Ramage & the Guillotine (The Lord Ramage Novels) | 
 enlarge | Author: Dudley Pope
Publisher: McBooks Press
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy Used: $3.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 224854
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0935526811
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780935526813
ASIN: 0935526811
Publication Date: October 1, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Spine creased and cracked at center. Cover has shelf wear. Text unmarked.*Ships Next Business day*
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Product Description
Across the English Channel, Napoleon has massed a great invasion flotilla. English forces, under Lord Nelson, are all but paralyzed—not knowing the size, strength, or time of the foreign onslaught. In a daring spy scheme to protect British shores, Ramage is chosen to plumb the secrets of the French, and the penalty for failure is the guillotine.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 I really liked it August 15, 2008
I read this book when I was in Iraq. I really like it. I just found out there is a whole series so I have ordered the first installation.
Interesting look at the enemy May 7, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Ramage finds himself behind enemy lines and we are introduced to several new characters along with some endearing old ones. Very entertaining and an interesting perception on peri-Napolean France. A very entertaining read.
 Tedious September 22, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've been slowly knocking off the Ramage novels, but after this one I'm taking a hiatus. Ramage, our hero, is sent to France as a spy, so we have more intrigue than action. Fine. This should have been a great thriller, but it turns out to be a long, tedious, even boring novel. Pope just can't say in 3 pages what he can say in 50 and it wears thin after a while. Most naval fiction novels consist of a series of episodes, but Pope's books tend to be one long story. Nothing wrong with that, but if there is nothing to keep you interested, then reading it becomes a chore. And that's what this is.
 Ramage (and Pope) are out of their element January 1, 2002
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
This is easily the weakest installment in this series so far. While it is certainly readable, it is seriously flawed. First, there is almost no action at sea, which is the primary reason I read these books. Pope was very good at describing action at sea but, in general, his skills as a writer were only average. The plot is very thin, and the book really drags in the middle. The action picks up some at the end, but not enough to be really satisfying. The main problem with this book is that it just doesn't generate much suspense. Also, Ramage himself does very little in this book; he is just along for the ride as the smugglers and his subordinates do almost all the work. This book is not a total loss, however. I thought the details of the smuggling trade were interesting, and the picture Pope paints of France during the Napoleonic War is very vivid and interesting. Pope portrays France as a country tearing itself apart even as its Grand Army was conquering most of Europe. The government would execute a citizen simply because someone accused him or her of being a Royalist. This, of course, was a good way for a person to get rid of a personal enemy or business rival. It reminded me of what conditions must have been like in Stalinist Russia, where a paranoid government had its agents keeping a close watch on everyone. So, overall, it's not a terrible book, but I look forward to Ramage getting back to sea in the next installment.
 Sunk With No Survivors. October 2, 2001
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a superficial and forgetable effort at historical writing. Heavily padded because of a very thin plot, all of what passes for action is carried by secondary characters sometimes acting off-stage, as Ramage, the "hero", spends pages ruminating on his navel. The author tries to flaunt his research by inserting unnecessary multi-page historical data which add nothing, while stopping the weak story in its tracks. In the end, the plot works, and the hero is triumphant only by coincidence, resourceful secondary characters, and ignorant villians. This was the first Pope book I have read (and the last) and does not compare in any way with the works of Conrad,O'Brian, Forester or Kent.
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