The Illustrious Dead
THE ILLUSTRIOUS DEAD
The Terrifying Story of How Typhus Killed Napoleon's Greatest Army
By Stephan Talty
Borrowed from Saratoga Springs Public Library Sep 2012
Own It No
+1 if you own it
First Discovered October 2012
Read YES 100%
+1 is you have read it
Listened to 100%
8 CDs, 9 hours 33 minutes
Read by Stephan Hoye
Military History
Microbiology
Audiobook
Crown Publishing. 315 pages. $27 Hardcover
Main Themes
Typhus- ancient bacterial microbe,
Rickettsia prowazekiim
Disease in the 19th Century, germ theory not yet understood, superstition falsehoods.
No scientific knowledge of microbiology
Warfare, Total War
European War History
About the microbe that causes Typhus
Important background context and history
Key Words and Concepts
The French invasion of Russia in 1812,
also known as the
Russian Campaign in France
Stats and Facts
French Survivors: 120,000 men (excluding early deserters).
Of these, 50,000 were Austrians and Prussians, 20,000 Poles and 35,000 Frenchmen.[3]
Out of an original force of 615,000, only 110,000 frost-bitten and half starved survivors stumbled back into France.
Napoléon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821)
Emperor of the French Empire from 1804 to 1815.
Best Short Book Review
The Washington Post Book Review of THE ILLUSTRIOUS DEAD
Napoleon's Grande Armée was a marching city-state, a multinational force of more than half a million that set out to conquer Russia in May 1812. By December, nearly everyone was dead.
According to Stephan Talty, typhus was the main reason. A fast-paced sketch of this disastrous campaign, "The Illustrious Dead" is a military history that treats typhus as an invisible army on the battlefield, silently slaughtering hundreds of thousands of French soldiers, frustrating Napoleon's ambition, weakening his reign and changing the course of European history.
The narrative shifts between war history and epidemiology. Both sections can be rather macabre. Typhus has feasted on armies for centuries, with a mortality rate greater than that of the plague, and its victims do not die pleasantly: "A thick noxious film covered their tongues and their teeth turned black," Talty writes. " 'Tendon jolts' set arms and legs snapping into the air. . . . Patients called out for someone to blow their brains out."
The campaign climaxed at Borodino, a bloodbath that followed months of retreat by the Russian army and attrition from typhus for the French -- all of this told masterfully. Moving from the battlefield to the command tent, Talty shows how the reduced French numbers drastically affected Napoleon's tactics and effectiveness.
Breezy rather than exhaustive, "Dead" will be enjoyed by armchair historians, if not the squeamish.
-- Alexander F. Remington
shared from The Washington Post Book Reviews website on 10/6/12
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/26/AR2009062601719.html
About the Audiobook Voice over presenter
Stephen Hoye
Stephen Hoye has won thirteen AudioFile Earphones Awards and two prestigious APA Audie Awards, including one for the New York Times bestseller Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki. A graduate of London's Guildhall and a veteran of London's West End, Steve has excellent Pronouncation of French, German and Russia names. Talks in a smooth, moderate speed voice.
Stephen has recorded many other notable titles, such as
Every Second Counts by Lance Armstrong and
The Google Story by David A. Vise and Mark Malseed.
American English accent.
Wikipedia references French Power
Wikipedia references Typhus and Disese
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v2.00 Revised 9/9/14 2056 dw