads him to trouble and then he must slash his sword and dash away on his horse to escape. Gerard is charmingly unaware that he is a strutting French peacock; he assumes that others should and do recognize his exceptional qualities. Coming from a more self-aware man such cocksureness would be intolerable conceit.

I titled this review "What Would Harry Flashman Make of Etienne Gerard?" That's a fun question to speculate about. It would take a new Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or Sir George MacDonald Fraser to do it justice. My guess is Harry would laugh up his sleeve at Gerard until he saw Etienne's sword swinging dangerously toward his head. For his part, I expect Gerard would be blissfully unaware of Flashman's disdain, but might he also detect Harry's certain 'shyness'?

The `Exploits and Adventures of Brigadier Gerard' are wonderful entertainments. Like the Sherlock Holmes stories, the pity is there are so few of them. Highest recommendation.
This book by the legendary Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a departure from his tales of the famous consulting detective and presents a series of short stories as memoirs of a pensioned Napoleonic light cavalry officer. Brigadier Etienne Gerard is leader of the Hussars of Conflans and his adventures during the campaigns he fought while serving his beloved Emperor. These are fun to read and the Brigadier comes off as a humble old soldier but clearly he's very pleased with himself and by his telling beloved by his Emperor, his men, and many, many women...heck, even his enemies respected him. It's very telling that the forward is by George MacDonald Fraser, author of the fantastic "Flashman" series. Fraser's style is similar using the memoir device and letting the protagonist tell their story to the reader. This is a delightful diversion to read over a few night, Vive' le France!
Great character. Doyle did half of G.M. Faser's work for him before he created Harry Flashman. Where Flashman was cowardly and intelligent enough to hide it and knows he's worthless, the brigadier is immensely brave and rather simple and thinks very highly of himself. They both are often the dupes of great men, but Flashman goes kicking and screaming, while Gerard goes tearing off filled with military desire to please. Fortunately for him, he almost lives up to his high opinion of himself. He's almost as entertaining as Flashman and far more believable.