Sharpe’s Company (whose television adaptation also happens
to easily the most faithful and impressive of all the Sharpe episodes; Sean
Bean is in fine form) is not just one of my favourite Sharpe books, but one of
the best books of any type or genre I’ve ever read.
I remember the first time I read Company. I was still in
high school, had already read Sharpe’s Rifles, and basically picked up this one
from the local library because it was the only one they currently had at the
branch. It was a good choice. I’d scarcely read ten pages before realising I
was hooked. For the duration of the novel, I read at absolutely every available
opportunity, racing through the pages, desperate to see what happened next.
It’s fair to say that, in the earlier years of the Peninsula
War, at least, Sharpe’s position was never as tenuous as it was in Company.
Opening with the relatively bloodless capture of Ciudad Rodrigo, the South
Essex have the misfortune to lose their colonel, Lawford, to a horrendous
injury. Sharpe, on a more personal note, loses his biggest champion. This comes
on top of news that his captaincy gazette was refused in London, likely paving
the way for Sharpe to be replaced as commander of the South Essex light
company, on top of a new colonel in relief of Lawford.
Worse, still, is the arrival of Sharpe’s oldest and most
violent adversary: Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill. Brilliantly written by Cornwell
(and brilliantly brought to life by Pete Postethwaite on television), Hakeswill
is the epitome of evil, a man who tormented Sharpe during the long Indian
campaigns and had him flogged.
The twitching, certifiably mad Hakeswill is back on active
duty with the Army, and early on he makes an enemy of Sharpe’s ever-present
companion, Harper, and of Teresa Moreno, Sharpe’s on-again-off-again partner,
who arrives in the wake of Ciudad Rodrigo with news that will change Sharpe’s
life forever: she had a baby, and Sharpe is a father. The girl is sick in
Badajoz.
Events conspire to see Sharpe moved out of the light company
so that the new captain, Rymer, can put his own stamp on things. A sullen
Sharpe is left to command the battalion’s wives, amongst other menial duties as
the British Army heads for the fortress-town of Badajoz. Hakeswill makes life
difficult for the company and Sharpe, wanting to get into the town as soon as
possible to protect Teresa and his daughter, Antonia, from the British, who
almost certainly loot and ransack the town if they win the battle, decides to
apply to lead the Forlorn Hope, to be first into what is expected to be a
bloody breach.
There’s so much going on in Sharpe’s Company that your head
starts to spin. Cornwell has woven a fantastic tail, including (at least)
cameos from all the familiar faces, from the South Essex and elsewhere in the
Army. Of course, everything is destined to come to a head at Badajoz. All of
Cornwell’s battle scenes are brilliantly written, but this one is particularly good.
The blood and horror and desperation of men on both sides of the fight, not to
mention those civilians trapped in the fortress-city, is expertly brought to
life.
Sharpe’s Company is perhaps the high-water mark of the
entire series – although Waterloo, Enemy, Honour and Trafalgar are right up
there for mine, too. Company is unquestionably excellent reading, historical
fiction from the top shelf. I hated that it came to an end!
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