Sharpe’s Trafalgar: The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805: Book 4 (The Sharpe Series) - Softcover

Cornwell, Bernard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 000723516X ISBN 13: 9780007235162

Publisher: Harper, 2006

Synopsis

The seventeenth Sharpe novel sees Sharpe returning from India to London to join the newly formed Green Jackets.

Soldier, hero, rogue – Sharpe is the man you always want on your side. Born in poverty, he joined the army to escape jail and climbed the ranks by sheer brutal courage. He knows no other family than the regiment of the 95th Rifles whose green jacket he proudly wears.

In this adventure, Sharpe is on his way home from India. He is sailing with the Royal Navy, who are hunting a formidable French warship, the ‘Revenant’, carrying a secret treaty that may prove lethal to the British.

The ‘Revenant’ makes it to the safety of the French and Spanish fleets off Cadiz, and it seems Sharpe’s enemies have found safety. Yet over the horizon is another fleet, led by Nelson, and Sharpe’s revenge will come in a savage climax when the two armadas meet on a calm October day off Cape Trafalgar.

About this title

Review:

Ensign Richard Sharpe is back in Sharpe's Trafalgar, the 17th in Bernard Cornwell's remarkable series of Sharpe novels. Sharpe is at the thick of things again, but this time not on the battlefield, but on the high seas.

The year is 1805 and Sharpe is stuck in Bombay, waiting passage back to England on the Calliope. He soon discovers that his fellow passengers include the aged, patrician Lord William Hale and his "breathtakingly, achingly, untouchably beautiful" young wife, Lady Grace. The scene is set for a romantic but eventful passage, which becomes even more entangled as the Calliope is surprised by the rogue French warship the Revenant. The ensuing maritime adventures sail Sharpe right into one of the most momentous naval battles of all time, off Cape Trafalgar, on the 21st of October 1805, as the massed fleets of Spain and France face the might of Admiral Horatio Nelson's English navy.

Sharpe's Trafalgar is one of Cornwell's most ambitious Sharpe novels to date. Filled with the Cornwell trademarks of heroism, graphic violence, romance and vivid evocation of the period, its portrayal of Sharpe at sea is convincingly done and Sharpe's encounter with Nelson himself, alongside his previous encounters with historical figures such a sWellington, is particularly effective--the frail Admiral characterised as asking "nothing from life except to be seated with his good friends Chase, Blackwood and Richard Sharpe". Sharpe's Trafalgar finds Bernard Cornwell on top form; Sharpe fans will not be disappointed. --Jerry Brotton

Review:

‘Sharpe and his creator are national treasures.' Sunday Telegraph

'Bernard Cornwell is a literary miracle. Year after year, hail, rain, snow, war and political upheavals fail to prevent him from producing the most entertaining and readable historical novels of his generation.' Daily Mail

'Cornwell's narration is quite masterly and supremely well-researched.' Observer
‘The best battle scenes of any writer I’ve ever read, past or present. Cornwell really makes history come alive.’ George R.R. Martin

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 000723516X
• ISBN 13: 9780007235162
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384