Sam Lawson's Oldtown Fireside Stories Book

The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard by Arthur Conan Doyle - He Ain't Exactly No Sherlock Holmes

I'm not going to say much about this book other than this. I've always known about Arthur Conan Doyle's sense of humor and I've heard about him being a prankster and other things. His sense of humor and dry wit are on display in this book and it's wonderfully funny.

This is the tale Etienne Brigadier Gerard, Napolionic war hero and down right legend in his own mind, as he goes from miss adventure to miss adventure. At first, I couldn't be certain that Doyle was teasing me or pulling my leg. Then, by halfway through I was certain of it. Lord Arthur Conan Doyle was definately pulling my leg.

What started with using a block of cheese to make a shape charged bomb to blow a door off of it's hinges ended with the most incredible deception that is funny even if Gerard really isn't getting even with Napoleon or if he is. I think Doyle must have enjoyed teasing and getting under the miltary's skin without giving them anything to officially take notice of. He was only marginally kinder to the British Military than he was the french.

I laughed my ass off when Gerard and another, befriended officer from the hated British Army are caught playing cards to decide who was prisoner of whom by none other than the Duke of Wellington. Wellington sent Gerard to prison in England, and his buddy (whom gerard called "the Bart" because he thought Bart was an English Tittle, not the man's first name) to the stockade for not playing his trump cards as he should have.

I also like how Doyle made fun of Gerard, but he didn't make him completely incometent. Gerard could kick butt and he was fearless (to a fault). In the end, I'm not sure if Gerard is "playing" Napolean or not. Gerard for his part wanders through the tales oblivious to things going on around him, a trait praised by the French Miltary and one that gets him many personal assignments. "Someone who will not be too inquisitive or think too much." There are no ethnic words to take offense at. The gender bias is actually more in keepign with todays standard than the Victorian Era, when this work was first published. Well, I guess there's nothing to be offended by, unless maybe your French?

The Bottom line? A really fun read for a classic. The humor may be a bit sophisticated for young teens but there is little else to worry about. The humor is very much in keeping with what you might normally associate with O'Brian or Thurber.

Four stars from me!