An Infamous Army (Hardcover)

For confirmed Heyer fans this novel is the conclusion of two series. It winds up the affairs of the Dukes of Avon who we have read about through The Black Moth, These Old Shades, and Devil's Cub. And the affairs of the Earl of Worth's younger brother, first introduced to us in Regency Buck. An Infamous Army is the last time Heyer wrote a sequel. The book is immaculately researched and comes with a formidable bibliography of sources used. As Heyer was also best friends with Carola Oman, whose father Charles wrote one of the seminal works of the Peninsular War and Waterloo, she had impeccable sources at hand for this book.

Many people might be put off by the long battle descriptions of Waterloo towards the end of thestory, if you aren't interested in military history then much of the detail can be fast forwarded through - although bear in mind that Sandhurst, that most British of officer training instituions has used Heyer's book as a study piece for this battle. This is no light-weight rehashing of the facts.

I find myself torn by the this book. It is very good, and the story of Charles and Lady Barbara gripping - but the mix of the two styles - Historical battle description and fictional romance just doesn't work well for me. I find that I compare this book with MM Kaye's novel, The Far Pavillion's in which there is a long description of the seige at Kabul . I skim over that section whenever I re-read it - but you can't skim them completely, you see both books have two of the saddest events tucked away in the middle of the battle scence. Scenes which make me howl with tears each time I read them. In Kaye it is the death of Wally, in An Infamous Army there is an equally gut-wrenching death - but I won't tell you because it might spoil the book for you. Heyer deals with the event so well, it is stripped of pathos and false emotion.

An Infamous Army was written in 1937, and shows all the strengths and weaknesses of Heyer's style. Her incredible attention to detail, her ability to blend various sources into a gripping story, and yet while the book is very good, it struggles between its desire to be a serious attempt to represent the battle of Waterloo, and its need to be a romantic novel.

I find this conflict apparent in most of Heyer's Historic novels (Spanish Bride, Great Roxhythe, The Conqueror) It was really only her second to last attempt at a Historical novel, the following year, 1938, that I think she finally cracked the code. Royal escape sticks closely to the detail, and doesn't try to interweave too many fictional elements into it. In Spanish Bride, her last historical, a story of Harry and Juana Smith on the Peninsular, again I feel she suffers from historical detail overwhelming the story.

Finally, I have always assumed that the character of Charles Audley is based on John Kincaid whose two memoirs - Adventures in the Rifle Brigade and Random Shots, Heyer used as sources for this book. Their natures, good-humour and general character are so similar. It is interesting that in An Infamous Army she has the two characters meeting up.

If you do enjoy this book, then John Kincaid's two books have been republished and are available through Amazon - they are well worth reading and I think he is the best author to start reading - he is such good fun