Customer Reviews

Nelson and the Nile: The Naval War Against Bonaparte, 1798

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This single volume combines the story of Nelson's hamstringing of Bonaparte's Egyptian and Middle Eastern ambitions with a lively overview of the mechanics and organisation of naval power at the apogee of the age of sail. The narrative shifts rapidly between the French and British viewpoints and the technical, sociological and organisational interpolations never interrupt the flow. The tension builds up rapidly as the ramshackle French task-force heads south and east, occupying Malta on the way, and as Nelson's squadron gropes to find it, encountering near disaster off Sardinia. Correctly guessing Egypt as the French destination Nelson then heads east - but chance and mischance ensure that Bonaparte will have landed his forces and conquered Egypt before the French fleet is trapped by Nelson at its Aboukir anchorage. The description of the battle is both exciting and terrifying, and the close insights that Lavery has previously given into the characters of the individual captains as well as admirals make the reader identify closely with those involved. The idealogical differences between the protagonists run as an important, but never explicit, subtext and the contrast between French improvisation and the ruthless professionalism of the British add an extra dimension. This is history in the grand narrative tradition and it reads as easily, and as enjoyably, as the naval novels of Forrester, kent and O'Brien. A splendid read - highly recommended.

"Nelson and the Nile" is something of a departure for Brian Lavery. He is best known for his superb books on the design and development of sailing warships and as the author of "Nelson's Navy", an excellent survey of the ships and men of the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. With "Nelson and the Nile", however, Lavery has produced a history of a single naval campaign, which ended in Horatio Nelson's great victory over a French fleet at the Battle of the Nile in 1798. He describes this battle as having a greater importance than the better-known Trafalgar, concluding that the Battle of the Nile irrevocably killed the new French Navy which was struggling to emerge from the destruction of the French Revolution. It was the Nile which made Trafalgar inevitable. Lavery fills the pages with vivid character sketches, exciting description of dramatic events, and rich details which create a wonderful sense of place and time. This is how narrative history should be written, as exciting and compelling as a novel. I imagine that naval fiction enthusiasts, such as the avid fans of Patrick O'Brian's novels, would relish "Nelson and the Nile".

This proves to be a highly readable and well searched book on the Nile Campaign of the summer of 1798 where British admiral Sir Horatio Nelson hunted down Napoleon's French fleet and defeated it. Nelson remains the main subject of the book but the author didn't skimp on the other major characters of the campaign as well as putting his massive technical knowledge of Nelsonian navy into the context of the book and campaign. One of the more interesting elements of the book was how the author compared the activities and motives of the two major players of this campaign, Nelson and Napoleon.

I thought the book gave a very complete coverage of the entire naval campaign, told expertly by a naval expert. The author armed the book with many illstrations and maps that make reading and understanding the campaign that much easier. I thought it was one of the better books written about the campaign.

Lavery's book is a comprehensive and well-balanced account of the events leading up to and following the Battle of the Nile in 1798. As well as covering both British and French points of view, Lavery refreshingly focuses some attention on personalities other than Nelson, without neglecting the great admiral himself. My only complaint is the number of unnecessary typos; too many authors rely on their spellchecker to proofread. Lavery's other books are also must-reads for anyone interested in the navies of the Napoleonic War.

I enjoyed this book because it contained a even distribution of all elements involved in the story of this historical battle. Even though Admiral Nelson was main focus of the text, other charcters (miliatry as well as civilian) were not over shadowed. The description of the historical sites and maps were fairly good, but the auther's attempt to provide original maps (mostly from French sources) made reading them difficult for those not familiar with the language. Also the print is very small on some of the maps and required using magnifying glass. However, the prints of the paintings (mostly of the ships and harbors) provided are quite breathtaking. The text requires some basic familiarity with naval terms of the age of sail for the sake of fluid reading. The battle description are very good supplemented by diagrams and it provides a excellent survey on tactics, weaponry, and overall structure and operation of the warships of the time period. Overall, I recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of the age of sail.

This is a splendid book in every way. The author has written knowledgeably and comprehensively on this period of naval history before and brings many perceptive insights to this work. His inclusion of information such as the 70 acres of woodland required to construct a 74-gun ship of the line, the 25 miles of rope needed to rig her, and the fact that in 1798 Naples was the second largest city in Europe add immeasurably to the reader's enjoyment and understanding. The details never overwhelm the narrative, however. Mr. Lavery sets the stage well in the opening chapters and then treats the reader to a vivid account of Nelson's pursuit of Napoleon across the Mediterranean.

In an age of satellite reconnaissance, it is difficult for readers to appreciate the problem of finding the enemy fleet 200 years ago or the length of time it took to relay news of the victory. The author provides the perspective to understand these issues from the point of view of those who actually experienced them. This is the story of Nelson's first triumph as a commander in a major fleet action -- even if it was thought of as a "squadron" at the time. We see the Royal Navy's finest fighting admiral at his best and later in less distinguished moments when the author candidly records some serious errors of judgment.

Finally, a word should also be said about the quality of the printing. This is another of the excellent Caxton Editions. The paintings, drawings, and maps are all superb and make this book a worthy addition to any library.