Sir Arthur Conan Doyle may be best known for his Sherlock Holmes stories, but they were not his favorites. He loved the stories that promoted the chivalric ethos, even if they sometimes made fun of their heroes, as here. Gerard is a cavalry officer who is devoted to Napoleon and is incapable of seeing the world through any other lens. Rupert Degas is reliably excellent as the ego-inflated officer who fails to see the differences between French and English values, remaining fully confident through what most of us would consider the most embarrassing situations. But Degas never loses touch with the man’s innate courage, grace, and devotion to his principles.

Naxos Audiobooks continue to revive some long forgotten works by that genius writer of detective fiction, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This time it is ‘The Adventures of Brigadier Gerard’ – a swashbuckling set of stories set in the Napoleonic Wars and including some pretty far fetched plots. Rupert Degas is the ideal reader for this type of narrative – his French sounding inflexions are truly a delight to listen to especially in the more tender parts of the tales. The seven hours of stories may be slightly heavy on the ear so it is advisable to take them one at a time but with the well chosen interludes taken from similarly swashbuckling Berlioz overtures, you really cannot miss out. I particularly enjoyed the action packed part on the capture of Saragossa as well as the final part on Waterloo with Degas truly in his element describing the bloodthirsty scenes of battlefield carnage. Yet another winner from the astonishingly diverse Naxos Audiobooks stable.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is best known for his Sherlock Holmes stories. But he is also the creator of Etienne Gerard, a calvary officer in the armies of Napoleon. The Adventures Of Brigadier Gerard is a collection of colorful (and often humorous) stories of Gerard’s missions during the Napoleonic Wars ranging from Spain and Italy to England and Russia. The Adventures […] are deftly and dramatically narrated by Rupert Degas who does the storytelling talents of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle full and complete justice. […] a technically flawless audio production. The result is pure entertainment and the highest possible recommendation for personal and community library audio book collections.