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Rating: 
Summary: Very enjoyable reading.
Review: Blaze has a wonderful story telling style.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring trivia
Review: I also have Elting's translation, which is better than Napier's, but the question that comes to mind is why did Elting bother to translate this rambling, disjointed and trivial work, when a translation already existed? Blaze's banter and anecdotes often refer to periods prior to 1789. In all the work there is but one interesting uniform detail: captains & field officers of the Young Guard flanker regiments wore their former blue Old Guard uniforms while the rest wore green. I would go into more detail but my 1,000 word review seems to be limited to 1,000 letters.
Rating: 
Summary: La Vie Militaire
Review: This is one of the best memoirs of the Napoleonic period. It is lively, interesting, packed full of information by an officer who had service on the staff as well as on the line. Blaze saw and did a lot. His stories ring true, especially if yu've been in the service for over twenty minutes. His personality sketches are riveting, having seen both Davout and Dorsenne, among others, and he is blunt, factual, and wonderfully descriptive. This book is a definite must for any enthusiast or historian. I would recommend, however, the edition translated by Colonel John Elting, as it is more complete, and edited much better, as well as having explanations for the military slang of the period which is hard to translate. Additionally, Colonel Elting unearthed some new information on Blaze himself which is very eye-opening. All in all a very enjoyable book, and a great help in understanding the men, and women, who followed the Grande Armee and its terrible Emperor to fight the kings across the length and breadth of Europe.
Rating:
Summary: La Vie Militaire
Review: This is one of the best memoirs of the Napoleonic period. It is lively, interesting, packed full of information by an officer who had service on the staff as well as on the line. Blaze saw and did a lot. His stories ring true, especially if yu've been in the service for over twenty minutes. His personality sketches are riveting, having seen both Davout and Dorsenne, among others, and he is blunt, factual, and wonderfully descriptive. This book is a definite must for any enthusiast or historian. I would recommend, however, the edition translated by Colonel John Elting, as it is more complete, and edited much better, as well as having explanations for the military slang of the period which is hard to translate. Additionally, Colonel Elting unearthed some new information on Blaze himself which is very eye-opening. All in all a very enjoyable book, and a great help in understanding the men, and women, who followed the Grande Armee and its terrible Emperor to fight the kings across the length and breadth of Europe.
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