The Campaigners, the 14th book in Cynthia Harrod-Eagles’s Morland Dynasty series, finds the bulk of the Morland family in Brussels at the Battle of Waterloo. Several of the Morland men have joined the fight against Napoleon, and Lucy has determined that with all the young men having gone to war, the only way for her daughter Rosamund to have a proper coming out ball is for her to be where the men are. Lucy invites Héloïse to bring her daughter Sophie to Brussels as well so the two girls can be launched into society together.

The campaign of the title could refer to any one of three threads: the campaign against Napoleon, obviously; the campaign to find a suitable husband; and the campaign to expand the Morland estate to include the mills owned by James Morland’s father-in-law. The first half of the book focuses on the husband hunt, with Rosamund and Sophie meeting many eligible men and trying to weigh monetary concerns with the desires of their hearts and hoping that their mothers will consent to their desired matches. This storyline alternates with the minor thread involving the expansion of the Morland estate, a question which comes down to the precise time Mr. Hobspawn, James’s father-in-law, died. The second half of the book is devoted almost entirely to the Battle of Waterloo.

Battle scenes are challenging for me to read, both because the subject matter is upsetting and because I find troop movements difficult to follow. In this book, however, the battle scenes were absolutely gripping. This is partly because I’ve grown to care about the particular people involved, but I think much of it is due to Harrod-Eagles’s skill as a storyteller. She carefully places characters at different spots in the battle so her readers can get a global view of the battle, but within each scene, she focuses closely on the individual character’s experience. I haven’t read much of anything about Waterloo, so I don’t know how accurate Harrod-Eagles’s account is as far as strategies and troop movements goes, but the ugliness and terror feel real.

This is my favorite Morland book so far, by a long shot. I’m not sure how well it would stand on its own, though. I think that the Brussels and Waterloo sections would be understandable and interesting enough to a first-time Morland reader. The sections at Morland Place, however, might only be of interest to those who are already following the story. But those sections are relatively brief and disappear almost entirely in the last half of the book. And the last half of this book is the Morland Dynasty at its best.

See my complete review at my blog ( )

Found this one a bit boring until the last 150 pages- then wow! Action packed and so incredibly sad. ( )