Sharpe's
Fortress: Richard Sharpe and the Siege Of Gawilghur, December 1803
by Bernard Cornwell
Fighting in the millet fields of India circa 1803, Richard Sharpe knows
trouble when he sees it: dissension in the ranks, a feverish and arrogant
enemy, nobody to confide in. Unbeknownst to his comrades, Sharpe has buried
a fortune in booty along the way. He knows his freedom is coming, and it's
only a matter of time before he can feast on the spoils. "Sharpe's Fortress"
is the 17th in Bernard Cornwell's series starring this colonial British
soldier who has risen in the ranks despite blunders and misadventures,
not to mention his own suspicions of the men around him.
Treason, near-death experiences, cannonballs hidden in the tall grass
"sticky with blood and thick with flies, lying twenty paces from the man
it had eviscerated," these are the elements of Cornwell's war stories,
which rely heavily on long, involved - and involving - battle scenes, marvelous
description, and bawdy dialogue in the trenches (a highlight: arguments
over whether there's such a thing as breasts that look like grapes). For
readers who hunger for humorous, complex characterizations, Sharpe proves
vivid and three-dimensional. He holds tightly to his dreams of treasure,
eavesdropping on betrayers, ultimately hatching a desperate plan to make
his way to the fortress in the sky, Gawilghur. Cornwell's hero is an honest
soldier, and also a pragmatic one. He doesn't care as much about the medals
and the glory as he cares about dodging cannon fire and finding a place
to sleep. --Ellen Williams - Amazon.com
Sharpe's
Fortress : India 1803
by Bernard Cornwell
Historical Novel
Hardcover: 304 pages
HarperCollins; ISBN: 0060194243; (October 5, 2000)
Sharpe's
Battle
by Bernard Cornwell
As Napoleon threatens to crush Britain in battle, Lt. Col. Richard
Sharpe leads a ragtag army to exact a personal revenge.
Sharpe's Battle takes Richard Sharpe and his company back to the spring
of 1811 and one of the most bitter battles of the Peninsular War, a battle
on which all British hopes of victory in Spain will depend. Sharpe is given
responsibility to lead an Irish battalion of the king of Spain's household
guard, ceremonial troops untrained and unequipped for battle. While quartered
in the crumbling fort of San Isidro, they are attacked by murderous Brigadier
General Guy Luop's elite French brigade. Sharpe has witnessed General Loup's
despicable was crimes before; to put an end to them, and to settle another
more personal score, Sharpe must lead his company into the blood-gutted
streets of Fuentes de Oņoro, where thousands of French troops have amassed,
in a battle to the death.
Sharpe's
Devil
by Bernard Cornwell
Paperback: 336 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.81 x
8.01 x 5.32
Publisher: HarperCollins (paper); (July 1999)
ISBN: 0060932295
Sharpe's
Enemy: Richard Sharpe and the Defense Of Portugal, Christmas 1812
by Bernard Cornwell
Paperback: 352 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.61 x
7.74 x 5.12
Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper); (April 10, 2001)
ISBN: 0140294341
Sharpe's
Gold
A year after the victory at Talavera, Wellington's army,
outnumbered and out of money, is on the verge of collapse. Its only hope
lies in a cache of gold hidden in the Portugese mountains and the only
man capable of stealing it is Captain Richard Sharpe.
Out of Print - Try Used Books
Sharpe's
Regiment
Paperback A corrupt political plot threatens to put an end to the South
Essex regiment - and the life of Major Richard Sharpe when he investigates
and discovers an illegal recruiting ring selling soldiers like cattle to
other divisions.
Sharpe's
Revenge: Richard Sharpe and the Peace Of 1814
Paperback
It is 1814 and the defeat of Napoleon seems imminent, but before Richard
Sharpe can lay down his sword, he must fight a different sort of war. Accused
of stealing Napoleon's personal treasures, Sharpe embarks on the battle
of his life, armed with only an unflinching resolve to protect his honor
and to inflict devastating revenge. Bernard Cornwell's tenth Sharpe novel.
Sharpe's
Tiger Paperback
Richard Sharpe is once again marching in step with the Light Company
of George III's army, this time in India, going into battle against the
Tipoo Sultan. It's hot as hades, the new sergeant is a sadist who wants
to drum Sharpe out of the brigade, and both of them have their roving eyes
on the beautiful half-Indian widow of the late and admired Colonel Bickerstaff.
Sharpe's
Trafalgar: Richard Sharpe and the Battle Of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805
For military-history buffs, Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe novels are the
literary equivalent of potato chips: you can't read just one and in this
case why would you want to? Blending meticulous research and old-fashioned
entertainment, the series follows the roguish adventurer Richard Sharpe
as he swashbuckles his way through the Napoleonic Wars. In "Sharpe's Trafalgar",
the author ventures into Patrick O'Brian's maritime territory. Anchors
aweigh, lads, and bring on the detailed descriptions of the ship's guns
and their firing mechanisms!
In the beginning of the book, our hero sets sail for England after five
months of service in India. The plot revolves around a disguised diplomat,
a marauding French warship and an improbable love affair with a comely
English aristocrat, but make no mistake, the real draw here is combat.
The battle scenes crackle with energy and we can practically feel the chop
of the waves and smell the reek of gunpowder. (We can also smell 600 unwashed
men in close quarters with rats, sewage and bilge rot, but that's another
matter entirely.) The last hundred pages fly by at a furious clip, cannons
pounding and cutlasses hacking, as Cornwell re-creates the naval battle
of Trafalgar.
These days, of course, we know that war is bloody and brutal, not honorable
or fair. We like even our most appealing warriors to have some passing
acquaintance with their dark side, and Sharpe does take a decidedly antiheroic
stance on the experience of hand-to-hand combat:
He was ashamed when he remembered the joy of it, but there
was a joy there. It was the happiness of being released to the slaughter,
of having every bond of civilization removed. It was also what Richard
Sharpe was good at. It was why he wore an officer's sash instead of a private's
belt, because in almost every battle the moment came when the disciplined
ranks dissolved and a man simply had to claw and scratch and kill like
a beast.
Beast or no beast, Sharpe is far more interesting and complex than
the musket-wielding action figure he might first appear and it's nearly
impossible not to take some pleasure at his bloody exploits. "Sharpe's
Trafalgar" is a superb example of the ripping good yarn - it confirms our
secret conviction that war may be hell, but it's actually pretty exciting
too. --Mary Park - Amazon.com
Sharpe's
Triumph
Book Description: Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Assaye, September
1803 It is India, 1803.In the four years since he earned his sergeant's
stripes, young Richard Sharpe has led a relatively peaceful existence.
But Sharpe's reverie ends when he barely survives a murderous act of treason
by a bitter English officer who has joined the mercenary forces of the
Mahratta confederation, determined to drive the British from the continent.
Vowing to hunt down the turncoat, Sharpe plunges headlong into the white-hot
battle of Assaye alongside Sir Arthur Wellesley -- the future of Duke of
Wellington -- in the fiercest fight of his career. Sharpe's Triumph is
a riveting story of betrayal and revenge that showcases the deft blend
of suspenseful military adventure and sweeping historical detail that has
made Bernard Corwell's books bestsellers around the world.
Paperback: 304 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.72 x
8.04 x 5.34
Publisher: Perennial; (July 25, 2000)
ISBN: 0060951974
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