In the Service of the Tsar Against Napoleon: The Memoirs of Denis Davidov, 1806-1814
Before World War II, it was the campaign to expel Napoleon from Russia in 1812 that was deemed the great patriotic struggle in Russian history. Troubetzkoy, a Florida resident, has written extensively on the Napoleonic wars. In editing the memoirs of Davidov, he provides an invaluable view of some critical campaigns from a Russian perspective. Davidov served as a partisan during the 1812 campaign, and his memoirs are characterized by a chilling intensity that fully conveys the savagery of the fighting. While his observations are inevitably one-sided and occasionally self-serving, they still display a deep understanding of the irony and even futility of war. This is a deeply stirring account of one man's experiences during one of the most important epochs in European history.Jay Freeman