I’ve been delving lately into the history of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era, recognizing a gap in my historical understanding. These events shaped the world to come, yet I only had a basic outline and no feel for the epoch.
For some reason, the scale and scope of events had escaped me. Huge battles with massive casualties. World shaking events…
In my perambulations, I discovered a series of historical adventure books by William Dietrich. The adventures of Ethan Gage are strictly for fun, and fun they are. Each novel has an ancient mystical artifact as a macguffin, which lends an early-19th Century Indiana Jones flair to the stories. And the influence of George Macdonald Fraser’s Flashman Papers is evident:
“The adventurer’s story, being published in successive volumes, generally adheres to our understanding of events in the Napoleonic period, and in fact contains a great deal of detail convincing us that the manuscripts are authentic. Gage often quotes the great people he meets saying something very close to what history records they said.”
Gage has an eye for the ladies — including the lusty, promiscuous Pauline Bonaparte.
Dietrich knows his history cold and obviously relishes playing with it. He’s created an elaborate legend for his hero, which puts him in the rank of the Frontier Partisans:
“At his father’s suggestion, Ethan met an ambitious young New York fur merchant named John Jacob Astor and was sent by Astor on an early exploratory mission to the Great Lakes. Ethan’s papers on this formative journey have yet to be organized for publication, but his noted skill with the longrifle was apparently acquired at this time. We do know that Ethan descended the Mississippi to New Orleans in 1788, eventually took ship to France, and landed in Le Havre in time to learn of the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. Sensing opportunity in turmoil, Gage set himself up as an American trade representative in Paris and witnessed the tumult of the French Revolution.”
So, Gage’s weapons of preference are an American longrifle and a tomahawk. In the third book of the series, “The Dakota Cipher,” his adventures actually carry him back to the American frontier and the future Louisiana Purchase lands. He encounters Tecumseh and Simon Girty. He describes the legendary renegade as “a feral old man,” but is persuaded that the much-hated traitor was in fact a patriot in his own manner, fighting a lost cause with a degree of honor and compassion amid the savagery. Good to see that misunderstood figure get his due.
Girty by Tim Truman. Reviled as a renegade, Girty was one of the most fascinating of the Frontier Partisans.
There’s a lot of that kind of interaction with actual historical figures. “The Dakota Cipher” also finds Gage vigorously screwing Napoleon’s sister, Pauline. Far-fetched, you say. Oh, you don’t know Pauline Bonaparte. Everybody vigorously screwed that lusty lass.
These books caught me at a moment when all I wanted was an entertaining read, and they provided that with style and flair.
Paul McNamee says
Cornwell’s Sharpe novels are excellent adventure as well as a great way to learn many of the little details of British soldier of the Napoleonic Era. I especially like when he highlights the differences between the riflemen (Sharpe & co) versus the basic infantry.
Steve V. says
Speaking of Simon Gurty, Tim Truman did a set of 3 or 4 graphic novels on the life of Simon Gurty, and he does much the same, in presenting Gurty as more of a honorable character than the traitor he was portrayed as generally. Truman does a good job with the story, and it is an entertaining read.
JimC says
Welcome Steve V.
You’re right about Truman’s “Wilderness.” It’s very good. I hope he gets to do “Beyond the Black River.” It’s right in his wheelhouse.