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Tides of War

by Stella Tillyard
Holt. Nov. 2011. c.384p. ISBN 9780805094572. $26. F
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The Napoleonic Wars were not only a time of great military and political turmoil, but a period of social and economic upheaval as well, brilliantly explored in this novel of the Peninsular War (1807–14) in Spain through the eyes of the soldiers who fought it (seasoned Major Yallop, dashing Captain Raven, his batman Thomas Order, and Wellington himself) and the women they left behind (phlegmatic Dorothy Yallop, new bride Harriet Raven, and Kitty, the oft-ignored Lady Wellington). As the men storm the walls of Badajoz and are feted and courted in a liberated Madrid, the women, making the most of their chance at independence, take charge of their financial futures and make new friendships that both empower and enlighten them. In short, war is as transformative for those who remain at home as for those who fight it, and historian Tillyard (A Royal Affair; Aristocrats), making her fiction debut, does a superb job of portraying those transformations with deft, economical prose and metaphors that are as instructive as they are descriptive. VERDICT This sophisticated, unusual portrait of Regency society will appeal to all readers of historical fiction, especially admirers of Bernard Cornwell. [See Prepub Alert, 5/9/11.]—Cynthia Johnson, Cary Memorial Lib., Lexington, MA
The Napoleonic Wars were not only a time of great military and political turmoil, but a period of social and economic upheaval as well, brilliantly explored in this novel of the Peninsular War (1807–14) in Spain through the eyes of the soldiers who fought it (seasoned Major Yallop, dashing Captain Raven, his batman Thomas Order, and Wellington himself) and the women they left behind (phlegmatic Dorothy Yallop, new bride Harriet Raven, and Kitty, the oft-ignored Lady Wellington). As the men storm the walls of Badajoz and are feted and courted in a liberated Madrid, the women, making the most of their chance at independence, take charge of their financial futures and make new friendships that both empower and enlighten them. In short, war is as transformative for those who remain at home as for those who fight it, and historian Tillyard (A Royal Affair; Aristocrats), making her fiction debut, does a superb job of portraying those transformations with deft, economical prose and metaphors that are as instructive as they are descriptive.
VERDICT This sophisticated, unusual portrait of Regency society will appeal to all readers of historical fiction, especially admirers of Bernard Cornwell. [See Prepub Alert, 5/9/11.]—Cynthia Johnson, Cary Memorial Lib., Lexington, MA
Reviewed by Cynthia Johnson , Sep 01, 2011
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