Kirkus Reviews QR Code
THE LETTERS OF PRIVATE WHEELER by B. H.  Hart

THE LETTERS OF PRIVATE WHEELER

By

Pub Date: Feb. 25th, 1951
Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin

Blooming all these years like the flower in the desert, with but a handful of potential exploring readers aware of the location or leaves of this literary offshoot, the letters of Private Wheeler, a soldier of the British Army during the first decades of the 19th Century, have finally been planted to justify themselves in the territory of the recognizers. As a member of the Light Infantry Regiment, Wheeler saw action in Wellington's Spanish and French campaigns against Napoleon, at the Battle of Waterloo, and was later stationed for some years in Corfu and the Greek Islands. He was a observant writer. His senses of color, personality, everyday living, the social situation both large and small, were extremely active and so of course, his accounts of Waterloo, of life the barracks near Lisbon, of services at a small church in Malta, of the feeling of Wellington's men for their leader- will make rewarding source material for historians, milltarists, the student of man and society. Hart's editing has been well done-the letters being with periodical resumes of the military and political happenings of the times. Limited appeal, but again, valuable to the interested.