Series Review

The Sharpe Series, By Bernard Cornwell

Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe series tells the story of Richard Sharpe, a foundling who fled the workhouse to join his majesty’s Britannic army. Fighting under the command of Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, Sharpe’s life of soldiering covers an exhaustive twenty-one novels, during which he fights in both the Indian and European theater. The first novel, Sharpe’s Eagle, was written in 1981 and the last one, Sharpe’s Fury, came out in 2007. The novel series also saw a popular television spin off starring Sean Bean. Bernard Cornwell has written a great many excellent novels, but his own and Sean Bean’s careers both took off thanks to Sharpe.     

Having joined the army at a tumultuous time for the British Empire, Sharpe had his work cut out for him. During the early nineteenth century, Europe was ravaged by war. Conscription allowed massive armies, on a scale that had not been seen before, to be raised and deployed on the battlefield. After the turmoil of the French Revolution, a young artillery officer from Corsica named Napoleon Bonaparte distinguished himself as a brilliant military leader, and crowned himself emperor of France. The British, ever fretful about the balance of power on the continent (see my review of Henry Kissinger’s World Order), aligned themselves with a series of coalitions in order to defeat the French. Dire socio-economic conditions forced a young Richard Sharpe to join the army, and geo-political ones necessitated that the French were to become his enemy.

As a young man Cornwell fell in love with an American woman and moved to the United States. He lacked a job to support himself but had grown up reading C.S Forester’s Hornblower novels, and had always wanted to be a writer. With Horatio Hornblower serving in the Royal Navy, Cornwell seized the opportunity to write a series of novels centered on a soldier fighting the Napoleonic Wars on dry land. With the stout work ethic that is expected of immigrants to the USA, Cornwell sat himself down at his kitchen table in New Jersey and started clicking away on his typewriter. After the successful publication of his first novel, Sharpe’s Eagle, which centers on the Battle of Talavera in 1809, Cornwell became a full time writer. Chronologically, it falls somewhere in the middle of the series, when Sharpe has already risen to rank of captain and established himself as a shrewd commander.

The bulk of the series finds our intrepid solder fighting for Wellesley’s peninsular army in Spain and Portugal, but later additions tells the story of a young private Sharpe fighting in India against a slew of local warlords, including the feared Tipoo Sultan of Mysore. Visitors to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London can gaze upon the Tipoo’s macabre toy featured in Sharpe’s Tiger, an intricate automaton in the shape of a metal tiger sinking its teeth into a luckless redcoat’s throat. Turning the handle causes one of the redcoat’s hands to flap uselessly while a faint sound resembling a tortured scream emanates from the exhibition's mechanical innards.

Having survived the Tipoo and his tiger, Sharpe takes part in the battle of Trafalgar before the series turn to Europe and the long and harsh Peninsular war. The dramatic climax is, obviously, Sharpe’s Waterloo, which I am very much looking forward to. A prospective reader would be well advised to start with Sharpe’s Tiger, since it is the chronological beginning of the story as well as being a thumping good read.

I have praised Cornwell’s writing before on this blog. His language is relatively straightforward and accessible, yet he manages to capture the smell of gunpowder and the sound of the drummer boys sounding the charge. The only way you could possibly get closer to nineteenth century warfare would be to take part in the annual re-enactment of the battle of Waterloo, but then you would have to travel to a muddy field in Belgium and subject yourself to dodgy catering. Being British, however, it is not surprising that he is ever so slightly partial, and most of the French marshals are portrayed as foppish braggadocios.

A recurring theme through the series is the unfairness of British society at the time, particularly its military. This was an age where commissions tended to be sold to the highest bidder, and were very seldom awarded on merit alone. As a no nonsense career soldier Sharpe frequently clashes with incompetent officers fresh from England, who know nothing of war, and whose immaculate uniforms are better suited to the officer’s mess than the front line.

Through a combination of plundered French cash, bravery and dogged perseverance, Sharpe nevertheless manages to slowly and painstakingly rise through the ranks and become an officer himself. This was something that was slightly frowned upon at the time, since people thought that men promoted from the ranks would turn to drink. Sharpe’s first command as an officer is a detachment of Riflemen, where he meets the Irishman Patrick Harper, who becomes his steadfast companion for the duration of the war and helps him capture the eagle standard in Sharpe’s Eagle.   

Bernard Cornwell is one of the great writers of historical fiction, who manages to cater to a wide audience. His Sharpe series would be the perfect read for lazy days on the beach during the upcoming summer holidays.