Richard Sharpe

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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, )

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 Oñoro, 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);
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, )
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, )
ISBN: 0060951974 

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