Ramage & the Guillotine: The Lord Ramage Novels No. 6

Rating:
Summary: A secret mission to France
Review: "If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse's feet, don't go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street. Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie. Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!" (from Rudyard Kipling's "A Smuggler's Song"). The smuggling trade plays a major part in this novel - it is tolerated to a point because it supplies certain luxuries and is a means of handling agents and intelligence during wartime. Like his other novels, Pope relies on the reader's knowledge of history to determine the time setting. The novel seems to be between 1801 and 1805, as it is after the first Battle of Copenhagen and, as Admiral Lord Nelson is still alive, the story must be before 1805. A good guess might place the novel in the later part of 1801. That leaves a major time gap between the end of the last novel in the series and the beginning of this novel. Later novels in the series jump back to fill in spaces left blank by earlier novels, so it is difficult for the reader to get the novels in a proper chronological sequence.

The novel spans a period of two to three weeks. The story tends to go into fine detail and, at a couple of points, I found myself skimming forward. Actual naval action is limited. However, there is considerable detail on the smuggling operations between France and England (the smugglers' primary loyalty is to money), and on the so-called "justice system" of revolutionary France (which kept the guillotine busy).

Ramage is given a special mission inside France as a spy to obtain vital information. The Royal Navy was willing to tolerate unusual methods and breaches of the law as long as it produced results. The blame would be on Ramage if he failed.

Overall, the story is an interesting tale of intrigue. Actual naval action is limited.

Rating:
Summary: Ramage the Spy
Review: In which Lt. Ramage speaks with Lord Nelson and smugglers alike, takes passage for "Boney's" France, is astounded and becomes a shipwright, employs a thief, speaks to a policman of knives and sealing wax, and joins the French army! One suspects that Liberty - Equality - Fraternity meant only the liberty to reduce your brother citizens into equal misery. Of course, the British Navy's blockade also had something to do with the desperate state of the French economy revealed here (and rarely depicted in other seafaring series).

If you like stories of the Napoleonic era you'll enjoy this close up view of the French Terror into which idealists descended, but if your desire is only battle at sea this volume will disappoint. As far as I know this is the only nautical novel that brings its naval hero so far and long into enemy France (perhaps Pope is fulfilling the promise of C.S. Forester's "Hornblower During The Crisis" left unfinished by Forester's death before HH gets ashore).

Rating:
Summary: Ramage the Spy
Review: In which Lt. Ramage speaks with Lord Nelson and smugglers alike, takes passage for "Boney's" France, is astounded and becomes a shipwright, employs a thief, speaks to a policman of knives and sealing wax, and joins the French army! One suspects that Liberty - Equality - Fraternity meant only the liberty to reduce your brother citizens into equal misery. Of course, the British Navy's blockade also had something to do with the desperate state of the French economy revealed here (and rarely depicted in other seafaring series).

If you like stories of the Napoleonic era you'll enjoy this close up view of the French Terror into which idealists descended, but if your desire is only battle at sea this volume will disappoint. As far as I know this is the only nautical novel that brings its naval hero so far and long into enemy France (perhaps Pope is fulfilling the promise of C.S. Forester's "Hornblower During The Crisis" left unfinished by Forester's death before HH gets ashore).

Rating:
Summary: More sea time!
Review: Overall, the Ramage series is right up there with the Bolitho and Aubrey/Maturin chronologies, but "Ramage & the Guillotine" disappoints slightly, since most of the action takes place on land, with Ramage undercover in France.

Rating:
Summary: Sunk With No Survivors.
Review: This is a superficial and forgetable effort at historical writing. Heavily padded because of a very thin plot, all of what passes for action is carried by secondary characters sometimes acting off-stage, as Ramage, the "hero", spends pages ruminating on his navel. The author tries to flaunt his research by inserting unnecessary multi-page historical data which add nothing, while stopping the weak story in its tracks. In the end, the plot works, and the hero is triumphant only by coincidence, resourceful secondary characters, and ignorant villians. This was the first Pope book I have read (and the last) and does not compare in any way with the works of Conrad,O'Brian, Forester or Kent.

Rating:
Summary: Ramage (and Pope) are out of their element
Review: This is easily the weakest installment in this series so far. While it is certainly readable, it is seriously flawed. First, there is almost no action at sea, which is the primary reason I read these books. Pope was very good at describing action at sea but, in general, his skills as a writer were only average. The plot is very thin, and the book really drags in the middle. The action picks up some at the end, but not enough to be really satisfying. The main problem with this book is that it just doesn't generate much suspense. Also, Ramage himself does very little in this book; he is just along for the ride as the smugglers and his subordinates do almost all the work. This book is not a total loss, however. I thought the details of the smuggling trade were interesting, and the picture Pope paints of France during the Napoleonic War is very vivid and interesting. Pope portrays France as a country tearing itself apart even as its Grand Army was conquering most of Europe. The government would execute a citizen simply because someone accused him or her of being a Royalist. This, of course, was a good way for a person to get rid of a personal enemy or business rival. It reminded me of what conditions must have been like in Stalinist Russia, where a paranoid government had its agents keeping a close watch on everyone. So, overall, it's not a terrible book, but I look forward to Ramage getting back to sea in the next installment.

Rating:
Summary: Ramage (and Pope) are out of their element
Review: This is easily the weakest installment in this series so far. While it is certainly readable, it is seriously flawed. First, there is almost no action at sea, which is the primary reason I read these books. Pope was very good at describing action at sea but, in general, his skills as a writer were only average. The plot is very thin, and the book really drags in the middle. The action picks up some at the end, but not enough to be really satisfying. The main problem with this book is that it just doesn't generate much suspense. Also, Ramage himself does very little in this book; he is just along for the ride as the smugglers and his subordinates do almost all the work. This book is not a total loss, however. I thought the details of the smuggling trade were interesting, and the picture Pope paints of France during the Napoleonic War is very vivid and interesting. Pope portrays France as a country tearing itself apart even as its Grand Army was conquering most of Europe. The government would execute a citizen simply because someone accused him or her of being a Royalist. This, of course, was a good way for a person to get rid of a personal enemy or business rival. It reminded me of what conditions must have been like in Stalinist Russia, where a paranoid government had its agents keeping a close watch on everyone. So, overall, it's not a terrible book, but I look forward to Ramage getting back to sea in the next installment.