Devils Dream

From the author of All Souls Rising which The Washington Post called A serious historical novel that reads like a dream, comes a powerful new novel about Nathan Bedford Forrest, the most reviled, celebrated, and legendary, of Civil War generals With the same eloquence, dramatic energy, and grasp of history that marked his previous works, Madison Smartt Bell gives us a wholly new vantage point from which to view this complicated American figure Considered a rogue by the upper ranks of the Confederate Army, who did not properly use his talents, Forrest was often relegated to small scale operations.In Devil s Dream, Bell brings to life an energetic, plainspoken man who does not tolerate weakness in himself or in those around him We see Forrest on and off the battlefield, in less familiar but no less revealing moments of his life courting the woman who would become his wife battling a compulsion to gamble overcoming his abhorrence of the army bureaucracy to rise to its highest ranks We see him treating his slaves humanely even as he fights to ensure their continued enslavement, and in battle we see his knack for keeping his enemy unsettled, his instinct for the unexpected, and his relentless stamina.As Devil s Dream moves back and forth in time, providing prismatic glimpses of Forrest, a vivid portrait comes into focus a rough, fierce man with a life fill of contradictions. Free Download Books Devils Dream by Madison Smartt Bell – kino-fada.fr After finishing his bloody trilogy on the bloody Haitian Revolution, Madison Smartt Bell turned to the Civil War, specifically the Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, an untutored military genius who rose from enlisted man to become the scourge of the Union Army Many Forrest quotes have survived, and Bell ups the ante, providing the General with vivid language, valiant in defense of his own integrity, full of inventive curses at Union soldiers he intends to kill, orders for his own sold After finishing his bloody trilogy on the bloody Haitian Revolution, Madison Smartt Bell turned to the Civil War, specifically the Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, an untutored military genius who rose from enlisted man to become the scourge of the Union Army Many Forrest quotes have survived, and Bell ups the ante, providing the General with vivid language, valiant in defense of his own integrity, full of inventive curses at Union soldiers he intends to kill, orders for his own soldiers, and threats to execute those who desert him In the troublesome matter of the massacre of black Union soldiers during two battles, Bell chooses as he no doubt must, being a mo...Bound Miami SunPost November 26, 2009http miamisunpost.com themorgue 200 Madman o WarNathan Bedford Forrest s Fight to the DeathJohn HoodFor a slave trader, General Nathan Bedford Forrest sure seemed to dig blacks He took one as a mistress, fathered at least a few, and rode side by side with a loyal contingent of black soldiers and teamsters throughout the Civil War One of those soldiers was even his son.This being the South however, Forrest never owned up to the fact that the lad was hi Bound Miami SunPost November 26, 2009http miamisunpost.com themorgue 200 Madman o WarNathan Bedford Forrest s Fight to the DeathJohn HoodFor a slave trader, General Nathan Bedford Forrest sure seemed to dig blacks He took one as a mistress, fathered at least a few, and rode side by side with a loyal contingent of black soldiers and teamsters throughout the Civil War One of those soldiers was even his son.This being the South however, Forrest never owned up to the fact that the lad was his own blood But on occasion he did show some kind of empathy Just as Forrest showed a tinge of compassion when he discovered that one of his slaves had been separated from his wife After the War though, Forrest did what every self respecting bigot slave trader did he joined the Ku Klux Klan.In fact Forrest was the Klan s first Grand Wizard And therein lies some of the rub behind Madison Smart Bell s battle scarred hymn of a novel, Devil s Dream Pantheon 26 The General had s...There is no doubt that Madison Smartt Bell can write a first rate novel however, in this one, a historical based biographical tale of Nathan Bedford Forrest, he seems to gloss over, or maybe a better word is minimalize, the darker sides of this southern slave trader who became a confederate general, and after the war, went on to be a grand master of the Ku Klux Klan.The personality of Henri, the book s Haitian, free born black confederate cavalryman is the book s gem What a great character a There is no doubt that Madison Smartt Bell can write a first rate novel however, in this one, a historical based biographical tale of Nathan Bedford Forrest, he seems to gloss over, or maybe a better word is minimalize, the darker sides of this southern slave trader who became a confederate general, and after the war, went on to be a grand master of the Ku Klux Klan.The personality of Henri, the book s Haitian, free born ...This fictionalized account of General Bedford Forrest, slave owner, Confederate soldier and leader in the American Civil War, was a fair but generally disjointed account of the life of a heroic but conflicted man of his time.I actually found the brief chronological account of this man s life at the end of the novelinteresting and informative than the main novel.It is clear that Bell had accumulated a massive amount of research about Forrest, including his life before, during and after the This fictionalized account of General Bedford Forrest, slave owner, Confederate soldier and leader in the American Civil War, was a fair but generally disjointed account of the life of a heroic but conflicted man of his time.I actually found the brief chronological account of this man s life at the end of the novelinteresting and informative than the main novel.It is clear that Bell had accumulated a massive amount of research about Forrest, including his life before, during and after the war, but then struggled to present it in a coherent narrative The structure of the novel was frustrating, jumping around in time to no apparent benefit Bell tried to include as many factual anecdotes about minor incidents as he could, but they often didn t really add to the drama of the story Having read in the appendix of Forrest s life after the war, his role in the Ku Klux Klan and his business endeavours in railroad building etc., I...This the fourth book by Madison Smartt Bell that I have read I previously read his Haitian war trilogy, so this book following those made it a tough act to follow Smartt Bell is from Tennessee he knows his state history and the people who made it.Nathan Bedford Forrest was one of the heroes of the Confederacy Rough hewn, uncouth, racist and in a strange way fair to his slaves He was a man of his time Bedford Forrest was a fearless warrior whose war time exploits won him many admirers and de This the fourth book by Madison Smartt Bell that I have read I previously read his Haitian war trilogy, so this book following those made it a tough act to follow Smartt Bell is from Tennessee he knows his state history and the people who made it.Nathan Bedford Forrest was one of the heroes of the Confederacy Rough hewn, uncouth, racist and in a strange way fair to his slaves He was a man of his time Bedford Forrest was a fearless warrior whose war time exploits won him many admirers and detractors among military leaders in both the Confederacy and Union armies.He was the lead tactician of his own strategies while following and complaining about those of immediate superiors, principally General Bragg,The exploits of Bedford Forrest and his army are told through the eyes of Black freedman name Henri, whose main reason for being in Tennessee is the hope of raising a slave rebellion similar to ...I hadn t heard of Nathan Bedford Forrest before reading this book Apparently he was one heck of a guy This novelization of his life is in general very well written and I enjoyed reading it However, it definitely wasn t the best novel I ve read.Of the characters, Forrest is probably the most interesting, which I suppose makes sense since the author picked him to write a novel about However, either due to the narration or what have you, the rest of the characters around Forrest were rather fla I hadn t heard of Nathan Bedford Forrest before reading this book Apparently he was one heck of a guy This novelization of his life is in general very well written and I enjoyed reading it However, it definitely wasn t the best novel I ve read.Of the characters, Forrest is probably the most interesting, which I suppose makes sense sin...nathan bedford forest joined the confederate army as a private and was a major general four years later at the end of the civil war he was an amazingly complex man roughly educated, brutally blunt, a dealer in slaves, and an unmatched leader of men, he is by far one of the most unique induviduals produced by the 19th century he was reviled and despised by most of the officers in the confederacy, because of his lack of gentility and poor education, but he out generaled them at every turn...When I was little boy I used to meet my grandmother for lunch at Forrest Park in Memphis, TN In the middle of the park there was a statue of a man on a horse and we would eat our lunch beside the statue The man, of course, was Nathan Bedford Forrest Years later, as I began to learn about warfare, I learned that Forrest was feared by many as a guerrilla fighter during a war mostly fought face to face over pieces of terrain As a Marine my curiosity about the man grew Still later I began to he When I was little boy I used to meet my grandmother for lunch at Forrest Park in Memphis, TN In the middle of the park there was a statue of a man on a horse and we would eat our lunch beside the statue The man, of course, was Nathan Bedford Forrest Years later, as I began to learn about warfare, I learned that Forrest was feared by many as a guerrilla fighter during a war mostly fought face to face over pieces of te...Sure, he started the KKK, traded slaves for a living before the Civil War, and commanded the South s most lethal and feared cavalry unit But Nathan Bedford Forrest was muchthan all that, a complex person whose life illuminates events around the Civil War, the most critical period in America s history Madison Bell is a skilled writer whose well written and interesting novels offer many insights into the historica...I found this book a bit difficult to follow It jumped back and forth between the observations of Henri, a Haitian born man who gets recruited by Nathan Bedford Forrest, and general 3rd person omniscient following Nathan Bedford Forrest, but the chronology is very back and forth, and the parts with Henri is even stranger because he has the sight and doesn t see things chronologically either, so there s a whole lot of has this happened yet or not going on, which I don t particularly like.Now I found this book a bit difficult to follow It jumped back and forth between the observations of Henri, a Haitian born man who gets recruited by Nathan Bedford Forrest, and general 3rd pe...

• English
• 13 August 2018
Madison Smartt Bell
• Hardcover
• 352 pages
• 0375424881
• Madison Smartt Bell
• Devils Dream