This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading. The Emperor Napoleon fondly said of Etienne Gerard "that if he has the thickest head he has also the stoutest heart in my army." This description accurately captures the self-described hero of eighteen gem-like short stories produced by Arthur Conan Doyle. Brigadier Gerard, a bombastic, heroic gascon hussar, doer of many improbable deeds, was an unimaginative man of small intellect, but brave and resourceful in a crisis. The shadow of Sherlock Holmes has for too long deprived the Gerard tales of their rightful place among the finest short historical fiction of their time

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