“In the turbulent aftermath of the crucifixion of Jesus, officers of the Roman Empire acquire intelligence of a pilgrim bearing an incendiary letter from a religious fanatic to insurrectionists in Corinth. The contents of this letter could bring down the … Continue reading A Man at Arms | Book Review
Patrick O’Brian, Master and Commander (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1969). Hardcover | Paperback | Kindle Several years ago, I read The Complete Aubrey-Maturin Novels, which begins with Master and Commander. They recount the exploits and misfortunes of Jack Aubrey, a rising British naval officer, and Stephen Maturin, his friend and ship’s doctor, across the globe in the first two decades of the Nineteenth Century. “The best way to think of these novels,” Patrick Reardon has written, “is as a single 5,000-page book.” If you, like me, are a series reader, Master and Commander will suck you in. Set in the western Mediterranean, … Continue reading Review of ‘Master and Commander’ by Patrick O’Brian
Robert Harris, An Officer and a Spy (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014). Hardback / Kindle In 1894, the French Army arrested, indicted, court martialed, convicted, and sent into penal exile Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a French Jew, for selling military secrets to the Germans. Due to problems with the evidence against him, Dreyfus was retried in 1899 but once again found guilty. Only in 1906, before the Supreme Court of Appeals, was Dreyfus exonerated, restored to the Army at the rank of lieutenant colonel, and declared a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. He had proclaimed his innocence through his … Continue reading Review of ‘An Officer an a Spy’ by Robert Harris
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