Originally published in the Strand Magazine between December 1894 and September 1903. The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard by Arthur Conan Doyle, the celebrated author of Sherlock Holmes and the Lost, follows the adventures of Brigadier Etienne Gerard, a courageous soldier in the service of Napoleon.
From a sleepy cafe in Paris, he whiles away the hours recounting his glories in the service of France.
From his victory over the Count of the Castle of Gloom, the mysterious affair of the Ajaccio Brothers and his daring escape from Dartmoor Prison to his brush with the dastardly Marshal Millefleurs and his successful conveying of the Emperors own despatches through the enemy held towns of Soison and Senlis. Gerard never wavers in his dedication to the Emperor, or his convictions that he is the finest soldier in all of france, and therefore, the world.
Adapted into several films and radio dramas across the years, George McDonald Fraser once cited Brigadier Gerard as a major inspiration for his own fictional comedic adventurer Harry Flashman.