Men of Honour: Trafalgar and the Making of the English Hero [Lingua Inglese] - Brossura

Nicolson

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0007192657 ISBN 13: 9780007192656

Casa editrice: Harper Perennial, 2006

Riassunto

An unforgettable look at the contradictions of heroism, as embodied by Horatio Nelson and as tested by the battle of Trafalgar. Adam Nicolson looks at the variety of qualities – ruthlessness, bravery, kindness, cruelty – that combined in both Nelson and his troops to carry that fateful day.

Trafalgar gripped the nineteenth century imagination like no other battle: it was a moment of both transcendent fulfilment and unmatched despair. It was a drama of such violence and sacrifice that the concept of total war may be argued to start from there. It finished the global ambitions of a European tyrant but culminated in the death of Admiral Horatio Nelson, the greatest hero of the era.

This book fuses the immediate intensity of the battle with the deeper currents that were running at the time. It has a three-part framework: the long, slow six hour morning before the battle; the afternoon itself of terror, death and destruction; and the shocked, exultant and sobered aftermath, which finds its climax at Nelson's funeral in a snowy London the following January.

Adam Nicolson examines the concept of heroes and heroism, both then and now, using Nelson as one of the greatest examples. A man of complexity and contradiction, he was a supreme administrator of ships and men; overflowing with humanity, charm and love but also capable of astonishing ruthlessness and ferocity. Nelson's own courage, vanity, ruthlessness and sweetness made him one of the great identifiable heroes of English history.

In Men of Honour, Adam Nicolson also traces the stories of many unknown people of the day. He tackles the move from the age of reason to the age of romanticism, and examines a battle that was not only a uniquely well-documented crisis in human affairs but also a lens on its own time. Adam Nicolson does not approach Trafalgar as a military historian. His book gives a wonderfully immediate recreation of both the battle itself and its aftermath in a rich, concrete and intellectually engaging style.

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Recensione:

‘His descriptions of the battle itself, and of the personalities of those who engaged in it, are seamanlike, assured and informative’ Independent

‘The story of the battle has been told before, but rarely with the literary aplomb and almost cinematic realism that are to be found in Adam Nicolson's new book.’ Sunday Telegraph

'Argued with vigour and written with grace, this is an illuminating piece of interpretive cultural history' Sunday Times

‘Vividly clear ... Vibrant ... Compelling’ Observer

‘Nicolson does not aim (to give)a blow-by-blow account of the battle. Instead he takes a philosophical and literary approach ... In this he succeeds exceptionally well’ Independent on Sunday

L'autore:

Adam Nicolson is the author of many books on history, travel and the environment. He is the winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, the British Topography Prize and the WH Heinemann Award. He lives on a farm in Sussex. This is his fourth book for HarperCollins – his previous three being Sea Room, Power and Glory and Seamanship.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Harper Perennial
• Data di pubblicazione: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0007192657
• ISBN 13: 9780007192656
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 412