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A detailed account of the events leading up to a celebrated battle of the nineteenth century, the battle itself, and results of Napoleon's military failure. ... Read more

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Trafalgar set the seal on British naval supremacy, the most strategically significant victory in the age of sail. It was also one of the bloodiest and most confused naval conflicts ever known, with English, American, Irish, Spanish and French seamen among choking fumes and in constant peril below and above decks. This is the largest eyewitness collection of the battle, with over 50 first-hand accounts from all those involved. The accounts include: Nelson sends the signal 'England Expects The Every Man Will Do His Duty'. 11.56am, 21 October 1805 - Lieutenant George Brown, HMS Victory; and The First Shots: Fougueux Engages Royal Sovereign, 12.00 noon Captain Pierre Servaux, Master of Arms. ... Read more

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Latouche Tréville was born in Rochefort-sur-mer, Charente-Maritime, in a family of sailors. At the age of 13, he joined the Gardes-Marines("Naval Guards"), and took part in numerous naval fights during the Seven Years' War. He took part in his first fight during 1759 aboard the Dragon , under his own father's orders, and served abord the Louiseand the Intrépide , the Tonnantin 1762, the Garonnein 1763, the Hardiand the Bricolein 1765. In September 1768, aged 23, he was promoted to enseigne de vaisseau . Under pressure from his family, he quit the Navy to become a cavalry officer, ranking captain in April 1769, and serving as an aid to the governors of Martinique and Saint-Domingue in 1770 and 1771. In 1772, he rejoined the Navy as "capitaine de brûlot". He served in Rochefort between 1773 and 1776. ... Read more

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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

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By 1799, the French Revolutionary Wars had resumed after a period of relative peace in 1798. The Second Coalition had organized against France, with Great Britain allying with Russia, Austria, the Ottoman Empire, and several of the minor German and Italian states. While Napoleon's army was still embroiled in Egypt, the allies prepared campaigns in Italy, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. ... Read more

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By 1812, when Napoleon invaded Russia, his Empire covered most of Europe. The invasion was to be its crowning glory. Instead it ended in disaster, defeat and humiliation, and marked the beginning of his decline. Here, with a brilliant use of sources and gripping narrative, the French campaign is followed day to day within the most intimate context of the Emperor's state of mind, bad health and indecision. As the invasion heads towards its climax among the flames of Moscow the great disaster that ensued can clearly be seen as the product of innumerable mistakes and omissions. The greatest military leader of modern times lost his army not by folly but by default; the Russians saved their country more by accident than by strategy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Yes, a gem
One should seek out books by this author.I will.A superb work.

Accurate and fascinating
There ara many books written about the ill-fated campaign of Napoleon's Grand Armee in Russia in 1812 but this account of Alan Palmer is a real gem. Without being massive or exhausting for the reader it presents all the aspects of that remarkable campaing with clarity and marvellous literature power. It does contain a few black and white photos and some simple but accurate maps, but its real strong point is Palmer's excellent writing and his equally impressive background of knowledge on the subject. A scholarly researched book which is read like a novel. Highly recommended for those who want to "feel" the 1812 campaign without spending months reading all the available sources. ... Read more

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This book provides summaries and analyses of more than 250 novels and nearly 30 films and examines the extent to which they accurately reflect the history, mores and manners of the period--and the extent to which they reveal the ideas and attitudes of their authors and of the periods in which they were written. Particular emphasis is placed on the nature and importance of the war at sea for the British and on the role of famous naval officers such as Nelson, Pellew, Duncan, Smith and Cochrane in the defeat of Napoleon. ... Read more

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Get this book by interlibrary loan before you buy
This book is a major disappointment. It should be called Masterplots of Nelson's Navy in Fiction and Film. It is essentially a summary of the major nautical fiction works both printed and film from the 19th century through 2008. In the preface, the author states "A primary purpose of this book is to examine how sea novelists and filmmakers have used or abused history, and to what extent their own attitudes have intruded into their interpretations of the French Revolutionary-Napoleonic period". Occasionally various authors are critiqued; in some plot summaries, the author will mention whether or not some supporting character is fictional or real and reference a specific historical event. Unfortunately, she apparently does not have the historical knowledge of the era or has failed to do the necessary research to confirm some of her comments. A few examples, in her comments about Ramage's Trial, she states that Capt. John Markham was a fictional character. He was not. Captain Markham served on the Admiralty Board while he was a Captain in the Royal Navy. In her comments on Ramage's Signal she mentions the use of flying neutral flags as a ruse de guerre. She is correct. But she misses the point. The basis of the plot Pope uses in Ramage's Signal is the capture and burning of the signal stations. This is a real historical event which was carried out by Capt. Thomas Cochrane, as he describes in his Autobiography of a Seaman.

In all fairness, Ms. Parrill deserves credit for gathering together in one place information on the genre and preparing the Masterplots for each novel. Unfortunately, when she does make historical observations, many of her comments are superficial rather than informative. This volume is a reference work that should be in all nautical libraries and available to students of the genre. However, it is not worth the $55 cost for those who are interested in learning more about the historic aspects of the naval actions from 1792-1815 which form the basis for the lives of their fictional nautical heroes.Better to read Dudley Pope's Life in Nelson's Navy to get an overview of the era. Captain Thomas Cochrane was arguably the best and most charismatic of the frigate Captains. That is why many authors from Marryat to O'Brian use his exploits to set a plot.Read David Cordingly's Cochrane The Dauntless, published in 2007, without a doubt the best and most readable biography ever published about Cochrane.
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Publisher: New York, E.P. Dutton ... Read more

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The Adventures of an officer of Nelson's navy

These are the riveting recollections of an officer of the Royal Navy-Nelson's navy-in the first years of the nineteenth century, through the long wars with Britain's ancient enemy Spain and the France of the Revolution, Consulate and of the newly crowned Emperor Napoleon. Hoffman was a seaman who could inspire aspects of the Hornblower character. Hoffman's was a naval career full of incident and action. Joining the navy in 1793 he served in HMS Blonde and HMS Hannibal in action off Martinique and in the Channel. He was engaged in eighteen fierce boat actions before being promoted to lieutenant of HMS Volage where he saw further action against privateers off Cuba. After serving on the Monitor he was posted to the famous HMS Tonnant and it was aboard her that fought at Trafalgar-the greatest sea battle of the age. This remarkable sailor's career continued on many ships voyages and actions too numerous to recount here. It is enough to remark that everyone interested in the Royal Navy during the great days of sail will find much pleasure within these pages. ... Read more

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Melancholy Soldier
De Rocca's memoir of the war in Spain is far less well-known than that of his hussar colleague Jean Marbot but makes for excellent reading (& probably far less given to exaggeration). Greenhill should be thanked for adding this short work to their Napoleonic Library -an affordable addition to any Peninsular collection. De Rocca's description of the insurgency leaves little to the imagination and certainly makes understandable the French failure to conquer the Spanish people. Any student of the Peninsula should pick this up as should those studying counterinsurgency. De Rocca later went on to wed the formidable Madame de Stael in a love match. We're lucky to have such a memoir by an intelligent, thoughtful campaigner. See also Memoirs of Colonel Bugeaud and the thoroughly readable Recollections of Colonel de Gonneville.

Fighting disciplined troops and civilian population in Spain
It is really rare to find books specially on the peninsular war and the war in Spain from the French side, the books that you find in English are almost always from the English side or Spanish.

This is a great book that you would really enjoy, we can find not only of a brave and compassionate man(not normal in some french hussards), but of an intelligent and objective observer of the military situation that the French Army find in Spain with the noncommon style of war made by Spanish Guerrilla .

We follow for two years a hussar officer in Napoleon's army, De Rocca was sent to Spain in 1808 from Germany where the French found a very different kind of war; here they were fighting not only the disciplined troops of the English under Sir John Moore, and the Spanish army, but also a civilian population desperately fighting to regain their freedom against Napoleon whose brother Joseph ruled Spain as a puppet king. De Rocca gives vivid accounts of military operations such as the march to Madrid and Napoleon's entry into the city and the subsequent battles in which he took part, the pursuit of Sir John Moore's army to Corunna, the battle at Talavera, which took place while he was away from Spain for a few months, and the battles that followed against the English under General Sir Arthur Wellesley, now in command in the Iberian peninsula. He also describes the enormous personal dangers he faced in every Spanish village that the French army entered, where every man, woman and child was intent on their death, yet he still pays tribute to the character of their enemies even when his own life was at risk from them.

You will enjoy this book. ... Read more

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Geoffrey Ellis offers an up-to-date synthesis of recent research into the aims and effects of Napoleonic rule in France and in conquered Europe. Thoroughly revised, this second edition provides much more extensive coverage of Napoleon's treatment of the annexed lands and subject states of the "Grand Empire", as well as of military conscription and desertion, and the role of the Gendarmerie in the war against brigands and military defaulters. The legacy of Napoleonic rule is discussed in greater depth, and the book also features a more comprehensive bibliography.
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Alexander Grab explores the impact of Napoleon's domination throughout his empire and the response of the Europeans to his rule. This important book focuses on the developments and the events in the ten states that comprised the Grand Empire: France itself, Belgium, Germany, The Illyrian Provinces, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. Grab discusses Napoleon's exploitation of occupied Europe and particularly his reform policies, and assesses their success in transforming Europe.
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A cavalryman's account of the Napoleonic Wars

Norbert Landsheit-was an old soldier at the Chelsea Pensioners Hospital when he told the fascinating experience of his military life to G. R.Gleig, the author of several well known military autobiographies and histories and ghost writer for several ordinary soldiers tales of the Napoleonic period. Born within the German states this young cavalryman first went to war as one of Hompesch's Hussars engaged in the disastrous campaign in the Low Countries against the armies of Revolutionary France. Transferred into the British Army this horse-soldier then saw years of campaigning during the long wars against the First Empire including hard service in the Peninsular War. As a light dragoon and once again as a hussar Landsheit takes us on an engaging journey through early nineteenth century warfare filled with detail of camp life and adventures on and off the battlefield. Previously available only as an expensive antiquarian edition or as a rare facsimile reprint, this memoir of the Napoleonic era will delight all enthusiasts of the period. ... Read more