Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #545788 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-15
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Customer Reviews

Excellent, as we've come to expect from Falkner!
This is a companion book to the excellent "Great and Glorious Days" written five years earlier by the same author (which I have reviewed elsewhere) and provides more fascinating detail on the laborious conflict which saw Britain emerge as a world power in the early 18th Century.

Whereas "Great and Glorious Days" concentrates mainly on Marlborough's famous victories in set-piece battles, this naturally is about the more time-consuming process of capturing the numerous towns and fortresses which were so important to the participants of the War of the Spanish Succession. Even so, the wider context is not ignored, and there is just enough to provide sufficient background to the conflict and how developments elsewhere affected matters overall, with only a few crossovers into the earlier book, which cannot be avoided perhaps.

This is primarily a military book, and as well as descriptions of Marlborough's activities the author gives details on the terminology and methods of siege warfare at the time. Nevertheless, it remains eminently readable, since Falkner has a style which avoids it being a `weighty tome' and which engages the reader admirably (only the split infinitives will offend the purist, though these do not seem to matter these days). Although there is a chronological list of the sieges, they are not presented chapter by chapter, but are nicely grouped by the various stages of the conflict. Naturally, some are of less significance and interest, but all sieges - twenty-six of them - are included here as an invaluable reference.

In "Great and Glorious Days", Falkner undeniably reveals his admiration for Marlborough, and the reader gets the impression he was simply unfortunate not to bring the war to a victorious end. Interestingly, in the introduction to "Marlborough's Sieges", Falkner has shifted his position somewhat, pointing out that, for all his successes (Marlborough never lost a battle or siege) he failed to deliver the knockout blow which defeated France, unlike Wellington a hundred years later. Still, Falkner retains his admiration overall, to no bad effect; it is hard to deny that Marlborough was a military genius, and his victories both in open battle and siege deserve more recognition of this forgotten hero.

Perhaps Mr Falkner can now be persuaded to produce something on the `non-Marlborough' aspects of the war; I'd love to read more on Prince Eugene's achievements!

If "Great and Glorious Days" left you wanting more, as it did me, then here is the perfect answer! As usual, shop around for a good price.