After the excellence of Part 1, this was disappointing. There are fewer great scenes, despite the 100p+ greater length of part 2. One problem is that Hardy expected his readers to know the history of the Napoleonic wars in detail. This was probably not unreasonable at the time of publication, but how many native English speakers could honestly claim to know the political and military history of the early 1800s now?

By the end of this volume the famous 1812 Campaign against Russia is impending and I am hoping that, since I know roughly what happened that year, part 3 will be easier to understand and that it will show more of the flair in evidence in part 1.