Pictures from the Life of Nelson by William Clark Russell

8vo. pp. xxxvi, 301. bds. dw. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, [2005].

New.

ISBN-10: 1591147468 / ISBN-13: 9781591147466

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This rerelease of a long-lost gem from 1897 marks the bicentennial of Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson's death during the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. The author, William Clark Russell, was one of the nineteenth century's most popular and prolific writers of nautical literature, and his short stories and novels were widely read.

Largely forgotten today is the fact the Clark Russell brought his prodigious storytelling talents to bear upon the true-life exploits of Admiral Nelson. In 1890 Russell published a dense and lengthy biography of Nelson that left no stone unturned about the naval hero's life. This book, Pictures from the Life of Nelson, on the other hand, is much leaner and better paced because it focuses solely on the action-filled episodes of the Nelson Saga. With the timelessness of a good novel, it offers today's readers an enjoyable option to the popular works of Patrick O'Brian and C.S. Forester.