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Earlier Treasures April |
Treasure Of The Month - April 2011
Adventures of Gerard by Arthur Conan
Doyle - book with original dustjacket
Brigadier Gerard is the hero of a series of comic short stories by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle. The hero, Etienne Gerard, is a Hussar in the French Army during the Napoleonic Wars. Gerard's most notable attribute is his vanity - he is utterly convinced that he is the bravest soldier, greatest swordsman, accomplished horseman and gallant lover in all France. Gerard is not entirely wrong since he displays notable bravery on many occasions, but his self-satisfaction undercuts this quite often. Obsessed with honour and glory, he is always ready with a stirring speech or a gallant remark to a lady.
Conan Doyle, in making his hero a vain, and often rather uncomprehending Frenchman, was able to satirise both the stereotypical English view of the French, and - by presenting them from Gerard's baffled point of view - English manners and attitudes.
This was the second collection of stories about Gerard and the cover
features the tale How the Brigadier
Slew the Fox - where he joins a fox-hunt with embarrassing
results. The Adventures of
Gerard series was published in 1903. This edition, by Thomas
Nelson Publishers, was published in 1915.
