Book Review: Sharpe’s Battle by Bernard Cornwell

Ever since I started reading the Sharpe novels, way back when I was in year ten of high school, Sharpe’s Battle has always been one of my favourites. Back then, it was the second ever Sharpe I read, and simply because it was available on the shelf at my local library, when so many others weren’t. After reading Sharpe’s Rifles and being impressed, Sharpe’s Battle really got me hooked on the stories of the scarred British rifleman and I really haven’t looked back since.

Now, I’m reading all twenty-two Sharpe novels in chronological order, and after the additional novels that Cornwell has written since publishing Battle and the other originals, it’s the twelfth in the series, and, like I said, one of the best. (Right now, I have Triumph, Fortress, Waterloo, Company, Trafalgar and Regiment, Enemy and Honour all on about level pegging.)

Set in 1811, around the decisive battle of Fuentes De Onoro, at which French Marshal Massena hopes that he can turn the recent tide of British victories by coaxing the Duke of Wellington into a mistake. As it eventuates, Wellington does make a mistake, but is saved from disaster by the hard marching and timely arrival of Robert ‘Black Bob’ Craufurd’s Light Division.

Prior to the battle – taking place over multiple days, a rarity in the Peninsula War – Sharpe earns himself the enmity of a French officer, Brigadier General Guy Loup, who heads the brutal Wolf battalion, who dress entirely in grey and seem to have little concern for the rules of war.

Sharpe and his men come across a village where they find some of Loup’s soldiers in the middle of raping a woman, and the headstrong Sharpe decides the best course of action is to put them against a wall and shoot them. Which he does, and earns an enemy in Loup, who swears to kill Sharpe at the earliest opportunity.

Meanwhile, Sharpe is temporarily seconded to the Real Compania Irlandesa, a unit of Spanish-Irish soldiers who make up part of the captured Spanish king’s bodyguard (so, clearly, they weren’t doing a good job) who have been foisted upon Wellington. The Duke wants them gone, but cannot simply banish them – politics, you see – so he hopes that Sharpe’s rough brand of discipline will send them packing anyway.

Of course, Sharpe is stubborn and does his best to train the hapless men into soldiers, but must deal with a French plot to destabilise Irish regiments in the British army – this is the brainchild of the French spymaster Pierre Ducos, who will be a long-time tormentor of Sharpe’s – whilst also trying to fend off attacks from Loup’s brigade, and work out just who in the company is a traitor. Oh, and he clashes with the foppish Lord Kiely. It isn’t a Sharpe novel until he upsets some high-born officer.

After a battle in which the Real Compania Irlandesa are roundly beaten by Loup, Sharpe is in disgrace and the subject of a court of inquiry due to the French he executed. But, as often happens, he is saved that ignominy by the commencement of the battle at Fuentes De Onoro and, towards the end, has a chance at revenge on Loup.

You don’t need me to tell you how it ends, but I can say that the entire book is a great read, and Loup is one of Sharpe’s better adversaries. Not quite as good, though, as Pierre Ducos, who will loom large in the coming novels.

If you love Sharpe, you can’t go wrong with Sharpe’s Battle.