The Adventures of Brigadier Gerard

By: Arthur Conan Doyle

Narrated by: Rupert Degas

With a horse between his thighs and a weapon in his grip, the dashing Brigadier Etienne Gerard, Colonel of the Hussars of Conflans, gallops through the Napoleonic campaigns on secret missions for his beloved Emperor and his country. He encounters danger and hair-breadth escapes but never loses his bravado, his eye for a pretty girl, his boastfulness or his enormous vanity.

Gerard is Conan Doyle’s most lovable character. At times hilarious, at times touching, these stories are amongst Conan Doyle’s most popular.

Download the accompanying reference guide.Public Domain (P)2011 Naxos AudioBooks

Dashing and slyly funny

I listened to this back to back with its companion piece, The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard. Gerard narrates his own adventures: the remarkable thing about them is that he shows real dash and courage, yet such is Conan Doyle's skill that his ridiculous vanity shows through plainly in his own words.

Gerard is a leader of the Hussars of Conflans, a celebrated cavalry regiment serving under Napoleon in his wars against Portugal, Spain, England, Russia, and Prussia; and in the course of the two volumes of stories we visit all those places. We witness Waterloo from Gerard's point of view and make a final sad visit to St Helena.

For me, Gerard is less interesting in himself than as a contrast to Sherlock Holmes: it's hard to think of two men who could be more different. I also have to confess that I got a bit tired of Gerard's routine before the end of the second volume. This is not a problem with the writing or with Rupert Degas' brilliant narration. I would have enjoyed the last few stories more if I'd taken a break between the two volumes.

One way to think of Gerard is that he's everything Richard Sharpe is not. If Bernard Cornwell didn't write an encounter between these two, it was a missed opportunity.

I was there... Watching... Listening..A great work

Would you listen to The Adventures of Brigadier Gerard again? Why?

Yes, you bet

What other book might you compare The Adventures of Brigadier Gerard to and why?

Arthur Conan Doyle is a gifted individual, and anything he touches becomes magical.

Which scene was your favorite?

Hard to come up with one... but any where Gerard becomes the cause celebre with heroism at his back and homage in his front became all too common his life,

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

A sad tributary to a magnificent battle