An Infamous Army: A Novel of Wellington, Waterloo, Love and War
This must be the most accurately researched and detailed battle  description that has ever appeared in a book of romantic  fiction. The battle itself, and the weeks before and after it,  forms the time line and backbone of this novel. The title refers  to the Duke of Wellington's unkind nickname for the motley  collection of national armies under his command in 1815 at  Waterloo. Set in Brussels, as the French and Allied forces are  converging, Heyer's story concerns the stormy courtship between  Lady Barbara Childe and Col. Charles Audley. Lady Barbara,  forced into an unloving and ugly marriage in her youth, has  buried her hated husband and become a scandalous widow. Colonel  Audley is a popular member of the Duke of Wellington's staff who  knows the wicked widow's reputation but falls for her anyway;  after their first meeting, he proposes marriage. Lady Barbara,  fascinated by this direct attack on her defenses, consents to an  engagement but refuses to restrain her shocking behavior. The  Battle of Waterloo in all its glorious and horrifying detail  then becomes the center around which the book's characters  orbit. Definitely a romance for the historically minded reader,  there is no fluff here. As the conflict rages, Lady Barbara  helps to nurse the wounded men who wander back into the city,  learning much about life, death, and love in the process. No  magical happy endings occur, just the contentment of two people  who have grown into their love for one another. Well read by  Clare Higgins, An Infamous Army is highly recommended for public  libraries. Barbara Rhodes, Northeast Texas Lib. Syst., GarlandCopyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.