Sharpe’s Battle
By Bernard Cornwell
This story was written at ITV’s request, since they wanted another programme to broadcast. Cornwell wasn’t able to finish the book in time to meet production deadlines, so the endings are very different.
At this point in the Peninsula War the French are still strong in Spain. We’re some months away from the storming of Badajoz and Ciudad Rodrigo, and the British still aren’t aware that, in Wellington, they finally have a general who can fight, so his support is very slow.
In order to continue the war effort at its current rate of success, the Spanish will need to declare Wellington their generalissimo, to complement his position as the head of the British and Portuguese armies.
We start off in Portugal or Spain. We don’t know which and, more importantly, neither do Sharpe and his crew, who are hopelessly lost. Whilst out in the wilds they stumble upon something that makes them sick to their stomachs, as tough as these men are. Two French soldiers, dressed in grey, are raping a girl. The surrounding houses are littered with the bodies of old and young, all tortured and raped. This is the work of Brigadier General Guy Loup, who takes pride in exacting severe punishment for attacks by partisans, such that attacks are rare.
Sharpe is too disgusted to return the prisoners and shoots them in front of his enemy, and this is where his story starts, only ending in the death of one or the other.
I didn’t like this book so much. There’s a marked contrast between the earlier books and those that were written later. In the TV books, Cornwell drops his previous tradition of reasonable chapter lengths, preferring to draw out the story over fewer chapters that are longer in length, which was off putting to me.
This book also suffered because of the number of pages that went into describing the battle scenes. They were lengthy and I was hoping they’d end. Of course, I’m in the minority, because, for a lot of people, the fighting is a selling point, but I prefer the storyline aspects.
Major Pierre Ducos makes a small appearance, and there’s a shout-out for Obadiah Hakeswill too, which is pleasing for those of us more familiar with the series, but I still can’t shake off the feeling that this book was too lengthy and the storyline was too often interrupted by overlong battle descriptions.
Tags: Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe