The Sun Over Breda

Finished The Sun Over Breda by Arturo Pérez-Reverte.

The author and series (Captain Alatriste) are new to me. A dark version of George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman.

The adventures of Captain Alatriste are set at the tail end of the Spanish Golden Age, circa 1620-1645. In this particular story, the setting is the Spanish occupation of the Spanish Netherlands and the contest between the Calvinist, mercantilist, Age of Enlightenment Dutch and the imperial Catholic pre-modern Spanish.

As a war reporter, Arturo Pérez-Reverte's story has a darkness to it, reflecting the brutal realities of religious war in an era of near absolute poverty.

For all that, though, it provides a nice counterpoint to the normal understanding of the Spanish Empire. History is notoriously written by the victors who inescapably omit aspects of the story. Arturo Pérez-Reverte brings back some of those stories which we in the Anglophone might have overlooked.

Like George MacDonald Fraser, Arturo Pérez-Reverte uses his story not only as a means of educating on a particular battle. He brings in many parallel strands - the Spanish possessions in Italy, the painter Diego Velázquez, tactical details of the siege of Breda, the culture of the Spanish army under a royal regime far away.

I like these kind of novels which have a strongly paced plot, central characters, and are replete with all sorts of knowledge and insights and alternate perspectives.