The Sharpe Novels – Bernard Cornwell      

Richard Sharpe first emerges as a private soldier in a British regiment fighting in India.  His career follows an unpredictable path as he fights off enemies, both domestic and foreign, saves the life of the Duke of Wellington, earns a battlefield promotion, and slowly rises in the army despite the worst efforts of better born and educated though less adept at fighting enemies.  The Sharpe chronicles follow Richard Sharpe through the Napoleonic Wars to Waterloo, and, now, beyond.  The individual volumes are often based on real battles within the context of a nearly forgotten campaign within a real war. 

Bernard Cornwell is something of a hack, a talented one, but a hack nevertheless.  He has produced series novels dealing with the American Civil War as well as the Arthurian legend.  The original eleven Sharpe novels were concerned with Richard Sharpe’s military adventures in Wellington’s campaign against Napoleon in Spain.  They are filled with bloody battles, dastardly French enemies, incompetent Spanish officers, arrogant British officers, and beautiful women.  This mix emerges as engaging enough to keep a reader moving through the series.  Because the nautical field for this period has been pretty well mined by C.S. Forrester, Alexander Pope, Kent, and, of course, the incomparable Patrick O’Brien, whose Aubrey – Matarin series set the bar so high no sane writer would attempt to surpass it,   Cornwell, being a sane and canny writer, has chosen the British army of the same period as the stage for Richard Sharpe.  This proves to be a good choice.

Cornwell is smart in other ways.  He was lucky in the BBC chose his series for serialization in a set of Masterpiece Theater films for television.  While I have not been able to get ahold of any of them, Internet discussions of them suggest they are fun and worth watching.  The films apparently follow the books with a fair degree of accuracy.  Still pictures I have seen provide characters who don’t fit well the ones I imagine in my reading.  I’m still eager to try to see them, but I’m glad to have read the series before seeing any of the films.  Further evidence of Cornwell’s canniness is his willingness to add prequels to his series.  To date, five prequels, an interval, and one sequel to the original eleven novels have been written.  They fill in Sharpe’s early history, and, presumably, bring his event filled life to a happy conclusion.  While the original eleven novels begin in Spain and end at Waterloo, I recommend reading the books in chronological order rather than their order of composition, as Sharpe’s demeanor, behavior, and degree of polish change as he ages and moves up the military ladder.  The prequels provide a context which enriches the stories presented in the core novels.  The originals are published by Penguin Books, while the newer additions have been published in the US by Harper-Collins. 

These novels do not deserve to be designated as literature, but the provide a reader with an engaging series of swashbuckling novels, suitable material for enjoying between heavier fare or for taking on as worthwhile historical fiction.  Richard Sharpe is a character the reader begins to care about.  His friends, enemies, and lovers bring flavor and continuity to the series.