Críticas en otras lenguas

Pérez-Reverte‟s Alatriste novels seek to educate young Spaniards about their Golden Age. In El sol de Breda, set in 1624-1625, Spanish armies fight to suppress the Dutch Protestant revolt. Narrator Íñigo is a teenage page to the experienced soldier, Alatriste. Traditional commentators like Elliott already see imperial decline, whereas Kamen emphasises that the Spanish Crown could always raise loans and armies. Pérez-Reverte‟s series favours the traditional interpretation. The narrator accuses monarchy, aristocracy and clergy of major failures of leadership. American silver brought only extravagance, the conquistador‟s „get-rich-quick‟ mentality rejected honest work and aristocratic favourites as ministers failed to halt the widespread corruption and incompetence, while Spain persisted in seeing itself as crusading guardian of Catholicism. By 1624 Spain‟s crack regiments were a superb military machine. Soldiers mainly from Germany, Lombardy and Sicily fought brilliantly in Italy, France and Flanders in spite of appalling conditions - including the non-payment of wages, which triggered numerous campaign-weakening mutinies. Spanish military skill could not finally resist the humour and doggedness of the Dutch revolt: in 1648 the Provinces will gain independence from Spain. In 1634 the witness-narrator advises Velázquez on the huge court painting „The Siege of Breda‟, also known as "Las lanzas".

«Una trágica historia de amor, guerra y de la crueldad entre los hombres... en un estilo que recuerda a Milan Kundera, el autor se pregunta el sentido de la guerra, el uso de la violencia, y cómo ésta oscuridad de la humanidad se relaciona con nuestra capacidad para el arte y el amor. Este irresistible pas de deux es la obra más conmovedora de Arturo Pérez-Reverte hasta ahora»: así describe El pintor de batallas Mike Cooper, de la cadena de librerías Waterstone's.

«Arturo Pérez-Reverte confirma de nuevo su lugar como gran maestro del thriller histórico en esta magistral novela que conjuga secretos sepultados bajos las cenizas de un pasado funesto que no quiere pasar, reflexiones filosóficas y una endiablada intriga. ¡Apasionante!»

«Arturo Pérez-Reverte confirma de nuevo su lugar como gran maestro del thriller histórico en esta magistral novela que conjuga secretos sepultados bajos las cenizas de un pasado funesto que no quiere pasar, reflexiones filosóficas y una endiablada intriga. ¡Apasionante!»

In the midst of the Dutch and Spanish dignitaries in the foreground of Diego Velázquez's war tableau "The Surrender of Breda," there is a small open space beneath one soldier's horizontal weapon. It appears to depict the back of the soldier beside him. But it is the suggestion of Arturo Pérez-Reverte's latest installment in his grandly entertaining Captain Alatriste series that Alatriste, he of the cold gray-green eyes and dauntless courage, was once part of the picture - although his likeness has since been excised.

Spain's swashbuckling fictional hero, Captain Alatriste, is fighting his way to global glory.

"He has been known to flirt with higher literary flights, notably in The Club Dumas, but in his hardboiled, mordantly funny, unapologetically entertaining Captain Alatriste series (of which this is the second volume), Pérez-Reverte firmly buckles on his swash and swaggers into the muddy, bloody streets of 17th century Madrid."
Time 16 de enero de 2006

Ask a spaniard to name a footballer and he will say Raúl, Beckham or maybe Ronaldo. Ask for a film director and you'll get anything from Pedro Almodóvar to Steven Spielberg. Ask for the name of a famous soldier of fortune, however, and there is only one answer: Captain Alatriste, the swashbuckling hero of the adventure series written by Arturo Pérez-Reverte.

Loin du panache d'Arcole ou d'Austerlitz, le jeune sous-lieutenant Frédéric Glüntz découvre en Espagne l'horreur de la guerre. Dans son premier roman, aujourd'hui traduit en français, Arturo Pérez-Reverte s'attache à éradiquer le germe romantique de l'héroïsme.