Oscar Spate

It is nearly thirty years since Bernard Smith’s classic European Vision and the South Pacific opened the eyes of regional historians to anew range of perceptions: his latest book continues our education in a manner always informative and stimulating and very often most entertaining. The Death of the Artist as Hero comprises twenty-six essays, beginning in 1946 but two-thirds from the 1980s, dea ... (read more)

The title of this book has a faint dash of Ouida, but actually it signifies not a dashing cavalry regiment but the officiers bleus of the French navy under the Ancien Regime, who were not of the nobility and so socially inferior to their aristocratic colleagues, though often (or usually) superior as seamen. Duyker has written a good businesslike account of a remarkable career. The book is very wel ... (read more)