Here is a handful of tall tales from the creator of Sherlock Holmes. In this volume of short stories we are introduced to Brigadier Etienne Gerard, a fictional Hussar (light cavalryman) who served in the French army during the Napoleonic Wars.
Gerard is an old man when he begins telling stories of the exploits of his youth. A career soldier, Gerard is aware of the courage of soldiers from all countries. They are all equally courageous, says Gerard, but the French are the bravest of them all while he himself is the bravest of the French.
Yes, the Brigadier is a blowhard, and in his stories you find out how he saved the emperor Napoleon (several times), how he got the best of his British enemies (and of the Spanish, and the Prussians, and the Poles ...) and how he rescued damsels in distress, amongst other exploits. The reader soon realises that Gerard is saved by good luck more often than by his own resourcefulness, and it is in this that much of the charm of these stories lie.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle knows how to tell a good tale. The plots are well thought out, the narrative gallops along, and the dialogue is crisp and clean. The characters in the stories need to be larger-than-life so as not to be dwarfed by Gerard's ego, and Conan Doyle manages to make them so without producing stock characters. Overall, the stories have just enough whimsy mixed in with the derring-do to make for a delightful read.
The Brigadier Gerard stories were published between 1894 and 1903.
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