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The Flame Of Freedom: The Greek War Of Independence, 1831-3Editions
Review
David Brewer has picked his way through a mass of horribly tangled material, and among a great many tender national sensibilities, to produce a work which is both is vivid but not fanciful, rich in anecdote but disciplined. He is careful to be fair and not afraid to allocate blame. It will be indispensable for anyone interested in understanding the Balkan conflicts, Byron, the Romantics, as well as modern Greece (not to mention Turkey)… - review by Johnny de Falbe |
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John Sandoe [Books] Ltd |
Considering how many words have been written trying to understand the Balkan Wars of the last few years, and again the number of books devoted to Byron, it is extraordinary to reflect that this is the first proper book about the war which forms the backdrop both to recent events and to the prime iconic moment of Romanticism – Byron’s death at Mesolongi. When the rebellion flared in 1821, Greece was a poor provincial backwater of the Ottoman Empire, and had been so for 400 years. The war was fraught with internecine conflict and horrifically savage – beheading was routine, impaling an occasional sport, and enslavement of captives regarded as the soft option. Personal greed and petty local ambition often lurked behind the lofty ideal of Freedom… And yet for all the horrors and the often contemptible behaviour of many of the Greek participants, there was a real, burning issue at stake which the philhellenes of Western Europe and America were quick to support despite the lukewarm attitudes of their governments. For all the posturing and silliness of many of them, it is intriguing to see just how level-headed Byron was; without his involvement, indeed, it is hard to see how the English loans, and eventually their ships and guns, would ever have been committed to the Greek cause. And had the English not sunk the Turkish fleet at Navarino, the Turks would certainly have defeated the Greeks.
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