- Audio CD
- Publisher: HarperAudio; Unabridged edition (Jan 20 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0060780967
- ISBN-13: 978-0060780968
- Product Dimensions: 14.5 x 13.5 x 4.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 340 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #350,836 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
Praise for Azincourt 'If Bernard Cornwell was born to write one book, this is it. No other historical novelist has acquired such a mastery of the minutiae of warfare in centuries past. No one else could hope to take Shakespeare's Henry V, strip it of its rhetoric and tell the unvarnished truth about the Battle of Agincourt' Telegraph 'A runaway success' Guardian 'Nobody in the world does this stuff better than Cornwell -- action set six hundred years ago is a fresh and vital as six days ago, with rough, tough men at war, proving once again that nothing changes -- least of all great storytelling' Lee Child 'An extrordinary and dramatic description of the legendary battle of Agincourt from the number one historical novelist' Hampshire View 'a vivid, breathtaking and meticulously well research account' Paisley Daily Express Praise for Bernard Cornwell and Sword Song: 'This is typical Cornwell, meticulously researched, massive inscope, brilliant in execution' The Sun 'Great action scenes, rich in period detail, are underpinned by a feeling for the passions that shaped the Britain we know today' Sunday Telegraph, Seven Magazine Bernard Cornwell is a literary miracle. Year after year, hail, rain, snow, war and political upheavals fail to prevent him from producing the most entertaining and readable historical novels of his generation' Daily Mail 'Cornwell's narration is quite masterly and supremely well-researched' Observer
Product Description
"The greatest writer of historical adventures today" (Washington Post) tackles his richest, most thrilling subject yet—the heroic tale of Agincourt.
Young Nicholas Hook is dogged by a cursed past—haunted by what he has failed to do and banished for what he has done. A wanted man in England, he is driven to fight as a mercenary archer in France, where he finds two things he can love: his instincts as a fighting man, and a girl in trouble. Together they survive the notorious massacre at Soissons, an event that shocks all Christendom. With no options left, Hook heads home to England, where his capture means certain death. Instead he is discovered by the young King of England—Henry V himself—and by royal command he takes up the longbow again and dons the cross of Saint George. Hook returns to France as part of the superb army Henry leads in his quest to claim the French crown. But after the English campaign suffers devastating early losses, it becomes clear that Hook and his fellow archers are their king's last resort in a desperate fight against an enemy more daunting than they could ever have imagined.
One of the most dramatic victories in British history, the battle of Agincourt—immortalized by Shakespeare in Henry V—pitted undermanned and overwhelmed English forces against a French army determined to keep their crown out of Henry's hands. Here Bernard Cornwell resurrects the legend of the battle and the "band of brothers" who fought it on October 25, 1415. An epic of redemption, Agincourt follows a commoner, a king, and a nation's entire army on an improbable mission to test the will of God and reclaim what is rightfully theirs. From the disasters at the siege of Harfleur to the horrors of the field of Agincourt, this exhilarating story of survival and slaughter is at once a brilliant work of history and a triumph of imagination—Bernard Cornwell at his best.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Formulaic Fare,
By
This review is from: Azincourt (Paperback)
Bernard Cornwell churns out historical novels as smoothly and effortlessly as a sausage-grinder produces links. Want an easy summer-time read about the Napoleonic Wars? Read his Sharpe series. The American Civil War? The Starbuck Chronicles. Alfred the Great's England? The Lords of the North. Got a hankering for a retelling of the Holy Grail? Cornwell's done that as well as the Arthurian legends. Fancy mysteries set in 18th-century England, or on Caribbean yachts or in the American Revolution? Cornwell's well-oiled story-telling has handled all of those themes.By now his tricks are becoming a little thread-bare as old tropes are repeated. In a Cornwell novel there will always be a dark hero who does not fit into the polite society of his time: too rough and brutish for the gentlemen but devilishly attractive to the ladies. There will always be a wicked priest though Cornwell often balances this character with the addition of a more amiable clergyman who doesn't take his religion very seriously. There is always a maiden to be saved from the clutches of rapists and murderers. Powerful enemies will drive the hero into flight to clear his name or a quest. There will be battles, described with the utmost attention to the gore produced. And so it is with the latest addition to the voluminous Cornwell canon: "Azincourt" based around the 1415 battle of the Hundred Years' War. Readers of Cornwell will recognize RIchard Sharpe or Thomas of Hookton or Uhtred of Bebbanburg in Nicholas Hook, the archer hero of "Azincourt". They will see Obadiah Hakeswill in Sir Martin and Guy Vexille in the Sire de Lanferelle. Cornwell has been here before and it shows. If you want a lengthy description of a medieval battle with little attention wasted on character or plot, this is the book for you.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Cornwell's Hundred Years' War,
By
This review is from: Azincourt (Hardcover)
Very good retelling of the events leading up to the battle of Azincourt. This was one of the two surprisingly similar great victories won by the English over the French (the other was Crecy in the previous century) during that long and intermittent war. Despite these two battles, the English lost most of their French territories soon after Azincourt, when firearms made both knightly armour and longbows obsolete.Bernard Cornwell produces another of his polished stories. Despite the formulaic nature of his work, noted above, it nonetheless remains effective. Yes, some of the characters are stock. Yes, hunger, wounds, and disease are the same in the fifteenth century as the nineteenth, and are the main enemies of the soldier. Yes, soldiers are soldiers in every century. But these are truths, and don't diminish Cornwell's ability to tell a gripping story. Perfect reading on a plane, at the cottage, or at the doctor's office.
4.0 out of 5 stars
So why do the French hate the English?,
This review is from: Azincourt (Paperback)
The English laid waste to French soil and people for 100 years around the period covered by this book. It influences Anglo/French relations to the present day. B.C. has given us a snapshot of these treacherous times in his engaging hitorical fiction novel. Its one of those compelling yarns where you come out feeling like you know a bit more than you went in with. I love that feeling.Shakespeare fans will enjoy a very light read which adds more actual history to the story of King Harry and the battle of Agincourt.
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