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Death to the French
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the Wikipedia's treatment of anti-French movements in the modern world, see Anti-French sentiment in the United States
| Author | C. S. Forester |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Gino d'Achille |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Historical novel |
| Publisher | The Bodley Head |
| Released | 1932 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
Death to the French is a 1932 novel by C. S. Forester, the author of the Horatio Hornblower novels. This novel is set in the same period as the Hornblower novels. In the United States its title is Rifleman Dodd.
Contents |
The hero is a rifleman in the 95th Regiment of Foot of the British Army. The novel takes place in Portugal early in the Peninsular War. The British had sent a small force, of about 10,000 men, to the aid of her ally Portugal. The overwhelming size of the opposing French forces required the British to withdraw. The hero is cut off, lives off the land, and harasses the French forces from behind their lines.
As in his novel Brown on Resolution the hero causes the enemy remarkable problems acting on instinct and training, rather than intellectual planning. When the hero finally makes it back to his unit, six months later, his commanding officer asks him what he was up to all that time. The hero is completely unable to begin to describe his remarkable accomplishments. He doesn't even try. He doesn't realize they are remarkable. And they remain completely unrecognized and unrewarded, just as in Brown on Resolution.
- Dodd – Rifleman in the British army
C. S. Forester wrote two novels set during the Peninsular Wars. The other, The Gun, concerned a large caliber brass cannon that passes through the hands of various groups of Spanish partisans.
In one of Bernard Cornwell's Richard Sharpe novels (which were partly inspired by Death to the French) a Rifleman named Dodd is separated from Sharpe's company during a skirmish in 1810.
Rifleman Dodd is on the official reading list endorsed by the Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, and is given to recruits in basic training at both MCRD San Diego and Paris Island.
