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Lord Ramage #6
Ramage & the Guillotine
Across the English Channel, Napoleon has massed a great invasion flotilla. English forces, under Lord Nelson, are all but paralyzed—not knowing the size, strength, or time of the foreign onslaught. In a brilliant yet daring spy scheme to protect Britain's shores, Lieutenant Lord Nicholas Ramage is chosen to plumb the secrets of the French High Command—and the penalty for failure is the guillotine.
288 pages, Paperback
First published November 28, 1975
58 people are currently reading
179 people want to read
About the author
Dudley Pope
130 books93 followersDudley Pope was born in Ashford, Kent.
By concealing his age, Pope joined the Home Guard aged 14 and at age 16 joined the Merchant Navy as a cadet. His ship was torpedoed the next year (1942). Afterwards, he spent two weeks in a lifeboat with the few other survivors.
After he was invalided out of the Merchant Navy, the only obvious sign of the injuries Pope had suffered was a joint missing from one finger due to gangrene. Pope then went to work for a Kentish newspaper, then in 1944 moved to The Evening News in London, where he was the naval and defence correspondent. From there he turned to reading and writing naval history.
Pope's first book, "Flag 4", was published in 1954, followed by several other historical accounts. C. S. Forester, the creator of the famed Horatio Hornblower novels, encouraged Pope to add fiction to his repertoire. In 1965, "Ramage" appeared, the first of what was to become an 18-novel series.
Pope took to living on boats from 1953 on; when he married Kay Pope in 1954, they lived on a William Fife 8-meter named Concerto, then at Porto Santo Stefano, Italy in 1959 with a 42-foot ketch Tokay. In 1963 he and Kay moved to a 53-foot cutter Golden Dragon, on which they moved to Barbados in 1965. In 1968 they moved onto a 54-foot wooden yacht named Ramage, aboard which he wrote all of his stories until 1985.
Pope died April 25, 1997 in Marigot, St. Martin. Both his wife and his daughter, Jane Victoria survived him.
By concealing his age, Pope joined the Home Guard aged 14 and at age 16 joined the Merchant Navy as a cadet. His ship was torpedoed the next year (1942). Afterwards, he spent two weeks in a lifeboat with the few other survivors.
After he was invalided out of the Merchant Navy, the only obvious sign of the injuries Pope had suffered was a joint missing from one finger due to gangrene. Pope then went to work for a Kentish newspaper, then in 1944 moved to The Evening News in London, where he was the naval and defence correspondent. From there he turned to reading and writing naval history.
Pope's first book, "Flag 4", was published in 1954, followed by several other historical accounts. C. S. Forester, the creator of the famed Horatio Hornblower novels, encouraged Pope to add fiction to his repertoire. In 1965, "Ramage" appeared, the first of what was to become an 18-novel series.
Pope took to living on boats from 1953 on; when he married Kay Pope in 1954, they lived on a William Fife 8-meter named Concerto, then at Porto Santo Stefano, Italy in 1959 with a 42-foot ketch Tokay. In 1963 he and Kay moved to a 53-foot cutter Golden Dragon, on which they moved to Barbados in 1965. In 1968 they moved onto a 54-foot wooden yacht named Ramage, aboard which he wrote all of his stories until 1985.
Pope died April 25, 1997 in Marigot, St. Martin. Both his wife and his daughter, Jane Victoria survived him.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
July 25, 2013
If, reading through the early Aubrey-Maturin books, I ever wondered why we never got to read about Stephen's spywork in any great detail, I now presume to know the answer. For if this book prooved anything it is that spywork is boring as hell!
This is one of the weaker volumes in the series, fortunately it is also one of the shorter ones.
It reads like the couple of chapters in Ramage & The Drumbeat in which they steal the Spanish despatches, but expanded into a whole novel, only without a big sea battle at the end and with the protagonist stuck in the same room for 80% of the time. There is simply too little action in this book, which is pretty bad for a series I read simply for its fast paced adventure plots, since it is not exactly graced with deep and complex characters. Usually the only characters in this series who are allowed any complex motives or, indeed, any deep thoughts at all, are the hero, the villains, and perhaps, on a good day, Jackson. Any other characters (if you even want to call them that), even regulars, are simply means to advance the plot, with a special set of skills or a helpful comment now and then.
Why the author now decided it would be a good idea to let these ciphers carry most of what little action there was in this book we might never know. You would think the author intended to use the occasion to give these characters a bit more of a personality, turn them into at least somewhat rounded characters. But no, they remain as static and flat as ever. Even worse, the character who really does all the work in this book is a one-off character never to be seen again, who somehow magically had all the knowledge and connections to make Ramage's plan as easy-peasy and uneventful as possible. And the fact that this character was only there by chance. Ramage just happened to find the right smuggler, who had the right smugglers working for him who knew the right French smugglers who had it in for Napoleon's regime, which allowed our hero to meet this walking deus ex machina.
Granted, Louis' sad backstory (and indeed any mention of the mass executions) does add a bit of sorely needed atmosphere to the book (as do Ramage's moody reflections once he is arrested. Surprisingly, when you consider the usual qualities of the series, these occasional reflective, very quiet moments are the truly good ones in this book). But it doesn't change the fact that very little actually happens in this book, and it fails to deliver anything new, or profound, or otherwise exciting in sufficient quantities to fill this void.
Let's hope Ramage stays at sea from now on (it was fun finally meeting his family though. It appears sailor dynasties are rarer in these kinds of books than you might think).
This is one of the weaker volumes in the series, fortunately it is also one of the shorter ones.
It reads like the couple of chapters in Ramage & The Drumbeat in which they steal the Spanish despatches, but expanded into a whole novel, only without a big sea battle at the end and with the protagonist stuck in the same room for 80% of the time. There is simply too little action in this book, which is pretty bad for a series I read simply for its fast paced adventure plots, since it is not exactly graced with deep and complex characters. Usually the only characters in this series who are allowed any complex motives or, indeed, any deep thoughts at all, are the hero, the villains, and perhaps, on a good day, Jackson. Any other characters (if you even want to call them that), even regulars, are simply means to advance the plot, with a special set of skills or a helpful comment now and then.
Why the author now decided it would be a good idea to let these ciphers carry most of what little action there was in this book we might never know. You would think the author intended to use the occasion to give these characters a bit more of a personality, turn them into at least somewhat rounded characters. But no, they remain as static and flat as ever. Even worse, the character who really does all the work in this book is a one-off character never to be seen again, who somehow magically had all the knowledge and connections to make Ramage's plan as easy-peasy and uneventful as possible. And the fact that this character was only there by chance. Ramage just happened to find the right smuggler, who had the right smugglers working for him who knew the right French smugglers who had it in for Napoleon's regime, which allowed our hero to meet this walking deus ex machina.
Granted, Louis' sad backstory (and indeed any mention of the mass executions) does add a bit of sorely needed atmosphere to the book (as do Ramage's moody reflections once he is arrested. Surprisingly, when you consider the usual qualities of the series, these occasional reflective, very quiet moments are the truly good ones in this book). But it doesn't change the fact that very little actually happens in this book, and it fails to deliver anything new, or profound, or otherwise exciting in sufficient quantities to fill this void.
Let's hope Ramage stays at sea from now on (it was fun finally meeting his family though. It appears sailor dynasties are rarer in these kinds of books than you might think).
July 2, 2019
Ramage is back to being a ‘spy’ again rather than commanding a warship. The story isn’t bad, but a whole book of sneaking around France was a bit much.
February 11, 2020
It was OK, but I didn't think it was as exciting as some of the other ramage books, maybe because it lacks naval action at sea.
I have a feeling I've met several of the plot twists elsewhere and I found them to be just a little tedious and predictable. For some reason it reminded me of the many obviously-inobvious twists in The Count of Monte Christo, although luckily this is much shorter.
I have a feeling I've met several of the plot twists elsewhere and I found them to be just a little tedious and predictable. For some reason it reminded me of the many obviously-inobvious twists in The Count of Monte Christo, although luckily this is much shorter.
July 28, 2021
I'm on a naval historical fiction kick. I read one Ramage book about 35 years ago, threw it down and never looked back. But now that I've exhausted pretty much every other readable series I'm back on it again and find it (more) tolerable in my old age.
Spoilers ahead:
I quit reading that single book because of a single sentence that was pretty cringeworthy. The books are still like that but like I said, I'm more tolerant now. The issue is the hero worship of every single character in that series towards Ramage and it's not only his underlings but superiors, and even word of mouth worship! It's like Pope read Hornblower, decided to emulate it but turn it up several notches no matter how blatant. It makes for bad writing because though CS Forester does it, you feel it through the writing. It Ramage, it's hammered into the reader mostly through dialog, a very poor way to get something across.
Anyway... Pope isn't as good a writer as CSF. He's just not as skilled, not as good a wordsmith. But at least the writing is readable and easy to follow. I tend to fast read through long boring parts and there are some parts that take too long to read. Like in this book where Ramage waits for the guillotine. Quantity is not quality. Pope could have reduced that passage from 10 pages to 2 with better and more succinct writing.
Summary: really don't read if you don't want spoilers.
Ramage is sent to Boulogne, France to get information on Napoleon's English invasion fleet. He has to find out the number of craft and thereby estimate the invasion force, their readiness and possible date of invasion.
He finds an English smuggler who passes him on to his French counterpart who gets him to France. He counts the barges and lighters but he also finds the courier who is taking dispatches from the French admiral to the Minister of Marine. He sets up a trap at an inn in Amiens where the courier stays and copies the dispatches. But he is caught by accident. He is eventually saved by the French smuggler and gets back to England. All of this is done in easy mode.
The plot is a good one even though there is no sea action. It makes me feel that it's based on the idea of Hornblower and the Crisis. I gave this book high marks because:
1) Gives a good idea of why and how smuggling worked. One of the other series, I think it was Lowrie also had a book on smuggling and it made for very interesting reading, except that Pope has done a better job of writing it.
2) Gave a very good account of what the people felt like in revolutionary France where people lived in fear of being denounced and how short of food and goods the people were. Pope made a comparison of the denunciation to the Inquisition where people were denounced to pay back enemies or to get their businesses. But it was also a comparison of times under communism or basically any "revolutionary" activity where people would denounce each other for selfish reasons. It all shows how bad autocratic and freedomless societies are.
I've only ever read about the "glories" or the victories of the French under Napoleon and how he beat so many other countries, never about how the regular people on the ground felt so this was eye opening. The Committee for Public Safety sounded so much like the one in the Soviet Union and actually sounds like today's cancel culture where people can use the "power of the people" to target other people in the name of "the people".
Actually the one time I read about this was in The Count of Monte Cristo, written in 1844 by a Frenchman who must have been very familiar with what happened a few decades ago. But I th0ught it was a special case directed against Edmond Dantès. He was denounced as a Bonapartist traitor by 3 people for 3 specific reasons: jealousy in love, professional jealousy and self preservation. I didn't know that it was so widespread.
3) There was also a section of the guillotine, how it was invented and used and the trials used to prosecute, judge and execute people.
A good read if only for the sections on smuggling and revolutionary France.
Spoilers ahead:
I quit reading that single book because of a single sentence that was pretty cringeworthy. The books are still like that but like I said, I'm more tolerant now. The issue is the hero worship of every single character in that series towards Ramage and it's not only his underlings but superiors, and even word of mouth worship! It's like Pope read Hornblower, decided to emulate it but turn it up several notches no matter how blatant. It makes for bad writing because though CS Forester does it, you feel it through the writing. It Ramage, it's hammered into the reader mostly through dialog, a very poor way to get something across.
Anyway... Pope isn't as good a writer as CSF. He's just not as skilled, not as good a wordsmith. But at least the writing is readable and easy to follow. I tend to fast read through long boring parts and there are some parts that take too long to read. Like in this book where Ramage waits for the guillotine. Quantity is not quality. Pope could have reduced that passage from 10 pages to 2 with better and more succinct writing.
Summary: really don't read if you don't want spoilers.
Ramage is sent to Boulogne, France to get information on Napoleon's English invasion fleet. He has to find out the number of craft and thereby estimate the invasion force, their readiness and possible date of invasion.
He finds an English smuggler who passes him on to his French counterpart who gets him to France. He counts the barges and lighters but he also finds the courier who is taking dispatches from the French admiral to the Minister of Marine. He sets up a trap at an inn in Amiens where the courier stays and copies the dispatches. But he is caught by accident. He is eventually saved by the French smuggler and gets back to England. All of this is done in easy mode.
The plot is a good one even though there is no sea action. It makes me feel that it's based on the idea of Hornblower and the Crisis. I gave this book high marks because:
1) Gives a good idea of why and how smuggling worked. One of the other series, I think it was Lowrie also had a book on smuggling and it made for very interesting reading, except that Pope has done a better job of writing it.
2) Gave a very good account of what the people felt like in revolutionary France where people lived in fear of being denounced and how short of food and goods the people were. Pope made a comparison of the denunciation to the Inquisition where people were denounced to pay back enemies or to get their businesses. But it was also a comparison of times under communism or basically any "revolutionary" activity where people would denounce each other for selfish reasons. It all shows how bad autocratic and freedomless societies are.
I've only ever read about the "glories" or the victories of the French under Napoleon and how he beat so many other countries, never about how the regular people on the ground felt so this was eye opening. The Committee for Public Safety sounded so much like the one in the Soviet Union and actually sounds like today's cancel culture where people can use the "power of the people" to target other people in the name of "the people".
Actually the one time I read about this was in The Count of Monte Cristo, written in 1844 by a Frenchman who must have been very familiar with what happened a few decades ago. But I th0ught it was a special case directed against Edmond Dantès. He was denounced as a Bonapartist traitor by 3 people for 3 specific reasons: jealousy in love, professional jealousy and self preservation. I didn't know that it was so widespread.
3) There was also a section of the guillotine, how it was invented and used and the trials used to prosecute, judge and execute people.
A good read if only for the sections on smuggling and revolutionary France.
February 24, 2024
It may be formulaic genre fiction, but it’s fun formulaic genre fiction
Once again Dudley Pope send Lieutenant Ramage on a rip roaring adventure against the peril offered by the Mad Corsican. We get a few moments with his current paramour, we see him hang out with Lords Nelson and St. Vincent, and then he’s off on an unlikely adventure where he escapes by the skin of his teeth.
For those keeping score, in this novel he is in love with the Marchesa Volterra and his crew is Jackson, Stafford, and Rossi. Slushy Dyson returns from a previous book and the new face is Louis, a smuggler.
Once again Dudley Pope send Lieutenant Ramage on a rip roaring adventure against the peril offered by the Mad Corsican. We get a few moments with his current paramour, we see him hang out with Lords Nelson and St. Vincent, and then he’s off on an unlikely adventure where he escapes by the skin of his teeth.
For those keeping score, in this novel he is in love with the Marchesa Volterra and his crew is Jackson, Stafford, and Rossi. Slushy Dyson returns from a previous book and the new face is Louis, a smuggler.
April 8, 2021
This book was better than the last. I have to admit I wondered how Ramage was going to escape his capture by the French. The method of information exchange was very clever, maybe actually true. Of note, considering the times in which we live, is the comparison between the Revolutionaries, and modern “culture warriors”. You’d better not only support their ideas, but you’d better do so with enthusiasm, or “off with your head”. And look what happened? Napoleon! Interested only in his own power. Sound familiar? So much for “liberty, fraternity, equality”.
January 29, 2022
Interesting Ramage novel that involves very little sea action. Tasked by Lord Nelson to infiltrate the French invasion fleet and try to find out when it might be sailing to England. Ramage and several of his long-time companion's infiltrate France using a smuggling network and find out how far the French are along in building their fleet to invade England. Once they find out the information can they escape France with the information or end up on the guillotine.
July 14, 2020
This is a naval story without cannon balls or battles. Although touted as naval, it is actually a spy novel but a bit boring. As usual, it has long drawn out descriptions and conversations. I noticed that the author installed in the character a dislike of the Catholic Church whether this is personal or a sign of that time we will never know.
October 31, 2021
I have always enjoyed this series since I was first introduced to them. This time Ramage and 3 of his men spend most of their time on land in France spying on the building of the French Fleet. It is always an interesting quick read and I will eventually finish the rest of the series.
January 25, 2019
Most of it takes place on land. Otherwise, I'd give five stars!
July 30, 2020
Fabulous 💛
July 6, 2022
fills a hole in the rampage tale
Not really a sea novel. More spy work and intrigue. But it’s a vehicle to get Ramaged linked to Nelson and St Vincent.
Not really a sea novel. More spy work and intrigue. But it’s a vehicle to get Ramaged linked to Nelson and St Vincent.
August 9, 2022
Another perfect Ramage book with a totally different story!
Read
December 12, 2022A fine installment in the series. Nice change of pace to be ashore for most of the book.
November 8, 2024
This is not about a sea-going sailor but is a land-based story about a spy. It really has nothing to do with the series about Ramage.
March 31, 2021
This is a rather disappointing entry in an otherwise enjoyable series of naval historical novels set during the Napoleonic wars. Lieut. Lord Nicholas Ramage, who has a reputation for disobeying orders while still successfully accomplishing his missions, is in London and between ships when he’s drafted for some undercover work by the First Lord and Admiral Nelson. It’s a matter of coincidence, really; Ramage was present at a ball and came under their eye.
His job is to sneak into Boulogne and check out Bonaparte’s growing fleet of barges and transports, intended for the invasion of Britain -- but the Admiral leaves it to him to find a way to get there. Another coincidence: Ramage’s uncle just happens to be the largest landowner in the marshes of Kent, the center of England’s busiest smuggler population. Only the smugglers can get Ramage and a couple of his men where he needs to be -- and within forty-eight hours, he’s sitting in an inn in Boulogne. And yet another coincidence: The regular courier between the French admiral responsible for building the invasion fleet and his boss in Paris just happens to stay at the same inn. And the innkeeper just happens to tell Ramage all about it before he has even unpacked his luggage. And the innkeeper just happens to have a brother who keeps another inn at Amiens, where the courier just happens to always spend the night on the two-day journey between Paris and Boulogne. Ramage, of course, gets himself to Amiens with the intention of sneaking a peek at the courier’s dispatches.
All this creeping around involves several hundred pages of detailed explanation and it gets pretty old pretty quick. Pope was a pretty fair schooner sailor himself and the most enjoyable plots and scenes in this series are those in which Ramage is exercising his ingenuity at sea, overcoming odds by out-thinking the enemy, dealing with hurricanes and mutinies, and swinging a cutlass. But this time Ramage spends only a short time aboard a smuggler’s disguised fishing smack, making the Channel crossing. Instead, Pope seems to want to fulminate against the French Revolution in general and against Bonaparte in particular, describing the gendarmes in terms that would not be out of place in the Third Reich. And he waxes much too philosophical about the plight of the captured and imprisoned spy. In fact, Louis, a French smuggler and anti-Revolutionary in search of revenge, is much more interesting this time than Ramage, who has to depend on him and his contacts in order to get anything done. I’m carefully reading this series in order and I hope the next installment will see the young lieutenant back at sea where he belongs.
His job is to sneak into Boulogne and check out Bonaparte’s growing fleet of barges and transports, intended for the invasion of Britain -- but the Admiral leaves it to him to find a way to get there. Another coincidence: Ramage’s uncle just happens to be the largest landowner in the marshes of Kent, the center of England’s busiest smuggler population. Only the smugglers can get Ramage and a couple of his men where he needs to be -- and within forty-eight hours, he’s sitting in an inn in Boulogne. And yet another coincidence: The regular courier between the French admiral responsible for building the invasion fleet and his boss in Paris just happens to stay at the same inn. And the innkeeper just happens to tell Ramage all about it before he has even unpacked his luggage. And the innkeeper just happens to have a brother who keeps another inn at Amiens, where the courier just happens to always spend the night on the two-day journey between Paris and Boulogne. Ramage, of course, gets himself to Amiens with the intention of sneaking a peek at the courier’s dispatches.
All this creeping around involves several hundred pages of detailed explanation and it gets pretty old pretty quick. Pope was a pretty fair schooner sailor himself and the most enjoyable plots and scenes in this series are those in which Ramage is exercising his ingenuity at sea, overcoming odds by out-thinking the enemy, dealing with hurricanes and mutinies, and swinging a cutlass. But this time Ramage spends only a short time aboard a smuggler’s disguised fishing smack, making the Channel crossing. Instead, Pope seems to want to fulminate against the French Revolution in general and against Bonaparte in particular, describing the gendarmes in terms that would not be out of place in the Third Reich. And he waxes much too philosophical about the plight of the captured and imprisoned spy. In fact, Louis, a French smuggler and anti-Revolutionary in search of revenge, is much more interesting this time than Ramage, who has to depend on him and his contacts in order to get anything done. I’m carefully reading this series in order and I hope the next installment will see the young lieutenant back at sea where he belongs.
August 22, 2023
This is the sixth adventure of Lord Nicholas Ramage in the Royal Navy at the time of Napoleon. Britain’s war with revolutionary France is being waged. Although there was little outright action in this story, Pope is adept at ensuring there is always a sense of tension, fear of debilitating wound, or in this case, more likely death by guillotine.
Ramage is enjoying leave on the family estate in Cornwall. The French are building an invasion fleet and planning an invasion of Britain. An army of invasion is gathering in France and expected to be ready shortly. France can outnumber Britain handily and the British government is very concerned. The Royal Navy is confident that it can disrupt and beat the invasion fleet but only if it can gather at the right place, at the right time. Ramage’s leave is interrupted as he is ordered to go to France with a handful of seamen and find the status of the invasion fleet and determine when it is likely to be ready.
Ramage uses smugglers to get him into France and quickly finds a way to gather the necessary information. He is now a spy. If he is caught, he will likely be executed by guillotine. After spending a week in France, he is in the last stages of collecting the final, most important data. Something goes wrong and he is captured by the French and tried for spying. The trial is a kangaroo court by British standards. He is not allowed to speak, he has no false papers, and he is not in possession of any secret material. Unfortunately, the court does not have to prove anything. He is found guilty and sentenced to death. Fortunately, his sailors have succeeded with the mission and may be able to free him.
This book gives an excellent picture of the concern and effort, Britain’s senior military and political leaders place on the possibility of invasion by Napolean. Britain could field an army of maybe 20% the size of France’s army. Britain did not have conscription for its army and would not be able to fund or equip such an army. The Navy was ordered to determine France’s plans and preparedness for invasion, and to plan a response. The Admiralty was desperate to comply as it had no good information. They gave Ramage much more scope and support than almost any other set of orders. Nevertheless, this a risky action that almost failed.
This was a good story. There was little outright action in this story but fear for Ramage’s life oozed out of every scene. Pope is adept at ensuring there is always a sense of dramatic tension. In my opinion however, there were one or two scenes that seemed to go on just a little too long. Three stars.
Ramage is enjoying leave on the family estate in Cornwall. The French are building an invasion fleet and planning an invasion of Britain. An army of invasion is gathering in France and expected to be ready shortly. France can outnumber Britain handily and the British government is very concerned. The Royal Navy is confident that it can disrupt and beat the invasion fleet but only if it can gather at the right place, at the right time. Ramage’s leave is interrupted as he is ordered to go to France with a handful of seamen and find the status of the invasion fleet and determine when it is likely to be ready.
Ramage uses smugglers to get him into France and quickly finds a way to gather the necessary information. He is now a spy. If he is caught, he will likely be executed by guillotine. After spending a week in France, he is in the last stages of collecting the final, most important data. Something goes wrong and he is captured by the French and tried for spying. The trial is a kangaroo court by British standards. He is not allowed to speak, he has no false papers, and he is not in possession of any secret material. Unfortunately, the court does not have to prove anything. He is found guilty and sentenced to death. Fortunately, his sailors have succeeded with the mission and may be able to free him.
This book gives an excellent picture of the concern and effort, Britain’s senior military and political leaders place on the possibility of invasion by Napolean. Britain could field an army of maybe 20% the size of France’s army. Britain did not have conscription for its army and would not be able to fund or equip such an army. The Navy was ordered to determine France’s plans and preparedness for invasion, and to plan a response. The Admiralty was desperate to comply as it had no good information. They gave Ramage much more scope and support than almost any other set of orders. Nevertheless, this a risky action that almost failed.
This was a good story. There was little outright action in this story but fear for Ramage’s life oozed out of every scene. Pope is adept at ensuring there is always a sense of dramatic tension. In my opinion however, there were one or two scenes that seemed to go on just a little too long. Three stars.
October 8, 2020
This one, though good, moved a lot slower than the others in the series. I enjoy the sea action that this did not have.
March 15, 2016
This is my fifth read in the Ramage series by Dudley Pope. It is a bit shorter than the other stories I have read, but it didn't lack for a good storyline. Ramage to gain information about Napoleon's invasion fleet for the Admiralty. How he goes about it is to slip into France and take a look. This he does, but after he is there more valuable information becomes available to him. All that is required is a little luck, a little nerve, and a proper localism to do the deed and get the information. So this one is more a caper story than a sea voyage one. But don't let that put you off of it. A bit predictable in places, but still a great story because it is nice to your protagonist operate in less formal settings. The characters were great. As I read along they took shape in my mind's eye like the characters of an old style adventure movie for example: Louis, a Frenchman could easily been that great character, Akim Tarimnoff, that is who I saw as I read along The other characters were that way also. I could have easily cast this story as a movie for the characters were that well defined. So in closing this review I say sit back, relax and enjoy a great adventure.
August 7, 2015
Dudley Pope wrote historical fiction. He knew his subject and I think it's clear that he undertook to share his enthusiasm for the period and the people who lived during those times. I suggest if you are a fan of Patrick O'Brian's stories of naval warfare and are not that interested in the events on land, skip this book. I understand critics who can't accept the Admiralty sending an officer of the Royal Navy into France to spy. Not only an officer but a titled heir to an Earl.
If you enjoy history and a good yarn, suspend belief and dig in. Pope has Ramage in a hole which seems to get deeper and deeper until it appears that there is no way to avoid winding up on the guillotine. The suspense is intense. Of course, we know he has to avoid his fate. This is a series. It's how he escapes that makes reading the novels fun. I enjoyed it.
If you enjoy history and a good yarn, suspend belief and dig in. Pope has Ramage in a hole which seems to get deeper and deeper until it appears that there is no way to avoid winding up on the guillotine. The suspense is intense. Of course, we know he has to avoid his fate. This is a series. It's how he escapes that makes reading the novels fun. I enjoyed it.
May 5, 2012
The first of the Ramage books - all of which are exciting and well written. The Ramage series ranks 3rd with me behind Hornblower and Bolitho for age of sail excitement. Ramage is just a little too good and nothing is impossible..
July 9, 2013
An interesting story, but a British Naval officer spying in Boulogne and Amiens, France (under the cover of act an Italian boat builder) is not my idea of the best way to leverage Dudley Pope's naval literary skills . . .
Read
July 28, 2009Enjoyed
May 18, 2015
Awesome
July 21, 2016
I am such a geek, I really can't get enough of these nautical tails.
August 23, 2014
A tale of revolutionary derring do. As usual some stretch of the imagination is required,
March 28, 2017
Very exciting! The story starts with a ball where Ramage receives orders...but he still has a month leave! The Marchesa is not going to be happy!
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews