The main idea of the work is captain, rip your head off. Cunning and administrative talent
Review of the book “Captain Rip-Off” by Louis Henri Boussenard, written as part of the “My Favorite Book” competition on the “” portal. Review author: Bobrova Alla.
I learned about this book a long time ago. I was about eight years old. When I was with my grandparents, we were invited to visit their friends - neighbors living on the floor below. Thanks to them, I learned about this wonderful book. After drinking a few cups of tea, the conversation turned to literature. Many books were enthusiastically recommended to us and then encouraged to see them. We walked for a long time between the bookcases. There were so many books! Large and small, with bright covers and nondescript ones, but I was interested in a completely inconspicuous book, which was also mentioned at the table. Small in thickness and size, with a neat white cover, on which was a drawing of a soldier on a horse and the words: “Louis Boussenard, Captain Rip - Head.”
I looked at the book so much that everyone present noticed it. The dark shade of the pages did not let me go. “This is a work from Soviet times, written in 1901,” its owners explained to me, seeing my interest. We took this book for ourselves, exchanging another, no less old one for it. My grandfather read the story first. He also spoke very flatteringly about this work. Then I started reading too. At first everything seemed somehow confusing and incomprehensible, but then, immersed in the book, I read with pleasure. I fully realized the meaning only at the age of 13, after reading the story again.
The courage, boldness and determination of the main character, Jean Grandier, is what I liked about this work. Being a fifteen-year-old millionaire, he gathers his own fighting force and goes to war. Resourcefulness, ingenuity, the ability to make quick decisions and many other important qualities are inherent in this hero. Thanks to this, he manages to emerge victorious from any situation. At the very beginning of the work, it talks about the execution of David Potter, whose son goes with Captain Rip-Head to take revenge. During the war they succeed, killing all the officials responsible for the execution. By repeatedly successfully completing important tasks, the squad shows unity, which undoubtedly arouses the intrigue of the work. What else will they be tasked with? Will any of the heroes get hurt? And finally, what will be the outcome of the war?
I read with enthusiasm, rejoicing at every successfully completed assignment. It was impossible to tear myself away even for a minute; it seemed that something might happen in my absence. The fear of missing out on this important event attracted me to the book, captivated me, and immersed me in the plot headlong. If they ask me: “what is the theme of this work,” I probably will not be able to give an exact answer. I will praise the book for a long time and retell the plot, but I will not give a direct and unambiguous answer to the question. There are too many different directions in this story. War, friendship, the courage of heroes, the fight for justice and the desire for revenge. The book is written in an easy-to-understand language, and all French phrases have explanations. I want to reread this book an infinite number of times, so I advise everyone to read it.
The work of Louis Boussenaard “Captain Rip Off the Head” tells the story of the young daredevil Jean Grandier, a rich teenager who managed to assemble a detachment of his peers in order to assist the Boer troops in the fight against the British. It should be noted that in war the young man shows excellent leadership qualities, valor and courage, which are sometimes lacking even in adult, experienced soldiers. It was for his recklessness, lack of self-preservation instinct and extraordinary courage that the young man was nicknamed “Captain Rip Off His Head.”
The action begins with a court-martial. Boer David Potter is sentenced to death for poisoning enemy horses. It would seem that the warrior’s fate is predetermined. But suddenly a mysterious and unknown young man appears and pays bail for the accused. However, the judges are adamant. The shooting still happens.
David leaves behind a son, Paul. He leaves with the mysterious young man. By the way, this is exactly who Jean Grandier turns out to be. Paul Potter is shocked by his father's death; he wants to punish the killers at all costs. Captain “Tear off the head” takes him into his squad, where the young man has many opportunities to be useful and not only avenge his parent, but also to defend the honor of the people.
Jean is captured by the British, but escapes by swimming. The sea is teeming with sharks, so one can only envy the young man’s fearlessness.
The second part describes the battle of Kimberley. The events are described quite realistically and dynamically - sometimes it is even impossible to tear yourself away from the description of the battles and adventures of the young heroes. Jean kills Captain Harden, one of David Potter's judges, delivers a secret letter to General Joubert, and accomplishes many feats.
It should be noted that the young man is quite experienced and determined for his age. Based on the descriptions, he is no more than 15-18 years old. Despite this, the young man acts decisively, calmly, with the confidence of an experienced military leader. The members of his squad are as young and brave as Jean himself - it is quite obvious that he selected proven guys to match him. Although, of course, Grandier himself is the undisputed leader.
The third part of the work fully justifies its name. A detachment of "Skins" is tasked with blowing up a reservoir, which is guarded by English troops. Naturally, the young captain approaches the task responsibly and seriously. He is carefully preparing for the operation.
Finally, the young captain, together with Paul Potter and Fanfan, dressed as shepherdesses, approaches the reservoir. While Paul distracts the soldiers, his comrades plant dynamite. The reservoir has been blown up! The British are eager to chase the “Skins”, but they repulse the attacks.
At the end of the work, Jean writes a letter to his sister saying that he and Fanfan are in the infirmary, under the control of the British, but as soon as he gets better, he will run away and continue to fight for freedom. It is a pity that the author does not give us the opportunity to observe further developments of events.
Without a doubt, Boussenard's work is a classic of adventure literature. What attracts is the age of the hero, which, taking into account the similar age of the reader, creates an indescribable atmosphere where the reader himself seems to be a member of Jean’s squad and, together with the guys, performs brave feats and noble deeds.
An instructive moment is the struggle for freedom and justice, which burns with fire in the heart of a young man and his friends - even wounds and hardships cannot force young men to give up their activities. Victory or death is the motto of such fearless people who become real heroes in war.
Reader's diary.
A young and rich Frenchman, Jean Grandier, voluntarily goes to Africa to help the Boers in the war against the British aggressors, and creates a combat detachment. For his courage, Jean is nicknamed “Captain Rip-Off.”
Part one. Skins
Boer farm. Military court. British officers sentence Boer David Potter to death for poisoning cavalry horses. A young man who suddenly appears asks to delay the execution for a huge cash deposit, but the judges are adamant, and the Boer is shot. The young man leaves with Paul, the son of the murdered man. Suddenly it turns out that the young man is the famous Boer scout Jean Grandier, nicknamed “Captain Rip-Head.” The British begin the chase, but Jean and his friends manage to evade pursuit.
The Anglo-Boer War is going on. In the battle of Ladysmith, the Boers defeat the British. Colonel Duke of Richmond, the chairman of the trial of the Boer Potter, is captured by them. Soon he is killed by Paul Potter, avenging his father.
Captain Rip-Head, during a night reconnaissance, is captured by the British and finds himself imprisoned on a pontoon - a prisoner camp located in the bay of the sea. At night, Rip-Head jumps into the shark-infested sea and swims to the shore. He sneaks into Fort Simonstown, accidentally finds women's clothing there, and, putting it on, passes the sentries into the city. There he pretends to be a girl and gets a job in the service of old Mrs. Adams.
Mrs. Adams receives news that her son, Captain Adams (another of Potter's executioners), is seriously wounded. Mrs. Adams and her false maid are going to the front, to the hospital to see their son. When they arrive at Olifansfontein, where the hospital is located, Adams is already dead.
It's not far from the Boer positions here. Rip-off-the-head jumps onto a horse abandoned by someone and gallops towards the Boer outposts. Despite the shelling, he reaches the Boer positions and meets friends.
Part two. Fight of giants
The Battle of Kimberley takes place. Despite the victory over the British, the Boer commander, General Cronje, does not give the order to catch up and completely defeat the retreating forces. At night, the Boer camp comes under fire from an approaching English armored train. The "Skins" squad is tasked with blowing up a bridge and railroad tracks, which they successfully accomplish. The Boers capture an armored train and its crew. Surrendering, the English captain brazenly shoots the Boer, and Captain Rip-Head kills him. This murdered Englishman is Captain Harden, who tried David Potter.
Cronje sends Rip-off with a secret letter to General Joubert. The most convenient way to travel is by bicycle. Rip the head takes his ally Fanfan with him. Having destroyed an entire detachment of English lancers along the way, going through enormous difficulties, they reach their goal. Having rested, the friends go back to Cronje with a reply letter from Joubert.
Cronje's army is stationed at Magersfontein. A large army of British gradually bypasses the Boers, surrounding them. Cronje does not believe in the possibility of encirclement and does not take any action. Soon the Boer army is surrounded and the British begin a massive bombardment. After a week of resistance, the Boers surrender. Jean Grandier, Fanfan and Paul Potter are captured by the British. Suddenly, the commander of the Canadian company, Francois Junot, recognizes his old friend Jean Grandier and, out of solidarity with his fellow French, helps them escape from captivity.
While crossing the river, Pol suddenly disappears. Rip-Head and Fanfan encounter five Englishmen and they capture them. The detachment is commanded by Captain Roussel, the next executioner of David Potter. Roussel orders Captain Rip-Head and Fanfan to be hanged, but at the last moment Paul Potter appears in an English uniform and shoots all the soldiers, preventing them from carrying out the execution. Friends hang Captain Roussel and leave for the Boer army.
Part three. Dynamite War
The command instructs Captain Rip-Head to blow up the Thaba-Ngu reservoir, controlled by the British. Jean Grandier, Fanfan and Paul, disguised as shepherdesses who brought the watering place to a watering place, approach the reservoir. While Paul distracts the soldiers, his friends plant dynamite in the walls of the reservoir. After they leave, the reservoir explodes. British lancers go in pursuit of the saboteurs, but the "Skins" kill them, and the three survivors are forced to dress up in shepherdesses' clothes and go back.
The scouts return to the farm where they were previously stationed. Several of their comrades are also there. Suddenly the farm is surrounded by a detachment of Englishmen. A shootout begins. The crazy guy figures out how to break out of the encirclement. The besieged tie dynamite cartridges to the horns of the cows, set fire to the cartridges and try to drive the cows towards the British, but the cows refuse to budge. And then the old farm mistress and her daughters lure the animals out of the farm and die under their hooves. The cows run out and the dynamite begins to explode. The British are crushed and driven back.
The scouts set fire to the farm and leave, after which they encounter detachments of British lancers and defeat them in a difficult battle. Rip-off head decides to go on reconnaissance into the enemy camp, and orders his soldiers to make their way to the Boer army.
Wearing clothes taken from a killed English soldier, he enters the camp under cover of darkness. Having seen everything he needed, he tries to mount one of the horses and ride away, but a restive horse throws him off, and there is a noise in the camp. Rip-off hides in a large officer's tent and sees Major Colville, known to him, there - the last surviving executioner of David Potter. He ties up the sleeping Colville, having previously hit him on the head with a pistol, and leaves the tent. The major's orderly notices him and raises the alarm. Rip-off head has to hide again.
In order to successfully leave the camp, he buys several bottles of whiskey at the store and distributes them to the patrols he encounters along the way. Already at the exit from the camp, he again attracts attention to himself by killing a soldier who tried to detain him. The alarm is raised again, but Rip-Head successfully escapes from pursuit on a horse and gets to his own.
One day, a detachment of Major Colville's lancers appears on the Blesbukfontein farm and brutally destroys all the inhabitants of the farm. The detachment of Captain Rip-off-the-Heads, which arrived in time after this, kills the British, including Colville.
The Boer army, under pressure from the British, is forced to leave the Vaal River. The crossing is difficult, and the British are already close. The “Skins” undertake to detain them and almost all die. Francois Junot is again among the attackers and takes the wounded Jean and Fanfan from the battlefield.
A few months later, Jean Grandier writes a letter to his sister from Cape Town, where he says that he and Fanfan are in the hospital under the strict supervision of the British, but they will still try to escape in order to continue to fight for freedom.
Retold Bermont Eskantovsky.
Assignment from Notebooks "Extracurricular reading", 4th grade, p. 49, author - Veryaskina E.V.
Write aboutreview of the book "Captain Lying Head", answering the questions:
1) Who is the main character of the book? What events does it describe?
Answer: The main character of the book is a boy named Dima Kolchanov, nicknamed the Lie Head. He always invents something and often lies, which is why he got his nickname. The hero is either preparing for a journey, or digging for treasure, or escaping from hooligans...
2) Would you like to have a friend like Dima Kolchanov? Name his positive and negative qualities.
Answer: I wouldn’t want to have such a friend, since he lies almost all the time, you can’t trust him. This is his worst quality. At the same time, you won’t get bored with him: he is cheerful, he is an inventor, he loves adventures. These are his positive qualities.
3) Which story about Captain Lying Head did you like best?
Answer: I liked the story about how he invited the girl Toshka on a date, dreaming of making friends with her brothers. But it turned out that Toshka knows karate and sambo, she dispersed the hooligans.
Louis Boussenard
CAPTAIN DAREDEVIL
Part one
SKINSUCKS
Death sentence. - Boer and his friend. - Please postpone the execution. - Refusal. - Digging a grave. - Execution. - Tragic scene. - Revenge. - Prickly acacias. - Captain Daredevil. - Chase.
The sergeant, acting as secretary of the court-martial, stood up and in a sharp, dry voice, emphasizing each syllable, began to read the decision he had just scribbled on a piece of paper: “The military court, composed of the regimental council, unanimously decided: David Potter, guilty of poisoning twenty-five horses fourth artillery battery, deserves death. The verdict is final, cannot be appealed and is carried out immediately..."
With the arrogant and contemptuous air of gentlemen forced to perform an unpleasant and boring duty, five members of the court in white helmets, with holsters on their belts, sat on folding chairs, casually holding their sabers with their knees. One of them, a young captain, muttered:
My God!.. So many ceremonies to send some kind of swindler to the next world - a white savage, a rebel, a robber and a murderer!
The chairman of the court, a handsome man in the uniform of a colonel of the Gordon Regiment of Scottish Highlanders, stopping him with a slight movement of his hand, turned to the condemned:
What do you have to say in your defense, David Potter?
Boer, who was head and shoulders taller than the artillery guards who stood on both sides of him with sabers drawn, only shrugged his shoulders contemptuously, turned away and, through a triple cordon of soldiers armed with rifles with fixed bayonets, directed a clear gaze to where they stood near his farm inconsolable family and friends. The young woman sobbed, wringing her hands in despair, the children screamed heartbreakingly, the unfortunate parents of the condemned man threatened the conquerors with weak fists.
Through the bizarre foliage of acacias and giant mimosas, bright rays of the sun broke through and, as if highlighting a picture of great sorrow, they played like light bunnies in the meadow, which stretched out in green waves into the distance inaccessible to the eye.
Here he lived, loved, suffered and fought with enemies.
For a moment, the Boer's gaze was clouded with a tear of tenderness, but it was immediately drained by anger.
You condemned me for fighting for the independence of my homeland... Well, since you are so strong, kill me! - Straightening up, clenching his fists, he answered the colonel in a hoarse voice.
We are judges, not murderers! - the chairman was indignant. - You Boers act dishonestly, unworthy of civilized people. But war has its own laws, by which, by the way, we judge you.
Do you think it’s fair when ten or even twenty people attack one? - cried the burgher.
We fight with our visor raised and do not consider someone who openly comes at us with a weapon in their hands to be a criminal. But resorting to poison is vile! - said the colonel. - Today you poison horses, and tomorrow you will get to people. So a harsh sentence is fair retribution for your action.
Bur, not allowing himself to be confused, objected:
As a patriot, I have the right to destroy everything that can be turned against my homeland: people, livestock, military equipment. And you can’t explain to me why it’s permissible to shoot people, but not to poison horses.
Why talk to this lout! - the same captain muttered, although he was confused by the simple logic of the peasant.
The hearing is over! - the chairman interrupted the protracted argument. - David Potter, prepare to die!
I'm ready now! And I will say: if I had been pardoned, I would have taken up what I had done before. But they will avenge me - and cruelly! I am not afraid of death: people like me, with their blood, bring the liberation of our homeland closer!
These words spoken publicly found a lively response in the hearts of the people crowding around the farm.
The sergeant, grunting disapprovingly, resumed reading: “The condemned man himself digs the grave. The execution is carried out by a team of twelve people. The guns are loaded by a sergeant: six with live cartridges, the rest with blanks.”
In response to such a strange decision, the Boer burst out with a chilling laugh:
Ha ha ha!.. I heard about this trick, but I admit, I didn’t believe it! Are you afraid that the soldiers will get revenge for the execution? Do you hope to keep them safe with this trick? You are right about one thing: if the soldier himself does not know what cartridges he is shooting, then others have no idea. But why, fools, such cunning? The soldiers are in no danger anyway: they will take revenge for me not on them, the forced accomplices of the crime, but on you, the organizers of the vile trial, sentenced by me, with one foot in the grave, to death - and not an easy one! Neither one’s own physical strength or dexterity, nor the two hundred thousand strong English army will save anyone from deserved punishment.
The chairman stood up.
“We judge by law and conscience, and it’s not for us to be afraid of threats,” he said dispassionately. - The law does not allow a convicted person to communicate with anyone before execution, however, out of a sense of humanity, I still allow you to say goodbye to your loved ones.
Relatives and friends of the Boer - about thirty of them - squeezed through the open triple chain of soldiers. David's wife, unable to utter a word, frantically squeezed her beloved, faithful life partner in her arms. Next to her was a handsome young man who attracted the attention of the British with his elegantly tailored hunting suit, which differed sharply from the modest clothing of the Boers.
David!.. Dear!.. This is how we happened to meet! - exclaimed the young man.
A sad smile lit up the condemned man’s face:
Is it you, my boy?.. How glad I am!.. You understand, this is the end. I can’t wait for the great day when my homeland will regain freedom!
It’s too early to despair!.. I’ll try to talk to them,” said the young man.
He approached the members of the field court who were about to leave and, taking off his hat, which, however, did not damage his self-esteem, addressed the chairman:
I ask you, my lord, to delay the execution... Take pity on this unfortunate woman, on the children, on the convict himself, whose actions were guided only by a noble sense of patriotism. You are the sons of an outstanding powerful nation, so be generous!
“I’m very sorry,” the colonel answered, saluting with a gloved hand, “but this is beyond my power.”
We are talking only about a few days! Just wait a week - and I will undertake to obtain a pardon for the unfortunate man.
I can't, young man. The sentence was passed in the name of the law, and we are all its slaves, from Her Majesty the Queen to the last of our boys.
I'll post bail.
Ten thousand francs for each day of delay.
One hundred thousand... In ten days I give you a whole million!
Million? But who are you?
A man who knows how to keep his word! - the young man answered in his usual decisive tone. “David Potter saved me from death, and I’m ready to give everything to the last penny for him and even sacrifice my life!”
Such a feeling does you honor,” the colonel interrupted him, “but in war there is no time for emotions.” Now listen to me carefully. I have a son, about your age, he is an officer in my regiment. I concentrated all my fatherly tenderness on him, all the ambition of a soldier... So, let’s assume that he is captured by the Boers and should also be shot. And suddenly they offer me, the father, to exchange him for David Potter...
And you?.. - the young man asked, breathless with excitement.
I wouldn't agree! Even if he would condemn his only son to death.
The young man lowered his head under the weight of these words. He realized: it was useless to insist, nothing would save his friend. The true face of war was revealed to him - a disgusting monster that disgraces the human race, in whose name murder is legitimized and mountains of corpses are piled up.
Returning to the Boer, surrounded by sobbing relatives, he took his hand in his own and with a feeling of deep compassion and with pain in his voice exclaimed:
My good David, nothing worked out!.. There is nothing to hope for!
And yet, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, my brave little Frenchman, for your participation! - answered the burgher. - God is a witness, the soul rejoices when you see that people like you are fighting for our cause!
Am I really not going to be able to do anything for you? - the young man whispered.
You can, together with my wife and children, stay near me until the very end... Avenge me! Always fight the same way...get it? And not a word more... There are too many ears here.
