Sharpe's Fury: Richard Sharpe & the Battle of Barrosa, March 1811 (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #11)
Description
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This is the long-awaited twenty-first novel in the number one bestselling series featuring Richard Sharpe. In the winter of 1811 the war seemed lost. All Spain has fallen to the French, except for Cadiz which is now the Spanish capital and is under siege. Wellington and his British army are in Portugal, waiting for spring to spark the war to life again. Richard Sharpe and his company are part of a small expeditionary force sent to break a bridge across the River Guadiana. What begins as a brilliant piece of soldiering turns into disaster, thanks to the brutal savagery of the French Colonel Vandal who is leading his battalion to join the siege of Cadiz. Sharpe extricates a handful of men from the debacle and is driven south into the threatened city. There, in Cadiz, he discovers more than one enemy. Many Spaniards doubt Britain's motives and believe their future would be brighter if they made peace with the French, and one of them, a baleful priest, secures a powerful weapon to break the British alliance. He will use a beautiful whore and the letters she received from a wealthy man. The priest will use blackmail, and Sharpe must defeat him in a sinister war of knife and treachery in the dark alleys of the city. Yet the alliance will only survive if the French siege can be lifted. An allied army marches from the city to take on the more powerful French and, once again, a brilliant piece of soldiering turns to disaster, this time because the Spanish refuse to fight. A small British force is trapped by a French army, and the only hope now lies with the outnumbered redcoats who, on a hill beside the sea, refuse to admit defeat. And there, in the sweltering horror of Barossa, Sharpe finds Colonel Vandal again. "Sharpe's Fury" is based on the real events of the winter of 1811 that led to the extraordinary victory of Barossa, the battle which saw the British capture the first French eagle of the Napoleonic Wars.
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Customer reviews for "Sharpe's Fury: Richard Sharpe & the Battle of Barrosa, March 1811 (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #11)"
«Sharpe marches on, agian.»
I stumbled on to the Sharpe series accidently. I have now read all 20+ and am working on the video series. The books are better, even though Sean Bean does a good job in the videos, he is not whom I pictured as Richard Sharpe. (Too short and too fair.) The books have some repetitive themes, the battle horrors, while accurate get a little tiresome when repeated so often, but then Cornwell didn't write them intending them to be read one after the other.
As a history major I am very impressed with the research the author has done to make his novels so real. Tarring mustaches! I'd never heard of that. The action scenes are well written and the plots are mostly realistic, even though getting saved at the last minutes time after time stretches it. As I said, I'm sure these books were not meant to be read back to back to back.
In all, worth the effort.
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«Intrigue, underhandedness, politics...»
Good fall asleep reading, except you keep wanting to read another chapter.
Bernard Cornwell continues his story about Richard Scharpe. Richard Sharpe is a fictional character in the tradition of the Horatio Hornblower series by CS Forrester. Instead of following the rise of a Navy midshipman rising through the ranks of the British Navy (interestingly following a similiar path as Nelson). Richard Sharp is a the soldier on the land directly fighting Napoleon. The story by itself is exciting and would be enough.
For me the frosting on the cake is the way Bernard weaves the history into a fictional story. The reader comes away understanding Spain's attitude towards France. The fear the French had for the Spanish gurella fighters. The tensions and anger between the Spanish governments and England.
It's also intrigueing to compare the foibles of a great man in the early 1800s and compare that with our political leaders today. I can imagine thier are men in Richard Sharpe's situation cleaning up political and other indiscretions in our time as well.
Richard Sharpe is similiar to an 18th Century James Bond, though the gadgets are replaced with a determination, viscousness and raw edge not seen in Roger Moore's James Bond, that allows him to step across the grey areas of right and wrong. Instead focusing on staying alive and accomplishing a goal no matter how sordid or morally unclear.
Enjoyed the book a great deal.
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«Good but not the best Sharpe book.»
As a new comer to Sharpe books, i have been reading them in chronological order. So this is #11 for me. I must say I love ALL the Richard Sharpe books - I am usually a sci fi fantasy reader but from the first Sharpe novel (Sharp's Tiger) I was hooked. The depth of detail, the smell of the battlefield, its all so very well done.
I have to say however, this is my least favorite Sharpe book of the 11. It's not that bad - it's just not as good as the others. The main reason for this is that for some reason, Sharpe virtually disappears from the 2nd half of the book. More so than the past books, this is almost 2 very different books. The first half is all about Sharpe trying to recover stolen letters that are being used to blackmail an english ambassador. Once that's taken care of - the vantage shifts away from Sharpe and onto General Graham (a fine character to be sure) and Sharpe is only seen intermittently while the main battles rages. This confused me as all previous Sharpe books thrust our Captain right into the main events of the story. Usually Cornwell has no problem putting his fictional Captain right into the main events of battle - but for some reason Sharpe only hovers around the edge of this one. I found that odd.
So, in the end my only complaint is not enough of our favorite rogue, Captain Richard Sharpe. Of course I'll be onto #12 soon enough.
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