Rifleman Dodd

by C.S. Forester

Book by C. S. Forester

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Military Fiction, War, Historical, Literature, Classics

151 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1933

About the author

Cecil Scott Forester was the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith, an English novelist who rose to fame with tales of adventure and military crusades. His most notable works were the 11-book Horatio Hornblower series, about naval warfare during the Napoleonic era, and The African Queen (1935; filmed in 1951 by John Huston). His novels A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours were jointly awarded the 1938 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.

Reviews

[Mr. Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rifleman Dodd was a short little book that was solidly OK. Written by the author of the excellent Hornblower series, I had high expectations. After reading the entire Sharpe series I wanted to get Forester's take on the Peninsular campaign. How would Cornwell's later volumes compare to Forester? (My understanding is that Cornwell wanted to write the land version of the Hornblower series.)

The comparison did not fare well ... for Forester. Rifleman Dodd is told from a curiously dispassionate perspective. The narration is almost clinical as it describes the lengths that Dodd goes to survive once he is cut off from the rest of his unit during an English retreat. His logic is cold and passionless as he lives off the land, occasionally receiving help from Portuguese guerrillas and occasionally harassing the French. Likewise, when the story turns to Sergeant Godinot on the French side, the narration remains passionless. It is terrible to say, but I cared little for either character. And that is a problem.

Ultimately an interesting read if you are into this genre of books. The lengths Dodd goes to survive and his drive to harass and confound the enemy doubtless explain why it is on the USMC's reading list (http://guides.grc.usmcu.edu/cprl-p) but not the best book for the casual reader. If you want to read a good historical fiction novel of the Peninsular campaign I highly recommend the Sharpe series by Cornwell.

A disappointed two stars out of five. I urge you to not make up your mind about the author based upon this review. The Hornblower books are fantastic.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

So enjoyed this book by CS Forester. Wish there was a series like the Hornblower series.

I know it was fiction, but what a great story. You really felt the characters and their stories were so real. It was all based on actual events and places at this point in history. The often reported and historical fact of the French soldiers cruelty and horrific punishment of local people who are just defending their country is portrayed so well. The bravery and suffering of ordinary people and soldiers on both sides is just so inspiring.

I knew the Spanish resistance did such a great job against Napoleons armies, but also reading the Portuguese resistance was just as fierce and damaging was so interesting.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic novel of self-reliance and military duty, also known by its British title "Death to the French!" It is the tale of Rifleman Dodd, a soldier of the 95th Regiment, who is separated from his unit and trapped behind enemy lines in Portugal during the bloody Penisular Wars. It's an excellent glimpse into the hardships of military life during the Napoleonic Wars, and to his credit, Forester also provides chapters describing the same experience from the perspective of the French units. He's not entirely unsympathetic to the French, which is no easy task given that they entered Spain as supposed allies and proceeded to loot, pillage, murder, and rape their way through the Spanish and Portuguese countryside. Yet they were also soldiers obeying orders, under the misgiven idea that the partisans would give up if sufficiently cowed with such brutal tactics (rather the reverse happened - Spanish and Portuguese partisans resisted the French with astonishing courage and determination). Additionally, Napoleon's armies were paid infrequently, if at all, and given no rations but meager hard tack. They were expected to forage from the countryside. Forester notes all this and is surprisingly objective in his descriptions of their conflicts and the havoc Dodd wreaks upon their efforts to conquer Portugal. The tale of Dodd's survival, his continued solo attacks on the French, his Portuguese allies and their eventual fate, is told in third-person narration with almost dispassionate clarity. Dodd is in mortal peril for nearly the entire book, but he does not for a moment consider whether he is frightened or unhappy. He merely focuses on survival and on destroying the French in any way possible. Eventually, after much hardship, he does prevail. A highly-recommended book for anyone interested in military history and particular the life of the individual soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. Incidentally, Rifleman Dood was an inspiration to Bernard Cornwell, whose hero Richard Sharpe joins the newly-formed 95th Rifles, and in fact Cornwell paid tribute to this classic in describing a "Matthew Dodd" who becomes separated from the unit in "Sharpe's Escape" - he confirmed that his Matthew Dodd is intended to be Rifleman Dodd from Forester's book, a bit of literary tribute from one author to another. Although I highly recommend this book, I will add that it may be primarily of interest to those who enjoy military history, as it can be rather grim in places, much more so that the Hornblower novels, but if you would like to learn about the life of a British infantry soldier fighting in the Penisular Wars, this may be the best fictional description ever written.

[Chrisl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Napoleonic warfare in Iberia. The people at Kirkus Reviews combined their review of this story and another multiple read favorite by Forester, "The Gun"

Copied from KIRKUS REVIEW

These two books -- neither of them known to any considerable American public-have a timeliness today that may give the impetus they need. For both deal with the sort of guerilla warfare Hemingway writes of in For Whom the Bell Tolls, Caldwell in All Through the Night. The Gun was published in July 1933, as an isolated bit of thinly fictionized history, an episode in the Spanish campaign of the Napoleonic Wars when guerilla bands, under the leadership of a patriotic priest, captured a gun and moved it over incredible barriers. Rifleman Dodd presents yet another panel in this guerilla warfare, against a Portuguese background, and another lone exploit, in which a rifleman, cut off from his company, joins forces with the guerillas, dodges the French while causing them countless inconveniences, and finally, almost single-handed, destroys a pontoon bridge. The irony of the outcome fortunately is known only to the reader -- while Dodd gets back to his men. Here, in pictures of scattered pinpricks in a war for world domination more than a century ago, are parallels which carry vitality today, parallels in mood and tempo and portraits of conquered peoples. Lacks the pace and gusto of Forester's Captain Hornblower."

(I don't agree with the reviewer about lacking the pace and gusto of Hornblower.)

[Jim Angstadt · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Death to the French", aka "Rifleman Dodd", is the story of a seasoned English military man, cut off from his unit, during the Peninsular War, circa 1810. Dodd skillfully evades the opposing French forces, and works with local Portuguese villagers to thwart French operations. Ultimately, Dodd wants to rejoin his unit in the vicinity of Lisbon.

Dodd is the prototypical military man; mission, duty, and self-sacrifice are his values. He inspires and guides locals to harrass and obstruct the French. We see Dodd take the step from understanding the situation and taking orders, to understanding the situation, figuering out what can be done, and then doing it. That's leadership. It's also a mostly one-dimensional view of the situation; Dodd does not dwell, or even think about, non-mission values, eg. family, friends, good living, intellectual interests, or the like. It's all mission! This ability to focus on mission is still, and will continue to be, of major importance during the training of military personnel.

Apparently, the Peninsular War saw the first use of "Guerrilla Warfare" [1]. Not having a convenient mode of operation to employ, Dodd determines what is needed in the situation. That's innovation.

Although this story is told mainly for the point of view of Rifleman Dodd, there is also the point of view of a squad of French. This makes for a more complete picture of what is happening and why. It also reinforces the idea of the dismal conditions that ordinary soldiers endured.

First published in 1932, the author also wrote the Horatio Hornblower series, The African Queen, and many other notable works [2]. Wikipedia has more on this story [3].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerril...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._F...
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_t...

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was short, but intense. Forester had become interested in the Peninsular War while in school, but he was interested in Spain itself as he covered the Spanish Civil War of the late 1930's. Matthew Dodd is the main character and the narrative is primarily seen from his eyes, though Forester, from time to time, interrupts to give a later perspective on the events that Dodd endures. And endure he does. I think that these events are taken from various accounts, diaries,and presumably Napier's history of the Peninsular War. One GR reviewer states that there is not much dialogue, which is true, because Dodd can speak very little Portuguese and the Portuguese no English; besides one does not talk much while behind enemy lines I would imagine and then only very much to the point of tactics. Forester presents Dodd as a man of tunnel vision in that he is not so concerned about the larger aspects of the war (which he could not have had information on--given the slowness and tenuousness of communications even between the generals even they did not always know what was going on in the territory let alone abroad), but necessarily focuses on 1. doing what damage to the French that he could and 2. getting back to his unit and finding out where it is and 3. finding food. In Dodd's situation we might recall Samuel Johnson's dictum "Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully."

The brutality of this war is brought out clearly by Forester. The book is suspenseful, as it is unclear whether Dodd will make it back to his unit or die in the attempt or make it back but mortally wounded/ill.

[David Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found a battered paperback of this while on holiday in The Algarve and while the holiday is largely forgotten (except for a superb Woodchat Shrike and some Azure-Winged Magpies) I’ve retained the image of Portuguese soldiers boiling their French captives alive in a massive cauldron - and Dodd eating raw horse liver. Yum.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

C.S. Forester is my focus author for March. I have enjoyed his Horatio Hornblower series very much and also many of his standalone novels. I want to concentrate on a few of his standalones, that I've not read, this month. Death to the French, originally published in 1933, is the first of these.

The novel is set during the Napoleonic wars, as is his Hornblower stories, in a setting very popular with Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series. The story is set in Portugal and we find Rifleman Matthew Dodd separated from his separated from his infantry regiment behind French lines. He must now fend for himself, trying to disrupt French activities and also try to get back to his regiment, which is hiding in the mountains with the rest of the English army.

Dodd will find allies in Portuguese citizens who are basically trying to survive the French atrocities; neither the French nor the Portuguese have food as the English have followed a bare earth policy to make the French suffer.

The story also follows a French Sgt. Godinot, in charge of a small group of recruits who have been sent to the front. Godinot must deal with Dodd's activities that slowly whittle down his men. In many ways it's a terrifying story. Death and starvation are the norm. The French are merciless and the Portuguese respond in kind.

It is a fascinating look at the history of this war, even in its small sampling of the people involved. Dodd is a reliable, imaginative soldier and uses his wits to survive and disrupt the French activities. At the same time the story is a grim reminder of the destructive capabilities of war, especially to the civilians who suffer the most. And I don't think it matters what war in what century, war is vicious. Still an excellent read and well - written and described by Forester. (3 stars)

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read under title Rifleman Dodd. This exact edition is not listed. Good story and I can see why it's on U.S. Marine Corps reading list for the survival tactics and Dodd's gung-ho attitude.

Written a few years before Forester's Hornblower novels, this one tells of a farm boy turned rifleman in the English 95th Regiment. A doughty sharpshooter, Dodd is trapped behind enemy lines and the story details his attempts to reach the English lines, with help from Portuguese irregulars and still fighting the French, killing them if necessary. One big scene has him sabotaging by arson the French attempt to build a pontoon bridge across a river. I liked how Dodd used his wits and native common sense to survive in the wild for so long and finally did make it back to his regiment. Too bad the English were underwhelmed by his appearance and exploits.

This was a very exciting story, but all the characters seemed a bit distant. I liked how the novel moved back and forth from Dodd's point of view to that of a group of French soldiers. Sometimes the same incident was told from each viewpoint--e.g., the arson incident. Recommended.

[John Eliot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting...the title of my copy is 'Death to the French'. Maybe not politically correct in 1990. My edition is based on the original published in 1933, my edition being 1956. (Perhaps De Gaulle saw it in a bookshop and that was why he vetoed our entry in the Common Market!)
This belongs to a certain genre for a particular reader. Certainly those who love the work of Forester, who was one of the great authors of adventure literature in the 20th century.
Substitute Hornblower for Dodd who is trapped behind enemy lines during the Napoleonic wars and you have the 'missing ' Hornblower book.

[Luis Bernardino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hoje em dia um livro não poderia ter um título deste, ou então havia uma data de publicações nas redes sociais a convocar manifestações contra o autor.
Porém o título tem toda a justificação, pois o livro relata um episódio da 3ª invasão francesa a Portugal.
O relato acompanha um atirador inglês que se junta aos guerrilheiros portugueses para fazer uma guerra de vingança de um povo martirizado por mais uma guerra que se viria a tornar no começo da derrocada do todo poderoso exército francês.
Não deixa de ser curioso que o escritor britânico, escolha o meu nome (Bernardino) para uma das principais personagens secundárias.
A escrita prende a atenção, muito dinâmica principalmente nas cenas de acção e espelha bem que na guerra vale tudo e tudo é possível.
Um livro a ler para quem é fã deste tipo de literatura.

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you ever wanted to read a "pro-war" book, then I'd recommend this. It's easy to imagine the well described landscapes and the questionable morality of the story is interesting to ponder.

[Daniel Rowan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wasn’t sure where this book was going, waste of time, and money in my opinion

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There was sorrow in Dodd's heart as he looked down on the pitiful scene, but it did not prevent him from turning away and setting himself to survey the next adventurous quarter of a mile of his route. There are many who give up, and many who procrastinate, but there are some who go on."


C.S. Forester is best known for his Horatio Hornblower stories, naval adventures set in the Napoleonic Wars. These two short works, The Gun and Rifleman Dodd, are less known but equally entertaining and detailed. Both are set in Napoleonic Iberia, as both a peasant resistance and the shattered remnants of the old Bourbon Army fight for Spain and Portugal's liberty from Napoleon, with the generous support of English seapower and the Duke of Wellington.

The first story, The Gun, follows an eighteen pound siege gun which abandoned on the field after a crushing Spanish defeat, but recovered by a priest and a few farmers, The gun passes from hand, as many realize its incredible potential and attempt to shift it to the best place -- and those who particularly value it seize it by force. It does get put into action, however, fomenting rebellion on the plains and sending the French into retreat for the first time.

Rifleman Dodd pieces together the adventure of the eponymous rifleman after he is cut off from a retreat, and lost behind enemy lines. A hard-worn veteran of five campaigns, Dodd knows how to soldier and stay alive, and so when he encounters a group of Portuguese irregulars, he becomes their leader and becomes a phantom menace to the French, who are haunted by visions of a green Englishmen. Even as they methodically begin sweeping and scouring the hills to destroy his hiding places, Dodd and a couple of survivors -- and finally, Dodd alone -- endeavor to put flames to Bonaparte's plans.

Although a sketch of their plots gives both of these novels an air of romantic air, they're not fanciful in the least. Forester does not shy from the brutal behavior of both parties, French and irregulars, as they fight tooth and claw with one another. Forester also does not reduce the French to a distant enemy: in Rifleman Dodd, he tells their story in alternate chapters, and every person Dodd kills is named as he falls. There's no denying the adventurous drama of the last bit of Rifleman Dodd, however, as he beards the French lion in its den. Good stuff!

As a bit of trivia, Bernard Cornwell mentions a missing rifleman named Dodd in one of his Sharpe novels, also set in Spain. This is a deliberate reference to Rifleman Dodd, and one of Cornwell's stories about becoming a writer involves trying to find more stories like Dodd, and then realizing he'd have to write them himself. Three cheers, then, for Rifleman Dodd, which was not only a great little story by itself, but one that gave us the force of nature that is Sharpe.

Rifleman Dodd was originally known as Death to the French. I speculated that the title was changed after the outbreak of World War 2, but Rifleman Dodd seems to have just been the American title.

[Dennis Steussy · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have read any of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe novels, you will see that this book covers some
similar history. Both Death to the French and the Sharpe novels cover the lives of English Riflemen during the early 1800s while fighting the French in Portugal and Spain. Sharpe and Matthew Dodd in this both are riflemen in the 96th Rifleman Infantry. This book focuses on the exploits of Rifleman Dodd as he tries to get back to his regiment after being caught off during a retreat of the British
Army in Portugal. I think C.S. Forester writes in more detail about the daily life of Rifleman Dodd than you read in Cornwell's Sharpe books. This may or may not be the liking of some other people who have read this book. This book is a little graphic at times, but I think both sets of books really give you the feel for what the infantry soldier was going through during this period of war. In the Sharpe novels, you have added factor that Richard Sharpe wishes to become an officer, wherein this novel, you find Matthew Dodd only wants to be an infantry soldier and return to his regiment and his friends. This novel gives you a look at the perspectives of being a French infantry soldier and how the Portugese partisans felt being involved in this war and how they were treated by the French army. The Portugese partisans in this book aren't displayed as noble as you find in the Sharpe novels. So one of the faults, I found in this book wasn't as true as I think it could be to the reader. If you want to read a book of action and get a better understanding of the thinking of the British rifleman, then I think this book and the Sharpe novels accomplish this task very well.

[Chris Wray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rifleman Dodd is a straightforward story; the titular character is cut off from his unit and has to draw on his soldierly skills and instincts to survive, and to continue to take the fight to the French. In some ways, this is very similar to another Forester novel, Brown on Resolution, with the main difference being that while Brown knows he is ultimately doomed, Dodd is motivated by a strong desire to rejoin his unit.

One curious aspect of this book is how dispassionate, almost clinical, the storytelling is. The conditions Dodd finds himself in are often squalid and disgusting, and the backdrop is a marauding French army that is barely under discipline and which inflicts every atrocity imaginable on the local population. Amid all this horror, Dodd himself remains largely unmoved, and we see very little evidence of his inner emotional life. This may well be Forester's way of portraying a stolid, unimaginative and uneducated Rifleman, but it certainly strikes the modern reader as slightly odd. Ultimately, I came to admire Dodd both for his sheer bloody-minded determination and his almost obsessive focus on duty and mission. The fact that he is not tortured by doubt and inner turmoil makes him a more enigmatic character, and on balance, the book is all the better for it. This may be one of Forester's lesser-known works, but it is still a well-written, interesting and entertaining story.

[Mr S N Vaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Old Friend

I first read this book, probably back in the 1970s as a young teenager. I thoroughly enjoyed it then. Returning to it 50 or so years later I read it with greater understanding of the history and of human nature. Also having a son who until recently a soldier, with greater understanding of things military. He even did some training at Shornecliffe.

I loved reading it again. I found myself drawn into the storyline and genuinely felt empathy and sympathy with the characters of all nations, but particularly with Dodd.

At the end I actually had a tear in my eye and was genuinely sad to have finished reading it.

I would thoroughly recommend this read to anyone who enjoys stories of derring do with a military theme.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rifleman Dodd becomes separated from his company while fighting the French in Spain. (The book's original title was "Death to the French.") He falls in with a small band of guerrillas and fights his way back to the 95th Rifles. The account makes a nice short novel (and is bound with another from the same period, "The Gun"). Dodd could easily be one of Richard Sharpe's riflemen (see the great series by Bernard Cornwell), so the book appeals to my interest in the 95th. Forester wrote another book ("Brown on Resolution") about the ability of a single man to continue fighting the enemy, similarly rooted in the WWII miieu in which Forester wrote.

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great short novel by Forester following the adventures of a rifleman in Wellington's army in Portugal. Dodd is separated from the British force and has to work his way back to the army through French-held territory. Unaccustomed to personal heroics, he still manages to cause a good deal of damage to the French. Well-written, historically informed and good fun. Similar to Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe, but more literate and less melodramatic. Recommended.

[Chris Purser · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can see where Bernard Cornwall (Sharpe) got his idea for Sharpe. This is a good story written by the author of Hornblower fame. This time instead of naval battles on the high sea, this is set on land in Portugal with a member of the British Rifles separated from his Regiment and forced to work with Portuguese bushwackers against the French insurgents.

[Stuart Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the Peninsular Campaign a British soldier is cut off from his regiment and has to survive behind enemy lines. He is Rifleman Dodd of the 95th, one of the King's Greenies, Sharpe's Regiment. What follows is the story of a fighting man determined to return to his group, using all the knowledge and skill taught him by the Army to make his way home while avoiding capture and discomfiting the enemy whenever possible.

This book is required reading in many military academies. Dodd uses sound tactics and judgement in a difficult situation. He uses the material available to him, including civilians, to accomplish his aims. He does not overstep, he does not give up. He is the perfect fighting soldier, dedicated to his duty and nothing else, Command's ideal automaton.

Dodd really is an automaton. The world has been at war for 90% of his life, the life of a soldier is the only proper place for a man of his age. Anything else is unthinkable. Exactly like Kurt Russell in "Soldier". The French soldiers, on the other hand, are humans. They have friends, they make jokes, they are angry or sad when someone dies, they worry about what they are going to say to the dead men's families when they go home, they doubt their superiors.

It's both a textbook on dedication to duty above all else and pejorative critique of war in general. From the military standpoint Dodd is the epitome of a proper infantryman, able to improvise, adapt, overcome. From the civilian outlook he is an indoctrinated killing machine, while the poor French are starving and just want to go home. When they're not torturing and/or raping Portuguese. The Portuguese might as well be some aboriginal tribe of the African jungle. They speak no discernable language, they practice unspeakable acts on prisoners, they prance about like children. When they die nobody much cares. Forester's message: In the end War makes animals of everybody involved.

[Tim Schneider · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book by Forester that I've read. It won't be the last because I have the Hornblower books coming up, along with a few of his other stand-alones. All I can say is that I hope they're better.

Matthew Dodd is a private soldier in the 95th Regiment of Foot (The Rifle Brigade) in the Peninsular Wars. This particular tale centers around the fighting at the Lines of Torres Vedras during the Invasion of Portugal. Dodd is cut off from his brigade during the British retreat to Lisbon and finds himself behind French lines. He tries to find his way back to the British lines and spends time fighting a guerilla action along with Portuguese irregulars. Ultimately, as history will tell us, the French retreat from Portugal and the entire peninsula.

I didn't hate this book. I also didn't love it. It is very much of another time. It feels a bit like a "boys own adventure" book, but there's enough violence and more than enough hints at the fate of Portuguese women who fell in to French hands to keep it from being a juvenile. But Dodd is all duty and really nothing else. We get no indication that he, or any of his companions, or any of his adversaries, have any thoughts or feeling beyond hunger and war. The story is told in the third-person, so it's not as if we have a stoic self-narration. It appears that Forester simply has no interest in making any of his characters anything but cardboard cutouts in wargames. It also adds to the issue that the book has complete contempt for the Portuguese people, at that point Britain's longest and most steadfast ally. So what you get is a very dated, very colonial book, that is a fairly interesting adventure story and little else.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

C.S. Forester.

A name that is probably more familiar - perhaps even all but synonymous - with his most famous literary creation, Horatio Hornblower.

Hornblower, however, is not the only of his creations that has their adventures set during the Napoleonic Wars: Rifleman Dodd is another.

He's also one that I was totally unfamiliar with, or with the fact that this creation (and story) inspired Bernard Cornwell's still-ongoing 'Sharpe' series - it's very easy, reading this, to see the similarities between the two creations!

This is set in Spain, round about the times of the Lines of Torres Vedras (1810 or thereabouts, I think), with Rifleman Dodd cut off from his company during a retreat and forced to spend several months behind enemy (French) lines as he tries to make his was back to his own company, sometimes with the (dubious) aid of Spanish (or was it Portuguese? ) Guerilla's and other times entirely on his own.

This also doesn't shy away from the full horrors of the war, with several of the passages and chapters told from the French point of view.

[Christopher Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read a lot of Forester's non-Hornblower work and it varies from the superb to the okay, which unfortunately is where this book ends up. It could have been a lot better, but the main character Dodd is almost a nonentity, you know virtually nothing of what he thinks and he says almost nothing through the whole book. Everything about him is written as a distant outsider would view events, rather than from his perspective or even someone close to him. It feels more like a dry documentary than a story.

Oddly, the scene shifts to the French or the British troops feel more personal and involved, with characters you come to appreciate and like, but it goes back to the detached, distant POV again when you go back to Dodd.

Other than that, its a wonderful overview of the British retreat to Portugal and how it was fortified, and what the French went through in attempting to break through to attack. In fact, as a reader I got the impression that rather than being the main character, Dodd was a device to show what the French were doing, and they were the main character.

This was, supposedly, one of the inspirations for Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe books, and I can see how.

[David Booth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cracking story that rattles along from start to finish. One or two reviewers lamented the lack of other dimensions to Dodd forgetting that he is stranded in a Country of which he knows very little, no knowledge of Portuguese, functionally illiterate, trained simply to march, obey orders, fight, look after his rifle, eat and s**t. What would your priorities be if you were in his position? Great play is made of the French army’s beastly treatment of the Portuguese hinting at the fairer treatment dished out by the British Army. It’s well recorded where the British forces occasionally blotted their copybook. But it’s also recorded that the ethos of the British Army was merciless towards soldiers caught looting, raping, and drunkenness. Wellington would hang a dozen mistreatments before breakfast without batting an eyelid. Great story simply and honestly told.

[Paul Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before Sharpe, there was Rifleman Matthew Dodd

I really enjoyed this book. The juxtaposition between Dodd and the French troops he harassed on his way back to joining his regiment, makes for an exciting and sometimes very sad story line. What was a real eye opener for me, was just how miserable the Portuguese and the French soldiers had it back then and the atrocities they would carry out towards each other. There are strong comparisons to the Sharpe series, but both are uniquely different characters. Sharpe is a rogue, well meaning, but sometimes brutal in obtaining his end goal, whilst Dodd is by the book, a stickler for doing his duty. But if you enjoy the Sharpe series, you might very well enjoy this book, as I did.

[John Long · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspiring tale of a brave, resourceful soldier

The author is better known for his tales of naval warfare, but Forester here shows his appreciation for the common soldier. Most Americans would be unfamiliar with the Napoleonic Peninsular Campaign, but the setting is a good one for showing both the barbarity of war as well as the deprivations it brings on the surrounding area. Dodd is an English scout, cut off from his retreating army, trying to find a way around the French troops blocking him. He then finds himself alone and has to discover how to continue the fight while looking for scarce food, shelter, etc. This fictional account is an enjoyable read.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this while I was at 29 Palms in 2010 (I wrote a review that may still be on Facebook somewhere, perhaps I'll copy it over). I think it was humorously bad, and it's perhaps more modern than one might expect based on its tone.
I think the xenophobia was particularly off-putting (or hilarious, depending on mood), which is nowhere better seen than the last scene of the book. The fact that I still remember that scene 7 years later is telling.

Also, I like to say: any book that uses the word 'highfalutin' unselfconsciously is itself highfalutin.

[James MacNaughton · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is well enough written that I would have finished it regardless, but the reason for three stars is that it is very heavily subtexted with commitment dogma. Chapters will go by quite enjoyably, and then the author waxes eloquent on the virtues of blind commitment, duty, and how good soldiers focus solely on their mission regardless of scenario. This could have been easily addressed through discussing Dodd's actions or thoughts, rather than by pounding the reader on the head with deus ex machina.

[John T · Rating 4 out of 5]

The novel is an absorbing and candid account of the adventures of an English soldier fighting in the Peninsular War. He becomes detached from his regiment and has to somehow survive a bleak Portuguese winter whilst under threat of attack from the French. Dodd rises to the challenge and succeeds in harassing the occupying forces despite the dangers involved. The story is also told from the perspective of the French side. The style is eminently readable and engrossing. The basic struggle to simply survive is a major theme and is vividly portrayed, as is the horror of war.