Like Zola’s La Debâcle, with which it naturally challenges comparison, Le Désastre has for its theme the Franco-Prussian War. The authors have the advantage of being well equipped for writing of army scenes, being descendants of a line of soldiers; their father was the cavalry general, Auguste Margueritte, who fell at the battle of Sedan; and the youngest son, Victor, was himself an officer in the French army, but recently abandoned the military career in order to associate himself with his brother in literary work.
“This powerful picture of the fate of the Army of the Rhine, by the sons of one of the generals who did their duty, is among the finest descriptions of war that have been penned.”—London Athenæum.
“A strong, a remarkable book. ‘The Disaster’ is even more overwhelming than Zola’s Le Débâcle. Zola’s soldiers possessed, after all, the untold advantage of their ignorance. But the officers in ‘The Disaster’ saw everything, understood from the very beginning the immensity of the blunder. Like the spectators of some grim tragedy, they waited and watched for the curtain to fall.”—London Speaker.
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“Miss Montrésor has the skill in writing of Olive Schreiner and Miss Harraden, added to the fullness of knowledge of life which is a chief factor in the success of George Eliot and Mrs. Humphry Ward.... There is as much strength in this book as in a dozen ordinary successful novels.”—London Literary World.
“I commend it to all my readers who like a strong, cheerful, beautiful story. It is one of the truly notable books of the season.”—Cincinnati Commercial Tribune.