Brigadier Gerard
Title Published Notes
How the Brigadier Won His Medal ( The Medal of Brigadier Gerard ) December 1894 France , March 1814 . Gerard is sent by Napoleon with an important message , via enemy territory , and only narrowly avoids capture by marauding Russian and Prussian troops
How the Brigadier Held the King April 1895 Spain , July 1810 . Gerard is captured by Spanish partisans but is saved from certain death by the British
How the King Held the Brigadier May 1895 England , August 1810 . Gerard mounts an escape from Dartmoor Prison and is initiated in the mysteries of pugilism
How the Brigadier Slew the Brothers of Ajaccio June 1895 Paris , late 1807 . Gerard assists Napoleon in a vendetta
How the Brigadier Came to the Castle of Gloom July 1895 Poland , February 1807 . While on a mission to procure horses , Gerard becomes involved in an affair of honour
How the Brigadier Took the Field Against the Marshal Millefleurs August 1895 Spain , March 1811 . Gerard finds himself temporarily allied with the English against a notorious brigand
How the Brigadier Was Tempted by the Devil September 1895 Paris , April 1814 . Gerard and Napoleon carry out a secret mission
How the Brigadier Played for a Kingdom December 1895 Germany , March 1813 . Gerard encounters German nationalists and a deceitful woman
Stories -- The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard
Brigadier Gerard is the comedic hero of a series of 17 historical short stories, a play, and a major character in a novel by the British writer Arthur Conan Doyle. By far the most entertaining of all of Doyle's characters, Brigadier Etienne Gerard is a Hussar officer in the French Army during the Napoleonic Wars. Gerard's most notable attribute is his vanity - he is utterly convinced that he is the bravest soldier, greatest swordsman, most accomplished horseman and most gallant lover in all France. Gerard is not entirely wrong, since he displays notable bravery on many occasions, but his self-satisfaction undercuts this quite often. Obsessed with honour and glory, he is always ready with a stirring speech or a gallant remark to a lady. Conan Doyle, in making his hero a vain, and often rather uncomprehending, Frenchman, was able to satirise both the stereotypical English view of the French and - by presenting them from Gerard's baffled point of view - English manners and attitudes.