Status
Available
Collection
Publication
Berkley (2004), 270 pages
Description
Here is one of those rare novels, the first in an epic series, that completely transports the reader to an unforgettable time and place in history. At Talavera in July of 1809, Captain Richard Sharpe, bold, professional, and ruthless, prepares to lead his men against the armies of Napoleon into what will be the bloodiest battle of the war. Sharpe has earned his captaincy, but there are others, such as the foppish Lieutenant Gibbons and his uncle, Colonel Henry Simmerson, who have bought their commissions despite their incompetence. After their cowardly loss of the regiment's colors, their resentment toward the upstart Sharpe turns to treachery, and Sharpe must battle his way through sword fights and bloody warfare to redeem the honor of his regiment.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member John5918
Swashbuckling stuff. Cornwell certainly gives the impression that he understands military tactics of the time, and he does so in a gripping manner. The story is full of daring feats, intrigue and larger-than-life characters. Very enjoyable, difficult to put down, and makes one want to rush to the
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secondhand book shop to find another book in the Richard Sharpe series. Show Less
LibraryThing member BruderBane
Great novel and chock full of all gut-throttling action I’ve come to expect from Mr. Cornwell’s work. Felt a bit short but maybe that’s because I read Mr. Cornwell’s work so voraciously, I seldom have time to digest them to their full potential. Nit picking point, I hate it when covers have
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a picture that is grossly inaccurate to the story they are supposed to represent. Yeah, the eagle is way off. Favorite line involving dogs, “an ever growing heap of arms and legs that was guarded by two bored privates whose job was to chase away the hungry dogs from the mangled flesh.” If you follow my reviews (really?) you’ll know that this isn’t the first time Mr. Cornwell writes great scenes involving man’s best friend. Here’s to the next novel and some other hound(s) doing more despicable acts. Show Less
LibraryThing member iftyzaidi
Heavy on the action and light on plot, with wafer-thin characters to boot. This was Bernard Cornwell's first book, [and the first I have read] and by his own admission, crudely written. Still, its a quick and exciting read, and Cornwell certainly doesn't gloss over the horrific quality of
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Napoleonic-era warfare. I found it engaging enough to ensure that I will be keeping an eye out for more of Sharpe's adventures. Show Less
LibraryThing member patience_crabstick
Who can resist a risen-from-the-ranks, British, Regulation Hottie like Richard Sharpe? Sean Bean as the TV series version isn't bad either. This novel is a dose of history with a lot of sugar to help it go down. Witty dialogue, especially from the Irish characters, a fast-moving plot, plenty of
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adventure. The only bits that don't work are the scenes with the girl. Show Less
LibraryThing member Joycepa
No. 8 in the Richard Sharpe series.
It’s 1809, and the British Army under Wellesley (not yet Lord Wellington) is in Portugal. Lieutenant Sharpe, recovering from a saber wound, has his first encounter with the South Essex Battalion of infantry, newly arrived from England with two aristocratic and
Sharpe is given the assignment of accompanying engineers and the South Essex (along with a Spanish Battalion) into Spain in order to blow up an important bridge. The mission turns into a disaster as the incompetent Lt. Colonel Simmerson, who is in charge of the South Essex, panics and loses both men and the Regimental and King’s Colors, a disgrace. Sharpe saves the day, only to make implacable enemies out of the two aristocrats.
One thing leads to another, and Sharpe and company fight at the Battle of Talavera—where Sharpe wins renown, a French Eagle, and a promotion to Captain. In addition, he has his usual luck with women—rotten.
Standard Cornwell: well- researched, great attention to detail (much of which is from contemporary accounts), unbeatable battle descriptions, and superior writing overall. The Historical Note at the end describes what liberties were taken with history and why. The capturing of the French Eagle is based on a real event; only the names were changed to make an excellent story.
Not quite so meaty as some others in the series, it's still a great read. Highly recommended.
It’s 1809, and the British Army under Wellesley (not yet Lord Wellington) is in Portugal. Lieutenant Sharpe, recovering from a saber wound, has his first encounter with the South Essex Battalion of infantry, newly arrived from England with two aristocratic and
Show More
totally incompetent officers at their head. Sharpe and Sergeant Harper, as well as the thirty surviving Rifles of the 95th, are attached to the South Essex in what will be a memorable association.Sharpe is given the assignment of accompanying engineers and the South Essex (along with a Spanish Battalion) into Spain in order to blow up an important bridge. The mission turns into a disaster as the incompetent Lt. Colonel Simmerson, who is in charge of the South Essex, panics and loses both men and the Regimental and King’s Colors, a disgrace. Sharpe saves the day, only to make implacable enemies out of the two aristocrats.
One thing leads to another, and Sharpe and company fight at the Battle of Talavera—where Sharpe wins renown, a French Eagle, and a promotion to Captain. In addition, he has his usual luck with women—rotten.
Standard Cornwell: well- researched, great attention to detail (much of which is from contemporary accounts), unbeatable battle descriptions, and superior writing overall. The Historical Note at the end describes what liberties were taken with history and why. The capturing of the French Eagle is based on a real event; only the names were changed to make an excellent story.
Not quite so meaty as some others in the series, it's still a great read. Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member ksmyth
This is the second book in Cornwall's original eleven book series. It takes place at the Battle of Talavera in 1809, as the British army begins to assert itself against the French in Spain.
Richard Sharpe and his small band of survivors from the 95th Rifles find themselves assigned to nursemaid an
Needless to say Sharpe accomplishes just that using all of his pluck, luck and strength. He also woos a lady, suffers injuries, and gets out of several bad spots, which he does in pretty much every book. He also consigns Henry Simmerson to the military ashheap, but not out of our lives as he returns in book 5.
Quick and fun read. Cornwall gets the details right. The fleeing of Cuesta's Spanish at the sound of their own gunfire is one of the more ridiculous incidents of the entire Napoleonic Wars.
Richard Sharpe and his small band of survivors from the 95th Rifles find themselves assigned to nursemaid an
Show More
engineering expedition to blow up a bridge deep in enemy controlled territory. We're introduced to Col. Henry Simmerson, one of my favorite villains in the Sharpe series, a blundering martinet who allows his regiment to be chopped to bits through his own foolishness. Unfortunately he is politically powerful and Sharpe stands to be sent to the fever islands if he can't do something incredible-so he sets himself the goal of capturing a French standard, one of the eagle standards given to each French battalion by the emperor himself. Needless to say Sharpe accomplishes just that using all of his pluck, luck and strength. He also woos a lady, suffers injuries, and gets out of several bad spots, which he does in pretty much every book. He also consigns Henry Simmerson to the military ashheap, but not out of our lives as he returns in book 5.
Quick and fun read. Cornwall gets the details right. The fleeing of Cuesta's Spanish at the sound of their own gunfire is one of the more ridiculous incidents of the entire Napoleonic Wars.
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LibraryThing member TadAD
Lots of action, not so much plot or character depth as the chronologically earlier books in the series (this was either the first or second volume that he wrote). Still, I'm completely invested in this character by this point, so I enjoyed it.
It does have one of the most priceless scenes: the
The fire and lead poured into the empty field...For a second Sharpe thought the Spanish were cheering their own victory over the innocent grass but suddenly he realized the shouts were not of triumph, but alarm. They had been scared witless by their own volley, by the thunder 10,000 muskets and now they ran for safety. Thousands streamed into the olive trees throwing away muskets, trampling the fires in their panic, screaming for help, heads up, arms pumping, running from their own noise."
It does have one of the most priceless scenes: the
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unimpressive Spanish troops panic when they see French dragoons firing at snakes off in the distance. Though it's three times the maximum range of a musket, the entire Spanish force starts firing.The fire and lead poured into the empty field...For a second Sharpe thought the Spanish were cheering their own victory over the innocent grass but suddenly he realized the shouts were not of triumph, but alarm. They had been scared witless by their own volley, by the thunder 10,000 muskets and now they ran for safety. Thousands streamed into the olive trees throwing away muskets, trampling the fires in their panic, screaming for help, heads up, arms pumping, running from their own noise."
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LibraryThing member 5hrdrive
Sometimes Cornwell's formula doesn't work that well for me... this time it does. A great adventure begins here, it's interesting to read about Sharpe as he was describes for the first time, and I love Harper, Hogan, Lawford, and Wellesley too.
LibraryThing member McFeeley
One of my favorite series. Cornwell leads us through an amazing world that is brought to us through the eyes of Sharpe. A great read for the military buff--arm chair quarterback type. Fun reads sprinkled with a bit of history to boot.
LibraryThing member DinadansFriend
The first Sharpe to be written and Cornwell deals very well with the necessary structures of the military hero in "Interesting Times". The soldier relying on merit did have a difficult time in the Army of the Duke of Wellington (or Sir Arthur Wellesley as he was at the time), and you need to be a
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Brit to understand the levels of available snobbery. It's a good description of Talavera, as well. Battles are hard to do, for one's POV must be cleverly managed. Cornwell establishes his hero and we settle in for further fun. Show Less
LibraryThing member devenish
This is rather strange in that although this is number eight in series order,it is the first that Bernard Cornwell wrote. It is therefore very much an apprentice work,albeit a well-written one.
After a slightly rocky beginning the story settles down to the usual pace of this series. What would the
After a slightly rocky beginning the story settles down to the usual pace of this series. What would the
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British army do without the help of Richard Sharpe I wonder. Show Less
LibraryThing member quiBee
An enjoyable read, but seemed a bit rushed compared to the previous books. I guess that's probably because it was the first book he wrote in the series.
LibraryThing member KateSherrod
I don't often encounter historical/military novels that themselves have a strong sense of prior history the way that Sharpe's Eagle has, for the Roman Empire strongly permeates the book, especially in its opening chapters.
We open with Sharpe and his rifle company* being drafted into yet another
A right upper class twit of a politically connected jerk has raised a brand new regiment back home and dedicated them to the cause in Spain and Portugal, and they're coming along in all their finery and splendor. The upper class twit thinking that it's more important that his soldiers look well than fight well and all, it's a pretty useless regiment but one that, maybe with some seasoning, might do all right if their Colonel, one Sir Henry Simmerson, doesn't get them killed first. Anyway, they're coming along for the bridge blowing party.
But because this is Spain and everything here is a matter of hidalgo honor, so is a fancy Spanish regiment, even shinier and fancier and more useless than the British noobs. "Hell's teeth," one of Sharpe's men observes on the approach of these military fops. "The fairies are on our side."
So, the early mission turns out not to be so straightforward after all. And that's before the French show up. Which shouldn't be a problem, as it's obvious to Sharpe it's a classic calvary vs infantry standoff, wherein no one has sufficient advantage to make it worthwhile to attack. Alas, this is not so obvious to the Colonel or his Spanish counterpart, who, in a scene of prolonged hilarity, pretty much provoke the French into massacre. And lose the regimental colors (the physical embodiment of a regiment's honor and pride the way a Roman legion's eagle was back in the day, and what the French still use for this purpose ca the early 1800s, and now the title of this novel makes all the sense in the world, don't it?) into the bargain.
That's all prologue. It establishes a new enemy for Sharpe in Colonel Simmerson, who needs a scapegoat for his enormous blunder and finds Sir Arthur Wellesley's favorite gotten-up, up-from-the-ranks officer a perfect candidate as much because Sharpe is a protege of Wellesley's as because Sharpe disobeyed an order in the middle of the debacle that was essentially for him and his men to commit suicide and make the French win all the faster (instead, Sharpe rescued one of Simmerson's colors and captured a French cannon, because Sharpe is awesome). When Wellesley promotes Sharpe to Captain and gives him command of a Battalion of Detachments, consisting of odds-and-ends groups like Sharpe's own fragment of a rifle company, and puts the survivors of Simmerson's regiment in that new Battalion, he's just painted the biggest political bullseye ever on Sharpe's back, and Sharpe is, of course, the last guy who'd ever want to be entangled in any politics at all. Especially the kind that can result in his being yanked out of the Peninsular War and deployed to the West Indies, to likely die of a tropical disease within a year of his arrival!
But so there's only one thing Sharpe can do to redeem himself from the results of his badassery: something even more badass, something no one has managed to do in this war: capture a French Eagle.
And of course he'll have to do this in one of the Peninsular War's biggest battles.
With Simmerson and his underlings (including an odious nephew, who is, of course, fighting with Sharpe over, of course, a beautiful woman) in tow.
And even more useless Spaniards mucking things up. Seriously, the Spanish army does not come off well in this novel! When they're not cocking up minor actions being show-offs, they're delaying major actions by oversleeping and letting the French gather up even more forces. And then there's bits like this, describing the aftermath of an ill-planned bout of shooting at some out-of-range Frenchmen:
"For a second Sharpe thought the Spanish were cheering their own victory over the innocent grass but suddenly he realised the shouts were not of triumph, but of alarm. They had been scared witless by their own volley, by the thunder of ten thousand muskets, and now they ran for safety. Thousands streamed into the olive trees, throwing away muskets, trampling the fires in their panic, screaming for help, heads up, arms pumping, running from their own noise."
I bet Spanish readers hate this book.**
But I, I loved it. I'm in serious danger, folks, between this and my re-read of the Aubrey/Maturin books, of making this as much a Summer of Napoleonic War Stories as a Summer of Jest!
Though I do sometimes wish Sharpe would stop taking justice into his own hands. Dude has almost as much cold blood on them as hot. Not cool, Richard. Not cool. As it were. Um. Please don't hurt me.
*Now a seriously rag-tag bunch of military orphans, whose regiment is back in England and who therefore cannot get new uniforms or boots or gear of any kind, even from the plentiful other fighting recipients of the King's Shilling who are still on the Iberian Peninsula, because no one wants to take on the bureaucratic headaches that would ensue if Sharpe's boys were given kit out of some other regiment's or division's stores.
**But, as Cornwell informs us in his traditional historical afterword, that incident really happened.
We open with Sharpe and his rifle company* being drafted into yet another
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weird little scheme. An ancient Roman bridge crossing the river Tagus, a bridge that has stood strong for hundreds of years, has to go for strategic reasons, and Sharpe's friend and sort-of-commander, Captain Hogan, is the engineer who's going to do it. All fine and dandy. But the mission comes with certain... accompaniments.A right upper class twit of a politically connected jerk has raised a brand new regiment back home and dedicated them to the cause in Spain and Portugal, and they're coming along in all their finery and splendor. The upper class twit thinking that it's more important that his soldiers look well than fight well and all, it's a pretty useless regiment but one that, maybe with some seasoning, might do all right if their Colonel, one Sir Henry Simmerson, doesn't get them killed first. Anyway, they're coming along for the bridge blowing party.
But because this is Spain and everything here is a matter of hidalgo honor, so is a fancy Spanish regiment, even shinier and fancier and more useless than the British noobs. "Hell's teeth," one of Sharpe's men observes on the approach of these military fops. "The fairies are on our side."
So, the early mission turns out not to be so straightforward after all. And that's before the French show up. Which shouldn't be a problem, as it's obvious to Sharpe it's a classic calvary vs infantry standoff, wherein no one has sufficient advantage to make it worthwhile to attack. Alas, this is not so obvious to the Colonel or his Spanish counterpart, who, in a scene of prolonged hilarity, pretty much provoke the French into massacre. And lose the regimental colors (the physical embodiment of a regiment's honor and pride the way a Roman legion's eagle was back in the day, and what the French still use for this purpose ca the early 1800s, and now the title of this novel makes all the sense in the world, don't it?) into the bargain.
That's all prologue. It establishes a new enemy for Sharpe in Colonel Simmerson, who needs a scapegoat for his enormous blunder and finds Sir Arthur Wellesley's favorite gotten-up, up-from-the-ranks officer a perfect candidate as much because Sharpe is a protege of Wellesley's as because Sharpe disobeyed an order in the middle of the debacle that was essentially for him and his men to commit suicide and make the French win all the faster (instead, Sharpe rescued one of Simmerson's colors and captured a French cannon, because Sharpe is awesome). When Wellesley promotes Sharpe to Captain and gives him command of a Battalion of Detachments, consisting of odds-and-ends groups like Sharpe's own fragment of a rifle company, and puts the survivors of Simmerson's regiment in that new Battalion, he's just painted the biggest political bullseye ever on Sharpe's back, and Sharpe is, of course, the last guy who'd ever want to be entangled in any politics at all. Especially the kind that can result in his being yanked out of the Peninsular War and deployed to the West Indies, to likely die of a tropical disease within a year of his arrival!
But so there's only one thing Sharpe can do to redeem himself from the results of his badassery: something even more badass, something no one has managed to do in this war: capture a French Eagle.
And of course he'll have to do this in one of the Peninsular War's biggest battles.
With Simmerson and his underlings (including an odious nephew, who is, of course, fighting with Sharpe over, of course, a beautiful woman) in tow.
And even more useless Spaniards mucking things up. Seriously, the Spanish army does not come off well in this novel! When they're not cocking up minor actions being show-offs, they're delaying major actions by oversleeping and letting the French gather up even more forces. And then there's bits like this, describing the aftermath of an ill-planned bout of shooting at some out-of-range Frenchmen:
"For a second Sharpe thought the Spanish were cheering their own victory over the innocent grass but suddenly he realised the shouts were not of triumph, but of alarm. They had been scared witless by their own volley, by the thunder of ten thousand muskets, and now they ran for safety. Thousands streamed into the olive trees, throwing away muskets, trampling the fires in their panic, screaming for help, heads up, arms pumping, running from their own noise."
I bet Spanish readers hate this book.**
But I, I loved it. I'm in serious danger, folks, between this and my re-read of the Aubrey/Maturin books, of making this as much a Summer of Napoleonic War Stories as a Summer of Jest!
Though I do sometimes wish Sharpe would stop taking justice into his own hands. Dude has almost as much cold blood on them as hot. Not cool, Richard. Not cool. As it were. Um. Please don't hurt me.
*Now a seriously rag-tag bunch of military orphans, whose regiment is back in England and who therefore cannot get new uniforms or boots or gear of any kind, even from the plentiful other fighting recipients of the King's Shilling who are still on the Iberian Peninsula, because no one wants to take on the bureaucratic headaches that would ensue if Sharpe's boys were given kit out of some other regiment's or division's stores.
**But, as Cornwell informs us in his traditional historical afterword, that incident really happened.
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LibraryThing member JohnFair
Sharpe has finally made it to the Iberian Peninsular but he and his Riflemen have been put under the charge of a Regiment raised by a local landowner wanting to play colonel but no skill in military matters. And the less said about the so-called Spanish allies of the British as they attempt to
In this novel we get a feel of the confusion of this campaign where political expediency is allowed to trump military realities along with a cracking tale of chaotic fighting and loving.
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force the French from Spain, the better. Colonel Simmerson finds his lack of experience coming to haunt him badly when he allows his regiment's colours fall into the hands of the French and in order to save his own position, Sharpe has to make good on his own boast that he would be able to take a French Eagle.In this novel we get a feel of the confusion of this campaign where political expediency is allowed to trump military realities along with a cracking tale of chaotic fighting and loving.
Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1981-02-09
Physical description
6.7 inches
ISBN
9780451212573