9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
FASCINATING, February 13, 2000
I've never been fascinated by the Revolutionary War, being content with a sketchy high school history and mental images of the Minutemen at Lexington, Washington at Valley Forge, and Cornwallis at Yorktown. Some latent interest in the wild card of the war--Benedict Arnold--prompted me to pick up DARK EAGLE from the shelf. Glad I did!
Beginning with the known facts of the life of Arnold and his peers, Harr has woven a lively portrait of a tactical genius and future traitor into a colorful narrative of the crucial war years. We get to see the man and his conflicts from many viewpoints, including that of his young second wife, his superior officers, even his British adversaries. I also found the converging story of young Major John Andre to be an engaging, though tragic, story in itself. All in all, a rewarding read for buffs - and semibuffs like myself.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another Look at a Once Great American., December 14, 2000
No doubt the case of Benedict Arnold gets short shrift in most elemental high school text books. As a result, Arnold is seen as a murky figure (Dark Eagle?) who betrayed his country at the very moment of its birth in order to improve his own lot. This is a partial truth. In fact, Arnold was America's greatest fighting General throughout the early years of the Revolutionary War (as Washington was the greatest retreating General in that same conflict....no disrepect intended), and for multiple, purely political reasons dealing with the different states' insecurities, he was perhaps the least recognized. In fact, he financed his entire army, and never received adequate recognition or reimbursement from the Congress. In any event, the book makes a compelling case for Arnold. It is wonderfully written, hard to put down. The reader is mesmerized by the injustices done to General Arnold, and saddened by his ultimate treason. Brought sharply into focus are many other players on that stage, including Washington, Major John Andre and a host of mediocre Generals who were green with envy at Arnold's prowess. There is a reason for such books to be written: we must learn from our errors and see that they are not repeated.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Behold! The Power of the Amazon Recommendation..., January 14, 2002
This review is from: Dark Eagle: A Novel of Benedict Arnold and the American Revolution (Paperback)
I would say about two months ago when I visited Amazon.com to order a book to send to a friend of mine, a recommendation popped up. The recommendation was John Ensor Harr's "Dark Eagle." I must say that the recommendation was right on the nose.
Harr's novel is a masterpiece. In brilliant strokes he painted an accurate and even-handed portrait of the American Revolution and of that tragically reviled character, Benedict Arnold.
Tragically reviled is the term of art and is so because, unless you believe in historic inevitability, his fate did not have to turn out like it did. Harr's portrayal of Arnolds wrangling with the Continental Congress provides great insight into the role and function of that body. The awe and power of Congress' issuance of the Declaration of Independence belies the fact it was an extremely weak body with very little power. The book does well to portray the struggles between Congress and Genereal Washington, between Congress and its citizens, between the newly formed States and Congress, between General Washington and the States and finally, how all of those struggles were inter-related and formed the basis and antagonism for the struggle between Washington and the British. It is against this backdrop that citizens and soldiers like Benedict Arnold had to deal with the Continental Congress and, in the case of Arnold, makes it all the more understandable why he found such difficulty in dealing with Congress.
Second, Harr's portrayal of the Continental Army's Officer Staff provides another source for Benedict Arnold's tragic fall. For those who may wonder whether General Horatio Gates truly was the destructive force for the army that John Ensor Harr made him out to be, he was. His portrayal reminds me of a line from "The Patriot" (an enjoyable, but not truly accurate depiction of the American Revolution) when Mel Gibson asked cynically, "Where's your General Gates now?" after Gates' rout in Trenton.
The intellectual fulcrum of the book actually appears towards the end of the novel: (pg. 431)
Arnold: What do they call it [changing one's allegiance]
Peggy: It depends on who wins
Arnold: What do they call it until someone wins
Peggy: They call it treason.
"They call it treason." One should always bear in mind the fact that we all accept today the proposition as true that what occured upon American soil beginning in 1775 was a revolution fought by patriots. However, in 1779 the issue was not at all clear. Had the "revolution" failed; had Congress been captured and Washington's army defeated, those same patriots who drafted the Declaration of Independence would now be judged as traitors.
"Dark Eagle" is as much historical fiction as it is a good old fashion morality play and demands that the reader make the same hard choices that Benedict Arnold made and in so doing, allows the reader to truly judge Arnold.
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