Saturday 10 August 2019

Book Review: Seven Men of Gascony, R. F. Delderfield



NB: Another one of my occasional archival updates. This was originally written around 2014, but then forgotten about. Posting it now after a thread on TMP about Napoleonic historical fiction made me think of it again.

Delderfield was primarily a novelist, famed for being the author of A Horseman Riding By and other such works, from around the middle of the 20th century. I was loaned Seven Men of Gascony by a friend of my dads, when I was around 11-12 years old, who knew I was passionate about Napoleonic history.

I really enjoyed it back then. So much so, in fact, that I also borrowed and read one of the author's contemporary romances, Diana. All these years later, and I find myself getting back into Napoleonic history. I've now read several other books by Delderfield, all factual and all on Napoleonic subjects, The March of the Twenty-Six, about Napoleon's Marshals, and Napoleon in Love (no explanation necessary!) being the most recent.


Another of Delderfield's non-fiction Napoleonic works.


Returning to things one loved as a child can be hit and miss. But on this occasion I'm relieved to find that I still enjoy reading this. Having recently read Tolstoy's much lauded epic War And Peace, as well as Thackeray's Vanity Fair, it's nice to read fictionalised history of the era told from a French perspective (the characters being French, that is, the author was very much an Englishman), plus this is very much easy-reading compared with Tolstoy (and perhaps even Thackeray?).


That Delderfield was steeped in the history of the period is very obvious. Anyone who's read any of the many Napoleonic memoirs, of which there are an abundance, will recognise numerous tableaux, woven into this well told tale. 

Delderfield is an intelligent, articulate, old fashioned writer, and, as just mentioned, very well informed on his subject, which makes this an enjoyable read. Sure, it's not part of the canon of great literature, like War and Peace, but it's a much easier read, taking itself seriously enough, but not too seriously (a harsher way to say the same thing is that Tolstoy is deeper, but Delderfield is less pompous), and at times even as reflective on deeper themes as Tolstoy liked to continually remind us he or his characters were.


Chortle!


One of my main areas of interest in the Napoleonic era at present is Russia, 1812, and Delderfield's characters pass through this appalling episode, giving the reader some very evocative and memorable scenes. Delderfield rather cleverly structures the book as a whole around the major rivers in each theatre: we start under the heading of The Danube, during which episodes the protagonists pass through the Austrian campaign of 1809 (Aspern-Essling, etc.); The Tagus covers events in Portugal and Spain; The Niemen is the central-European bridge into Russia; the Elster finds the voltigeurs we're following retreating through Prussia; and the final river is The Sambre, where the books reaches it's conclusions. There's even a section called The Otter, in which the 'file' of soldiers wind up as prisoners in the south of England!


The River Otter. 


One senses that Delderfield includes something of himself in the character of Gabriel, who's the most fully-realised actor in the story. The others, mostly the titular 'Seven Men of Gascony', but also Napoleon, various Marshals, commanders and others, including Nicholette, a cantiniere, are colourfully drawn, but in a fairly simplistic way. I haven't read any Bernard Cornwall yet, but as far as my limited knowledge of historical fiction goes (mainly limited to Cadfael and Flashman at present), this is a good solid read, and will be of most appeal to those like myself with a 'thing' for Napoleonic history.

In conclusion, the overall story itself is a brisk, breezy, easy read, albeit that the tale it tells is far more arduous than is the experience of reading about it. Not a golden work of literary genius, perhaps, but good solid fun, with the added benefit of being told from the French side for once.


The author.

14 comments:

  1. His other Napoleonic fiction book "Too Few For Drums" is also a good read but perhaps not as a strong a story as "Seven Men.." ?

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    1. Just ordered 'Too Few For Drums' off Amazon UK... thanks Jeremy!

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  2. Me being a drummer 'n' all, I like the title. Ihaven't read that one yet either, so thanks for the 'heads up'.

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  3. One of my favourite books and like you I discovered this when I was just starting out in wargaming.I still have my copy which I re read every so often.You will probably know he took the original idea from a couple of fictional books written by Erckmann & Chatrian who wrote about a conscript of 1813 and one about Waterloo. Both good in their own right. I also like March of the 26 and it was very obvious where Delderfield's sympathies lay. You will probably be too young but the BBC produced a tv series of Napoleon in Love which I can just about remember as being okay.

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    1. Hi, great, and thanks for the feedback. And yes, I discovered about his sources/inspiration, and have downloaded but not yet read English translation ebooks of both. I'm aware of numerous adaptations of (or simply films or series that happen to be about) Napoleon In Love. But I haven't seen the old BBC one. That's a pleasure I still have to look forward to! I love vintage BBC stuff; their 1972 (the year I was born!) adaptation of War & Peace with Antony Hopkins is fabulous. It can't compete with Bondarchuk on the large scale battle scenes, but it's the best and most faithful adaptation of Tolstoy's novel I'm aware of. Best, Seb

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    2. Did you mean "Napoleon and Love" - ITV series from 1974? Available from Amazon - mostly studio-bound but great costumes and interesting stories.

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    3. Hi Jeremy, that must be it: Ian Holm as Napoleon. I really like Ian Holm, mainly on account of his portrayal of Frodo in the BBC radio adaptation of LOTR. And Catherine Schell as Marie Waleska... sounds great! I'm ordering it from Amazon right away!

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    4. I agree: the 1972 War and Peace is great.

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  4. Did I mention I'm employed by Amazon to drum up trade? Ms Schell looks gorgeous - as usual.

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  5. Seems a fair review. It may not be great literature, but it's a good story, well told. Delderfield weaves real historical events into the narrative rather well. I have read some Bernard Cornwell, and I have to say I preferred this.

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    1. Hi Andy, thanks for the feedback. I do love Delderfield! I've just got a new one (new to me, that is), Too Few For Drums. I've never read any of the Sharpe books. My wife's a fan of the Sharpe TV series. And I've come to enjoy it as well. I've got Cornwell's book on Waterloo, but haven't read it yet. So many books, so little time!

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