Sharpe’s Company
By Bernard Cornwell
This was one of the books I recently took on holiday with me, and it was the first to be started during the journey.
I had been looking forward to it because, of the original series, it is the first appearance of Obadiah Hakeswill.
I wasn’t let down: He’s downright rotten here.
I notice a difference between how Cornwell wrote about him in 1982 and then after 1997. In the later works Hakeswill is still a nasty piece of work, but there’s something funny about him too, be it the blatant racism, sucking-up to his superiors, smelly feet that he complains don’t smell at all because he washed them six months ago, and so on.
In Company, though, there’s nothing redeeming about him at all, and there’s not the slightest sense of anti-hero about him.
This book was his debut and he has a major role in it, getting Harper flogged, trying to rape Teresa, and ultimately deserting.
I enjoyed it, though, as per usual, the battle scenes get in the way for me.
In a nutshell, Sharpe loses his captaincy, since it was gazetted rather than commissioned, an officer who is clueless purchased it, and this is the story of Sharpe wanting to get his rank back.
Hakeswill, having tried to rape Teresa again, deserts, knowing only death waits for him otherwise. Sharpe meets baby Antonia for the first time, and he and Teresa wed.
As soon as I finished this book, I had to read the next, Enemy, to see Hakeswill, the man who survived the gallows and has since convinced himself and others that he can’t die, get his comeuppance.
Tags: Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe