Preview

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Adventures of Brigadier Gerard

By: Arthur Conan Doyle
Narrated by: Rupert Degas
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.05

Buy for $20.05

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

With a horse between his thighs and a weapon in his grip, the dashing Brigadier Etienne Gerard, Colonel of the Hussars of Conflans, gallops through the Napoleonic campaigns on secret missions for his beloved Emperor and his country. He encounters danger and hair-breadth escapes but never loses his bravado, his eye for a pretty girl, his boastfulness or his enormous vanity.

Gerard is Conan Doyle’s most lovable character. At times hilarious, at times touching, these stories are amongst Conan Doyle’s most popular.

Public Domain (P)2011 Naxos AudioBooks
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Editorial reviews

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.

What listeners say about The Adventures of Brigadier Gerard

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    19
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    20
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    19
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Dashing and slyly funny

I listened to this back to back with its companion piece, The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard. Gerard narrates his own adventures: the remarkable thing about them is that he shows real dash and courage, yet such is Conan Doyle's skill that his ridiculous vanity shows through plainly in his own words.

Gerard is a leader of the Hussars of Conflans, a celebrated cavalry regiment serving under Napoleon in his wars against Portugal, Spain, England, Russia, and Prussia; and in the course of the two volumes of stories we visit all those places. We witness Waterloo from Gerard's point of view and make a final sad visit to St Helena.

For me, Gerard is less interesting in himself than as a contrast to Sherlock Holmes: it's hard to think of two men who could be more different. I also have to confess that I got a bit tired of Gerard's routine before the end of the second volume. This is not a problem with the writing or with Rupert Degas' brilliant narration. I would have enjoyed the last few stories more if I'd taken a break between the two volumes.

One way to think of Gerard is that he's everything Richard Sharpe is not. If Bernard Cornwell didn't write an encounter between these two, it was a missed opportunity.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I was there... Watching... Listening..A great work

Would you listen to The Adventures of Brigadier Gerard again? Why?

Yes, you bet

What other book might you compare The Adventures of Brigadier Gerard to and why?

Arthur Conan Doyle is a gifted individual, and anything he touches becomes magical.

Which scene was your favorite?

Hard to come up with one... but any where Gerard becomes the cause celebre with heroism at his back and homage in his front became all too common his life,

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

A sad tributary to a magnificent battle

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!