Published: 1993
Chronology: Richard Sharpe #9
Genre: Historical fiction, war,
Napoleonic Era
Kitch’s Rating: 6.5/10
SPOILERS AHEAD
It’s 1809 and despite the fact that Richard Sharpe captured
a French eagle at Talavera (a battle that the British won decisively) the war
is still going badly for the British armies under the command of the Duke of
Wellington, Sir Arthur Wellesley. He isn’t getting much help from his Spanish
and Portuguese allies, and a French army, led by Marshal Massena, is getting
ready to encircle the fortress-town of Almeida.
Fresh from a confrontation with a snooty provost, Sharpe,
his green-jacketed rifleman, Lieutenant Knowles and the redcoats who make up
the balance of the South Essex light company are sent on a dangerous mission to
retrieve some gold that Wellington says – without actually saying why – is
vitally important to the war effort. Without it, there will be another British
retreat, so Sharpe must bring it back, or else, calamity. He is obviously the
right and ruthless man for the job.
Unfortunately for Sharpe, the gold rightfully belongs to the
Spanish and must be stolen from a dangerous partisan leader named El Catolico,
a man of rare violence and, almost immediately, a gentleman you know is going
to rub Sharpe the wrong way. Also making Sharpe’s life difficult is Major
Kearsey, an exploring officer who clearly has an affinity for the Spanish and
who believes that the gold is rightfully theirs.
The partisan of most interest, other than El Catolico, is
his bethrohed, Teresa Moreno, a young but well experienced killer who has about
as much love for the French as Sharpe does. It doesn’t take a genius to see
what’s going to happen: Sharpe wants the girl and he wants the gold, and even
El Catolico’s scheming won’t divert him from the task. He’s stubborn,
determined, single-minded and necessarily ruthless, too. No wonder Wellington
chose Sharpe for the job.
Cornwell’s greatest success with these Sharpe novels (and
others, including the excellent Starbuck Chronicles) is that he weaves a fictional
narrative into real events, and the pursuit of the gold, the girl and the
partisan takes Sharpe and his men to Almeida, which is soon to come under the strenuous
attention of French siege guns. There, Sharpe meets more resistance, from a
British officer in charge of the defence, and he is ordered to hand the gold
over to El Catolico.
Instead, Sharpe comes up with a daring plan that involves
the destruction of the town by igniting the ammunition store. In reality,
Almeida was blown to smithereens, but the cause remains unknown. Cornwell, as
he often does, puts Sharpe right in the middle, and in this fictionalised
version of the aborted siege, it is the rifleman who destroys the town in order
to keep the gold from El Catolico and take it back to Wellington. Not before a
showdown with his partisan nemesis that’s satisfying enough, even though Sharpe
is rarely in any danger, given that we’re only about a third of the way into
the war and into his exploits.
I’m re-reading the Sharpe
novels in chronological order and, so far, this is the one I’ve enjoyed the
least. It was one of the first written by Cornwell – which leads to a few plot
inconsistences, especially when relating Sharpe’s experiences in India, which
differ to the Indian trilogy – and obviously he hasn’t yet expanded the
characters like he’s had a chance to do writing prequels and sequels that slot
in amongst the original batch. Not to say it’s a bad book, because it isn’t, I
just didn’t find it to be as good as Sharpe’s
Eagle or my two early favourites, Triumph
and Trafalgar. That said, Bernard
Cornwell’s worst is better than the absolute best from some authors.
Of course, it’s important in the grand scheme of things,
introducing the character of Teresa, and deepening the bond between Sharpe and
his constant companion, Sergeant Patrick Harper. Both Harper and Teresa play
important roles in the future.
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