A Close Run Thing - A Novel of Wellington's Army of 1815

Zusatztext "Of recent years many eminent hands have undertaken to lead the reader deep into the Royal Navy of Nelson's time! describing the life of the service! the men who sailed those 'far-distant! storm-beaten ships! upon which the Grand Army never looked' but which 'stood between it and the dominion of the world.' "Hitherto nobody that I know of has done anything like the same for the army! which did after all have a not inconsiderable share in winning the war; but now at last a highly literate! deeply read cavalry officer of high rank shows one the nature of horse-borne warfare in those times; and Colonel Mallinson's A Close Run Thing is very much to be welcomed." --Patrick O'Brian! author of the Aubrey-Maturin series "Mallinson's A Close Run Thing is an astonishingly impressive debut in the field of Napoleonic fiction. Convincingly drawn! perfectly paced and expertly written! this cavalryman's tale is a joy to read. I hope it will be the first of many." --Antony Beevor! author of Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege Informationen zum Autor Allan Mallinson Klappentext In the tradition of Patrick O'Brian's beloved historical military adventures comes the first in a dashing new series featuring Cornet Matthew Hervey! a young cavalry officer in Wellington's army of 1815. A Close Run Thing For two decades! since the French Revolution! England and her allies have fought a seemingly endless war to loosen Bonaparte's stranglehold on Europe. Matthew Hervey! a twenty-three-year-old parson's son! has risen through the ranks of His Majesty's cavalry to a junior command in the 6th Light Dragoons. Torn by ambition and ensnared in the intrigues of Wellington's army! Matthew struggles to shape his destiny! but his efforts are about to be cast to the winds of fate. For amid the clash of armies! he will find himself a catalyst in the battle of the century...near the small Belgian village of Waterloo. Britain had persevered in war with revolutionary France, with but one short break, since 1793.  The Royal Navy, at Aboukir in 1798 and Trafalgar in 1805, had confined Bonaparte to Europe; British money had financed the allies when they were ready to come forward; and a British army in the Iberian peninsula had, from 1809, maintained a front which had drained French resources and given hope to other Europeans.  By the beginning of 1814, Bonaparte could defend only France.  Russian, Prussian, and Austrian armies were closing in from the east, while the British, already in the Pyrenees, stood ready to invade from the southwest. Chapter 1: In the Heat of Battle The Convent of St. Mary of Magdala, Toulouse, April 12, 1814 "It is a very singular thing indeed, Mr. Hervey, for a cornet to be placed in arrest upon the field of battle." Joseph Edmonds was deploying all his considerable facility with words in order to convey the gravity of the matter at hand. "Tell me, if you please, precisely and dispassionately, the circumstances by which this was brought about." Cornet Hervey stood rigidly to attention before the major's desk, his left hand clasping the sword scabbard to his side, his right hand clenched with the thumb pointing downward along the double yellow stripe of his overalls. His eyes were set front, and filling the limited arc of their fixed gaze were two symbols which, while if not to his mind entirely contradictory, in their juxtaposition seemed somehow incongruous. For on the wall behind the desk was a large wooden cross with a painted figure of the crucified Christ. Next to it--perhaps even leaning against it--was the regimental guidon, a piece of red silk on a beechwood staff, its richly embroidered battle honors still resplendent despite the staining and fading. The irony, that he had been raised in a household whose world was shaped by the first symbol, and had then elec...

Product details

• Authors: Allan Mallinson
• Publisher: Bantam Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.08.2000
• EAN: 9780553380439
• ISBN: 978-0-553-38043-9
• No. of pages: 320
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 20 mm
• Series: Matthew Hervey; Matthew Hervey
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature