The Last Campaign of Marianne Tambour

The Last Campaign of Marianne Tambour by David Ebsworth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

On the bloody fields of Waterloo, a battle-weary canteen mistress of Bonaparte’s Imperial
Guard battalions must fight to free her daughter from all the perils that war will hurl against them – before this last campaign can kill them both.

**********

I have had for years a soft spot for Napoleon Bonaparte. Also, I find the French revolution is a very interesting subject. But I’m not that interested in war or any kind of field battle. So reading this book for me was sometimes a bit hard since the story takes place during the last days of the Napoleonic Wars. Thankfully, the story in itself, that we are following two women during the war is something that makes reading about battle much easier.

Marianne Tambour is a canteen mistress for a battalion of the Imperial Guard’s Foot Grenadiers and she is very determent to give herself and her daughter a better life after this campaign. A life without war something they have never experienced. Then she meets Liberté Dumont, Dragoon Trooper and sometimes spies for the French Minister of Police Fouché.

I found the book both interesting to read and a bit hard to read, as I wrote above, I just have a problem with war but I liked knowing more about the Napoleonic Wars and about women’s part of the war. I never really thought that women were soldiers in the war and it was interesting to know more about the lives of canteen mistress´s something I never know anything about. It was a great moment in the book when some characters from Les Miserable’s showed up, I knew about it since it I read it in the preface but then I forgot about it until they showed up in the story. I liked the portraying of Napoleon Bonaparte in the book that he is part of the story not just mentioned. I loved reading about how the French people just loved him, the soldiers that adored him and died for him.

David Ebsworth has done a tremendous work both with the research and writing this book. It's very well written. But, I admit that it felt a bit heavy to read sometimes but still the core story, about Marianne and Liberté kept me going since I wanted to see how it would end for them.

I enjoyed gaining new knowledge about the Napoleonic Wars and this is a perfect book for anyone interested in Napoleon Bonaparte, the French Revolution or/and the Napoleonic Wars. Or anyone just interested in history.