Barlasch of the Guard

One of Henry Seton Merriman’s most popular and acclaimed novels, Barlasch of the Guard explores the ideals and imperfections of people, great and small alike, under the incomprehensible strains of life under siege, beset by the destructive forces of both man and nature.

The events are those of the months before, during, and after the Grande Armée’s 1812 invasion of and catastrophic retreat from Russia, during which approximately one million soldiers and civilians died, and which marked the end of Napoleon’s campaign to conquer Europe and the beginning of his eventual downfall. The focus of the story is the unlikely friendship between Désirée Sebastian, a poor but cultured young woman raised in Danzig (modern-day Gdansk, Poland), a strategically important “free city” occupied by Napoleon’s army, and “Papa” Barlasch, an earthy, low-born, veteran sergeant in Napoleon’s Old Guard, who finds himself quartered in the Sebastian home on Désirée’s wedding day. They’re surrounded by a vividly drawn supporting characters: Désirée’s new husband, a French officer; his cousin, a captain who sails under the English flag; his patron, an officer in Napoleon’s secret service; her father, an enigmatic French expatriate; and her sister, whose calculating nature contrasts with Désirée’s free-spirited outlook.

Barlasch shares with other Merriman novels his intricate plotting and attention to detail informed by his own extensive travels, but differs from some of his other works in its use of often brutal historic and military detail in service of the underlying romanticism. Ultimately though, this is a very human drama focused not on the movements of armies, but on the changes wrought in their wake on soldiers and civilians caught up in epic events.