Sharpe's Rifles

From Books of Bernard Cromwell

It is the bitter winter of 1809. Britain's forces are retreating towards Corunna, with Napoleon's victorious armies in pursuit. Lieutenant Richard Sharpe and a detachment of Riflemen are cut off from the British Army and surrounded by enemy troops.

Their only hope of escape is to accept the help of a Spanish calvalry officer, but his assisstance comes at a price: to join the assault on the holy city Santiago de Compostela, held by a strong French force. Only Sharpe can snatch victory from clear disaster.

Contents 1 Storyline 2 Characters 3 Locations 4 Other Details 5 Timeline

[edit] Storyline

The story recounts Sharpe's exploits in the Retreat to Corunna. Sharpe's battalion, acting as rearguard to the army, are cutdown by a squadron of French regular calvalry. From then on the story follows the small band of surviving riflemen, from the 95th Rifles, as they try to forment an uprising in the city of Santiago de Compostela. Sharpe's Spanish ally is Major Blas Vivar and they are fighting the Don's brother, the Count of Mouromorto, Tomas Vivar.

We meet Patrick Harper and the core group of the surviving company for the first time. Running along in the background is the other Irishman in the series, Captain Michael Hogan, who appears for the first time at the end of the novel.

In the book, he sees Captain John Murray's Heavy Calvalry Sword as clumsy and cumbersome, yet in India he wishes he had such a heavy sword to butcher people with. During his time in India he used a claymore which he found to be less cumbersome than the calvalry sword.

[edit] Characters

• Lieutenant Richard Sharpe - Lieutenant in the British Army
• Rifleman Patrick Harper - one of Sharpe's new battalion of Riflemen
• Captain Michael Hogan - an Engineer, also one of Wellesly's exploring officers
• Sir John Moore - commander of the British Army in Portugal
• Major Blas Vivar - a Spanish ally
• Count Tomas Vivar - a Spanish foe, ally of the French and brother of Blas Vivar
• Captain John Murray - Sharpe's commander who dies, leaving Sharpe his own sword
• Louisa Parker - young English woman whom Sharpe takes a fancy to. Ends up marrying Major Blas Vivar
• George Parker - father of Louisa Parker
• Colonel Pierre De l'Eclin - French Army Colonel
• Rifleman Isaiah Tongue - one of Sharpe's new battalion of Riflemen
• Lieutenant Diego Davila - Spanish Lieutenant
• Major Warren Dunnet - English Major
• Sergeant Williams - one of Sharpe's new battalion of Riflemen

[edit] Locations

• Santiago de Compostela
• Corunna

[edit] Other Details

This is the first prequel of the Sharpe series, taking him back to the winter before Sharpe's Eagle. Bernard Cornwell has said that he had sworn not to create a prequel, intending to run the series smoothly from Sharpe's Eagle to Sharpe's Waterloo but was persuaded back in 1987 to change his mind when asked by the producers of the proposed Sharpe films.

The film's producers required a start to the story of Richard Sharpe, and with a Spanish company investing in the TV series, it seemed right to redress the balance and include a Spanish character in a major part. Bernard Cornwell wrote that "their request was also a reproof to me, for the Sharpe novels tend to give the impression that the French were defeated in Spain solely by the British army, but that army, while its achievements were magnificent, could never have won without the aid of Spanish and Portuguese forces and, of course, the guerrillas.

[edit] Timeline

January 1809 - Retreat to Corunna