Seize the Fire

By: Adam Nicolson

Narrated by: Adam Nicolson

Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's Summary

In Seize the Fire, Adam Nicolson, author of the widely acclaimed God's Secretaries, takes the great naval battle of Trafalgar, fought between the British and Franco-Spanish fleets in October 1805, and uses it to examine our idea of heroism and the heroic. Is violence a necessary aspect of the hero? And daring? Why did the cult of the hero flower in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in a way it hadn't for two hundred years? Was the figure of Nelson, intemperate, charming, theatrical, anxious, impetuous, considerate, indifferent to death and danger, inspirational to those around him, and, above all, fixed on attack and victory, an aberration in Enlightenment England? Or was the greatest of all English military heroes simply the product of his time, "the conjuror of violence" that England, at some level, deeply needed?

It is a story rich with modern resonance. This was a battle fought for the control of a global commercial empire. It was won by the emerging British world power, which was widely condemned on the continent of Europe as "the arrogant usurper of the freedom of the seas." Seize the Fire not only vividly describes the brutal realities of battle but enters the hearts and minds of the men who were there; it is a portrait of a moment, a close and passionately engaged depiction of a frame of mind at a turning point in world history.

©2005 Adam Nicolson (P)2005 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic Reviews

"So ripping I faced the classic ocean-voyage quandary. Halfway through, my supply of pages dwindling, I started to ration." (The New York Times Book Review)

Fascinating but overly academic

I enjoyed this book and learned an enormous amount. It is not so much a blow by blow account of the battle as much as a "meta-history" of the sociological forces at play in 1805. There are long discussions of what "honor" and "duty" meant in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. There's a comparison of Wordsworth and Nelson. So in this sense it is a very academic study and sometimes falls prey to the excesses that pass for scholarly learning in some quarters-- e.g. the interpretation of King Henry's speech at Agincourt in terms of Freudian sexuality. Or the personification of Violence which runs throughout the book and leads to statements like :Paradoxically the violence of battle was a release, a calm in the midst of the storm... etc.
If your interest is in military history, this work will disappoint. If you want to learn a lot about the period from the extremely well-read author, then this work might be of interest.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

great narration

great narration by the author, would recommend over reading. can feel the emotion in picture painted.

Terrifying yet terrific Trafalgar

Nicolson is a compelling writer; this paean to Lord Nelson at his moment of triumph and at his death is superbly crafted and conveyed. Highly recommend

Bellicose but great

Given the Nelson bicentennial, I had been yearning for a book about Trafalgar. This book did not disappoint. This is a book about the values that gave rise to the roles played by officers, and to some minor extent men, in the Royal Navy. As such, it is a fabulous work and a must read for all fans of Patrick O'Brian's books. This is the Book that O'Brian fans need in order to fill in that author’s sociological gaps. There is a considerable amount of chest thumping in the book but that is to be expected from something that is part propaganda part history.

0 of 1 people found this review helpful