Nelson : A Dream of Glory 1758 - 1797

Rating:
Summary: needs editing
Review: grammatical errors were distracting but then the authoritativeness of the text became an issue when i began to find mistakes evident to anyone with an interest in history and the sea. examples: pages 251-253. the idea of crossing the "line" (the equator not the tropic of cancer) is improbable as is the neptune ritual. a voyage from funchal +/- 33n to barbados +/-13n would not cross the equator. page 282. braddock's death and the french and indian war occurred in 1755 not 1775, just before the revolution.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: I really do recommend this new masterpiece. It covers only the first phase of Nelson's career, the rest (the glory years!) coming in a future volume. I'll get that one too, of course. This is history-writing of the very highest order. It is accurate, insightful and credible.

Rating:
Summary: The ultimate Nelson biography
Review: I'm amazed and thrilled by the depth of Sugden's research and the new insight into the life of this incredible man. Since the age of 11 or 12 I've been fascinated with Nelson and he's been a hobby and a passion of mine ever since. I believe I've read just about every book written about him and truly believed there was nothing left to say. Sugden has proved me wrong.

His research of previously ignored original sources (courts-martial transcripts, correspondence, logs, diaries, etc.) presents a 3-dimensional look at not just the man himself, but also of his world and people around him. Instead of mere names of fellow officers, shipmates, politicians and acquaintances who interacted with Nelson, the author has researched their backgrounds and lives also and they "jump" off the page as real people. He also puts Nelson's naval and world views into the context of the late 18th & early 19th centuries rather than looking at them retrospectively through the eyes of many modern authors. Cleverly, the author repeatedly refers to Nelson as just Horatio, further bring him to life as a real person...you begin to feel connected to him.

Sugden quickly lays to rest many of the myths that have surrounded Nelson for two centuries; however, this is not a "hatchet job" a la Terry Coleman, but a reasonable and rational examination of documented evidence to refute some of the "romanticized" legends. Nor is the book yet another hagiography of Nelson, rather it paints him as a sometimes rash, impetuous, politically rigid young officer, sometimes suffering severe bouts of depression, and not above "cooking the books" or, in one instance, flouting the authorities to facilitate the escape of an accused murderer. But it also presents him as a consummately professional naval officer, passionately patriotic, sincerely and devoutly religious, driven by honor, and deeply committed to his duty to his country and his men...sometimes to a fault. In it we begin to see the emergence of a natural-born leader of men and the seeds of the greatness that he was eventually to achieve.

This is not just a highly-researched and scholarly work, it is an extremely well-written book and an absolute "page turner". If you only read one book about Nelson, this should be it (and the 2nd volume of course).


Rating:
Summary: Rolls-Royce of Literature
Review: John Sugden's "Nelson" is one of the best books in its class; the only problem will be waiting another ten years for the second volume.

Rating:
Summary: a excellent biography of Nelson
Review: Sugden has written a supberb biography of Nelson that is destined to be an classic. According to Sugden, the main strengths of Nelson was his audacity and willingness to exploit the weaknesses of the French navy. Nelson displayed his audacity in storming forts in Central America and Corsica, stopping illegal trade in the Carribbean, and fighting the French navy. Nelson was also able to exploit the weaknesses of the French navy by aiming at their hulls, closing with the enemy, and abandoning the line. However, Sugden writes that Nelson's weaknesses was his constant search for glory that led to womanizing and allowing Prince George run amok while on his watch. I wish that Sugden would have included comments about Joel Hayward's work in this book, otherwise this books deserves to win the Pulitzer prize.

Rating:
Summary: Marvelous book........
Review: This book is marvelous. I savored it from front to back. Many biographies suffer from tedious boredom. Not this book. Lord Nelson was "the great man", and this book reveals how be reached England's highest station. My only disappointment is that it only covered the period up to 1797, and I am fearful it may be a long time waiting for the other half.

Rating:
Summary: Thrilling, detailed biography
Review: This is a very entertaining read, which feels at times as if you are reading a Patrick O'Brian or C.S. Forester novel. At the same time it is a well researched and scholarly, with 788 pages of text (the rest being footnotes, plus the index). This is not an introductory work, and the author does not pause to give readers much description of how sailing ships worked, or the organization of various departments of the Royal Navy bureaucracy, for example.

The book covers the life and career of Horatio Nelson through 1797, in great detail. Almost every voyage on every ship is covered at length and the writing style is very atmospheric. The author envelops the reader in the period by discussing details of naval life at the time at some length. Thus we learn about Nelson's attitudes towards discipline and court martials, including statistics on flogging and hanging on most voyages, and some apparently new evidence about Nelson's efforts to protect crew members from criminal courts. We also learn about Nelson's development of patronage among the men who served him, and his efforts to promote their careers.

Lesser known operational naval manuevers such as Nelson's 1797 efforts to save the British garrison on Elba are also covered in much detail, which again contributes to the reader's understanding of Nelson's perceptions and realities, and how they influenced his life and career.

I did not rate this 5 stars mostly due to the lack of maps, the lack of detail on some of the maps, and the paltry illustrations (8 black and white glossy pages in the center of the book). There is no map, for example, showing the location of the critical Battle of Cape St. Vincent in relation to ports in Spain and Portugal. Familiarity with the basic geography of Europe will be sufficient to read this book.

This is the first volume of a planned two-part biography, and I eagerly await the second volume.