Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #218775 in Books
• Published on: 2000-08-31
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1136 pages

John S. White, Waterloo Journal
' ... Already heralded as a classic ... The text is enriched with first-hand accounts which bring the whole narrative to life with an air of stark realism ... Britten Austin's trilogy truly ranks as a masterpiece, representing all that is to be admired in a research-based work.'

Dr Charles Esdaile, University of Liverpool, RUSI Journal
' ... Vivid and compelling ... The most detailed account of the disaster yet to become available in English.'

From the Publisher
The three volumes of Greenhill's unique trilogy about 1812 by Paul Britten Austin are now being gathered to make a single, monumental, trade paperback. This is a unique endeavour in military history publishing. The individual three books by Paul Britten Austin are - 1812: The March on Moscow; 1812: Napoleon in Moscow; and 1812: The Great Retreat.

Customer Reviews

EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS TAKE YOU THERE!
This is a superb collection of eyewitness accounts of Napoleon's infamous campaign of 1812. All life - and death - is here. It is a testament to the hardships that human beings can endure and to the courage and tenacity of the human spirit. And is is an excellent piece of scholarship by the author - it must have taken ages to piece this impressive mosaic of views and opinions together.

I have read the trilogy twice and have started for the third time - there is always something new to discover with every reading. This book is so compelling it reads like a novel. You can feel those bleak, scouring winds and hear the crisp frozen snow crack beneath your feet.

You will discover old favourites like Coignet and Bourgogne as well as a host of characters larger than life who did, nonetheless live and experience the traumas described in this book. As Napoleon waited fatally in Moscow, hoping that the Tsar would sue for peace, the Russian army surrounding him grew ever stronger. The English General Wilson (who would later be sent to jail in France by Louis XVIII for defending ex-soldiers of the Emperor) describes how the Guard ploughed through the massive Russian Army like a battleship through a fishing fleet at Krasny. Buy this trilogy, you will not be disappointed!

John Tarttelin MA, FINS

A great collection
I have recently purchased this book and can, with confidence, recommend it, even though I have not finished the first section.
If you have ever started a book and wished that it would not end then you understand where I am coming from.
The individual observations related in the collection bring history to life and the insights gained are stunning !
I cannot recommend this collection more highly.