Book Review: Sharpe’s Eagle by Bernard Cornwell

Series Chronology: Sharpe #8

Published: February 1981

Genre: War / Historical Fiction

Kitch's Rating: 9/10 

SPOILERS AHEAD!

The first Sharpe book written by Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe’s Eagle finds the titular hero, Lieutenant Richard Sharpe, in July 1809, working with the Irish Major Hogan, an engineer attached to the staff of Sir Arthur Wellesley, who would soon become better known as the Duke of Wellington.

Saddled with uncertain Spanish allies, Wellesley’s army is soon to plunge into Spain and bring the marauding French armies to battle. Sharpe is sent with Hogan to destroy a bridge, and is himself saddled with the South Essex Regiment, fresh from England, strangers to the battlefield and commanded by a conniving politician named Sir Henry Simmerson, who fancies himself to be a brilliant military genius, despite having never seen a French musket fired in anger.

As you might expect, Simmerson quickly develops a dislike for Sharpe, a gutter-born soldier raised from the ranks after an act of suicidal bravery – saving Wellesley at the Battle of Assaye in India – whom Sir Henry believes is going to be an impediment to his regiment. He detests Sharpe because Sharpe is not a gentleman, and because he dares to speak against the colonel, who has surrounded himself by a group of ‘yes’ men, including his nephew, a particularly nasty piece of work, Christian Gibbons, a lieutenant in the South Essex’s light company. As you also might expect, Sharpe is not a huge fan of Simmerson’s, either.

Sharpe and his riflemen – including the towering Sergeant Patrick Harper and the wily old sharpshooting poacher, Daniel Hagman – who were cut off from the 95^th Rifles after the disastrous retreat to Corunna, under Sir John Moore, are ordered to accompany Hogan (who himself as a serious dislike of Simmerson and Gibbons), the South Essex and a Spanish regiment to destroy a bridge in the Spanish countryside.

It is during that relatively simple process that the South Essex are subject to Sir Henry’s gross incompetence, and cut apart by French cavalry, who succeed in capturing the regiment’s colour. This is about the most ignominious fate that can befall a regiment. But it gets worse, for Simmerson, on the far side of the bridge, orders it blown before Sharpe and most of the South Essex can get back across. Once he fights off the French and manages to get back to Hogan, Sharpe is arrested.

Wellesley effectively squashes that charge, and instead promotes Sharpe to captain, to take over the light company from a man called Lennox, to whom Sharpe and Harper make a special promise. The South Essex is reduced to a holding battalion, and Simmerson is shouted out of Wellesley’s office. 

The problem for Sharpe is that Sir Henry has powerful friends back in English parliament, and he concocts a letter to be sent home, a fabrication that lays the blame for the loss of the colours on Sharpe’s shoulders. All Sharpe can look forward to after Simmerson’s letter reaches London and drags his name through the proverbial mud is demotion and a posting in the West Indies, where men die horribly and slowly from fever.

Unless Sharpe can capture an Eagle, the French equivalent of British regimental colours, which is the promise he and Harper made to the dying Captain Lennox. A promise that will balance the loss Typically for Sharpe, there is a girl involved, the beautiful Josefina, who earns the enmity of Christian Gibbons and his offsider, Berry. That, in turn, earns them Sharpe’s own particularly violent type of enmity.

Sharpe’s Eagle has all the hallmarks of a great Sharpe novel: officers behaving badly, Sharpe fighting not just the French hordes but those in his own army who distrust him, a beautiful damsel in distress, and some brilliantly-written battle scenes. Cornwell is in a league of his own when it comes to weaving a fictional narrative in and around real and important historical events.   

Everything comes to a head at Talavera, where an outnumbered British army stands against overwhelming French numbers on a day that will make Wellesley’s name and cast a mortal blow against those who believe he is not fit to be a general. As if memorable and hard-fought victories in India hadn’t been enough.

Cornwell can write a battle scene like no other. When Sharpe and Harper go into battle at Talavera alongside the untested, shamed South Essex regiment, you’re right there beside them, in amongst shell, shot and swirling smoke, hacking through French lines, seeking to capture the Eagle that will solve so many problems.

Sharpe novels are consistently great, and Sharpe’s Eagle – the one that started it all, and resulted in twenty-one other adventures, either prequels or sequels – is amongst the very best.