This book stands out in the Sharpe series in that it is predominantly based in England and the only fighting occurs in the prologue and epilogue. That means that this book is entirely carried on storyline, without the frequent “kill some frogs” tactic that he uses to liven things up normally.
I mean, if the plot is getting dull, all I have to do is wheel on forty thousand frogs and mow them down - everyone’s happy again!
Such a good book!
I started it yesterday morning whilst Radio made a blog post. I tried maybe a chapter before succumbing to sleep yesterday evening, and then killed the rest of it during today.
The war is over, a vanquished Napoleon forced to abdicate and exiled to Elba.
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.
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.
By Bernard Cornwell
A really creative plot goes into this story. I’m an unusual Sharpe fan in that I don’t like the battle scenes. It’s nothing to do with squeamishness; I just find several pages describing a skirmish and the tactics used during it a little tediousness.
I didn’t have to contend with that in this story. There was only the one battle, and that was in the end and covered in a couple of pages.
Cornwell really hits a niche in creating memorable, dangerous villains. It’s not enough to have great hulking men; these are just the sergeants! The villains all have traits that make them worthy of fear, all in a more sinister way than merely killing people.
By Bernard Cornwell
Sharpe and his team are well established by this point. He’s Wellington’s favourite and captain of the 95th. They’ve recently secured famous victories at Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz (Sharpe personally storming the third breach), and are now looking at kicking the French out of Salamanca, a university town which was apparently as beautiful then as it was when I visited it in 2000.
This was the first of the prequels but was later prequelled itself. It makes sense to me.
The Sharpe series originally began in 1981 with Sharpe’s Eagle, set during the Talavera campaign of July 1809. More books followed in sequence up to 1814 (still a year away from Waterloo) until a change occurred in 1998, when Cornwell wrote a book set a few months before the initial one that kickstarted the series. This is that book.
