The Red Book of Heroes

The real-life individuals whose stories are recounted in this book were vastly dissimilar from one another. The child abbess, Mère Angélique, who ruled her convent and fought against misbehaving abbesses who eschewed seriousness, does not immediately bring to mind Hannibal. The great Montrose, with his poems and his perfumed love locks, his allegiance to his cause, his gallantry, and his death, to which he went joyfully attired like a bridegroom to meet his bride, does not appear to be a kindred spirit of Palissy the Potter, a withered and wrinkled figure blackened by the smoke of his furnaces. It is a considerable distance from gentle Miss Nightingale, who tended to injured dogs as a child and to wounded soldiers as an adult, to Charles Gordon, who played pranks in school, commanded a Chinese army, and watched alone at Khartoum, encircled by ruthless enemies, yearning for the sight of the British flag and the sound of bagpipes that he never beheld or heard. However, these people, as well as all the other characters whose narratives are told, shared a common trait: they were sincere, although they undoubtedly did not endlessly talk about their earnestness. It came naturally to them, and they enjoyed it. Their hearts were committed to two things: doing their utmost and maintaining their integrity.