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Created page with "{{Cargo_Reviews_Articles |Date=1991-09-01 |Book=The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard |BookAuthor=Arthur Conan Doyle |Reviewer=David Stuart Davies |Topics=Fiction }} This review of the book ''"The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard", by Arthur Conan Doyle'' was written by David Stuart Davies and published in the A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (Vol. 2, No. 2) in autumn 1991. == Review == File:Acd-society-journal-1991-09-p185-review-dsd.jpg|th..."

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{{Cargo_Reviews_Articles
|Date=1991-09-01
|Book=The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard
|BookAuthor=Arthur Conan Doyle
|Reviewer=David Stuart Davies
|Topics=Fiction
}}
This review of the book ''"The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard", by Arthur Conan Doyle'' was written by [[David Stuart Davies]] and published in the [[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 2, No. 2) in autumn 1991.

== Review ==
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1991-09-p185-review-dsd.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (autumn 1991, p. 185)]]
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1991-09-p186-review-dsd.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (autumn 1991, p. 186)]]

: '''The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard'''
: by Arthur Conan Doyle
: Edited and Introduced by Owen Dudley Edwards
: Canongate, Edinburgh, 1991; 188pp; £4.95

'''Reviewed by David Stuart Davies'''

It was in ACD (Vol. 1, No. 3) that I was bemoaning the fact that none of [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]]'s works, apart from the [[Sherlock Holmes|Holmes]] and [[Professor Challenger|Challenger]] stories, was currently in print in Britain. I doubt if it was in response to my whinging that Canongate Press grasped the nettle but, nevertheless, they have this year produced a handsome paperback edition of [[The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard]]. Canongate, it seems, have a penchant for preserving and promoting the work of Scotland's literati — their fairly comprehensive list of Stevenson's works gives proof of this — but the [[The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard|Exploits]] is their sole [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] venture, although there are reports that [[Adventures of Gerard |The Adventures of Brigadier Gerard]] is to follow next year.

[[The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard|The Exploits]] is the first collection of [[Brigadier Gerard|Gerard]]'s farcical, horrific and fascinating tales. One of the surprising joys in reviewing these familiar stories is the revelation that I didn't know them half as well as I thought I did. They came to me fresh and invigorating. One really can sense [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]]'s creative hound off the leash here, unrestrained by the fairly rigid formula of the [[Sherlock Holmes|Holmes]] stories the presentation of a puzzle, the investigation, the solution and sniffing and rambling its way over more imaginative pastures. Ramble, some of the stories do, but always entertainingly so and to some purpose: usually to present yet another half-blind, half-courageous and half-stupid exploit of [[Brigadier Gerard|Etienne Gerard]]. (Indeed, his mathematics are as good as mine).

[[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] deliciously reveals [[Brigadier Gerard|Gerard]]'s inadequacies (and his strengths) through the character's own narrative which is peppered with telling modest immodesties. Like [[Sherlock Holmes]] he is not one who ranked modesty among the virtues:

: '' 'I am an excellent soldier. I do not say this because I am prejudiced in my own favour, but because I really am so.' ''

Perhaps it is [[Napoleon Bonaparte|Napoleon]], in [[The Medal of Brigadier Gerard]] who sums up this character accurately:

: '' '... I believe that if he has the thickest head he has also the stoutest heart in my army.' ''

There can be no doubt that [[Brigadier Gerard|Gerard]] is brave and it is through his courageous acts that [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] is able to mix the comedy with a strong element of violent action — action of the kind that would be the envy of many a modern writer. The villains have a particular vivid quality. In [[How the Brigadier Held the King]] I found in the brigand with the penchant for composing awful verse, a wild mixture of Ian Fleming's Goldfinger and Scottish poet William MacGonnegal. The fate that this fellow has in store for [[Brigadier Gerard|Gerard]] is a real eye-waterer. However, [[Brigadier Gerard|Gerard]]'s eyes do not water, they hardly blink. Faced with this cruel death he turns to the brigand with that endearing and foolish bravado begging 'that you will not commemorate my death in verse.'

The volume is edited and introduced by [[Owen Dudley Edwards]], who sets the tales in the context of their creation, asserting that 'in [[Brigadier Gerard]] we meet the true rival of [[Sherlock Holmes]].' Mr Edwards draws together threads of various sources and influences (conscious or otherwise) regarding this vivid character. He points out that [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]] himself acknowledges in his Preface to [[The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard|The Exploits]], as well as in a fulsome reference in [[Through the Magic Door]], that amongst the various soldiers who related their experiences of the Napoleonic campaigns, it is Marbot who takes pride of place the fountain from which I have drawn the adventures of [[Brigadier Gerard|Etienne Gerard]].' [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]] calls him: '... The human, the gallant, the inimitable Marbot.' [[Owen Dudley Edwards|ODE]] maintains that in the use of the word 'inimitable', [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] clearly indicates that his creation is not merely a copy. And certainly there are indications that other models were used. With his usual aplomb, Mr Edwards reveals further disparate influences on [[Brigadier Gerard|Gerard]]'s genesis, including Thackeray's Major Gahagan. But, like Shakespeare with Holinshed, [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Doyle]] played fast and loose with his source material to come up with his own potent concoction. In doing so, he created a character who was unique. It is succinctly observed:

: ''What [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] had produced was a hero who moved between highly divided classes, and who reflected the attitudes of each.''

The point is made that in these stories [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] not only provided rich entertainment, but also an accurate historical perspective real insight which 'the cold print of scientific history' cannot supply. However, despite this fascinating scholarship, which further deepens our knowledge of the [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] oeuvres, it is the tales themselves that are the real attraction of this book. To sum up: buy it!

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