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Rating: 
Summary: Essential Introduction
Review: Eminent Victorian Soldiers is the perfect book for anyone interested in the British Officer class during Queen Victoria's reign. These generals were a quirky bunch, who ranged from coolly competent to tragically confident. The more famous soldiers, like Gordon, are given brief, but complete, biographies. But the real prize is the less famous soldiers, like Wood, are brought to light. This is done in a simple, while at the same time very informative, style. All of the soldiers are shown in their good and bad points, but most of all, they are shown as what they truly were: products of their times.
Rating: 
Summary: Non-technical and readable
Review: No footnotes, and all based on secondary research, but this book I found fun to read. The accounts of the 8 generals profiled are consistently interesting and this book makes for good light reading
Rating: 
Summary: The Victorian Empire Builders
Review: This compendium biography presents a fine sketch of the eight prominent Victorian generals who commanded during the Little Wars of Queen Victoria. The often respressed and somewhat bizarre characteristics of these men seems typical of the Victorian mind-set. While they were certainly eccentric, these men personified the times they lived in and in their actions pursued the notion of the White Man's burden to civilize the dark regions of the world. In the politcially correct times that we live in today perhaps some of these notions will appear offensive, but in order to appreciate these man we must understand the times they lived in and try not to impose our own values upon them. Indeed, many Victorians would find our social values today strange to comprehend as well. Byron Farwell specializes in the Victorian military experience and his writtings on this topic are always witty and informative. The reader may find it surprising that homosexuality was present in several of these gentlemen, namely Charles Gordon and Hector Macdonald. Again, we can attribute this to the oddities of the age which repressed such feelings on the surface, thereby encouraging their lurkings behind the scenes. It is doubtful that any of them would have preferred to advertise their inclinations as seems to be the norm today. Homosexuality was more discreet then, and perhaps that was a good thing in a way.
The military life that these men pursued perhaps inclined them toward a different lifestyle as the compnay of women was often infrequent in far outposts. The talents of these generals certainly expanded the British Empire and made it one of the great epochs of its day. Farwell has provided a worthy addition to Lytton Strachey's earlier work, "Eminent Victorians". The reader will find all sorts of interesting and amusing aspects of these Eminent Victorian Generals.
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