"The Girl Who Fought Napoleon: A Novel of the..." Topic
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Tango01 | 16 Jul 2018 12:17 p.m. PST |
…Russian Empire. "In a sweeping story straight out of Russian history, Tsar Alexander I and a courageous girl named Nadezhda Durova join forces against Napoleon. It's 1803, and an adolescent Nadya is determined not to follow in her overbearing Ukrainian mother's footsteps. She's a horsewoman, not a housewife. When Tsar Paul is assassinated in St. Petersburg and a reluctant and naive Alexander is crowned emperor, Nadya runs away from home and joins the Russian cavalry in the war against Napoleon. Disguised as a boy and riding her spirited stallion, Alcides, Nadya rises in the ranks, even as her father begs the tsar to find his daughter and send her home. Both Nadya and Alexander defy expectations—she as a heroic fighter and he as a spiritual seeker—while the battles of Austerlitz, Friedland, Borodino, and Smolensk rage on. In a captivating tale that brings Durova's memoirs to life, from bloody battlefields to glittering palaces, two rebels dare to break free of their expected roles and discover themselves in the process" Main page link Amicalement Armand |
Gazzola | 17 Jul 2018 5:47 a.m. PST |
Armand I bought and read the novel mainly because I had read Durova's memoir. It is certainly well written, I'll give it that, but it is basically like a failed attempt at a Russian version of Black Beauty because a fair amount of it concentrates on her relationship with her horse Alcides. In short, it is a highly romanticised version of Durova's memoir, with the author also attempting to know how Alexander and Napoleon thought. Indeed, it often felt like the author really wanted to write about Alexander or Napoleon. But, as in the memoir, the reader is fooled (or lied to) into thinking she is a 17 year old girl running away to join the Russian army to fight Napoleon, hence the title. In fact, she was seven years older, married and had an infant son, who she abandoned to run off to join the army. Of course men have been running off for years but this is a woman doing it in the Napoleonic period which was probably more frowned upon. It (and the memoir) would have been far more interesting it they did not start off with lying to the reader and introduced the dilemma of should a mother abandon her infant child to go to war when she did not really have to. The novel contains very little in terms of military action or detail and there is no real sense or description of how a woman coped with everyday problems encountered in war. And the author's research on the military side is also at fault because she mentions Durova's helmet, even though none of the cavalry regiments she belonged to wore helmets during that period. I think the tale might attract or interest those who like to read anything that includes someone fighting Napoleon, but, as with the memoir, had it been the 'adventures' of a man being described, it would be considered a pretty boring read. If you have absolutely nothing else to read then yes, give it a go. |
Tango01 | 17 Jul 2018 11:04 a.m. PST |
Thanks!…. Amicalement Armand |
MaggieC70 | 17 Jul 2018 6:06 p.m. PST |
Absolute trash on all levels. Go read my Amazon review. |
Tango01 | 18 Jul 2018 11:03 a.m. PST |
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