The Great White Army is the tale of Napoleon's grand army and their invasion of Russia and tragic retreat from Moscow. The story follows Surgeon-Major Constant, a veteran who accompanied Napoleon to Moscow, and was one of the survivors who returned ultimately to Paris. Constant escaped from Paris at the beginning of the French Revolution and he lived for a while at Leipzig, where he studied medicine and earned for a living as a French teacher. His nephew was a member of the Napoleon's Imperial Guard and when this young and daring man went for Russia, Constant joined this long campaign with many adventures and misadventures standing in front of them.

Max Pemberton (1863-1950) was a popular English novelist, working mainly in the adventure and mystery genres. Pemberton was member of a criminology literary society known as 'Our Society' along with eleven other notable members including Bertram Fletcher Robinson and Arthur Conan Doyle.