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Summary: The best damn Private in the army
Review: This book is the best i have ever read. Bar none. Private Richard Sharpe is so believable that i find it hard to believe that he was not a real person. Sargeant Hakeswilll is cool too but sharpe rules
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Summary: He has arrived
Review: I have read the Warlord Chronicles and the first of the Grail Quest series and found both of them fantastic fast-paced fun. Bernard Cornwell is absolutely brilliant at writing historical fiction that has both gripping story lines and breathtaking action. He is a master at changing tone at a moment's notice, giving plenty of time for the odd piece of romance or comedy whilst never getting bogged down and deviating too much from the important bits. In Sharpe's Tiger, chronologically the first of the score of Sharpe novels, Cornwell has our hero a dashing, raw recruit of the 33rd regiment in India. At the island fortress of Seringapatam, the Tippoo, enemy of the British, is holed up plotting an alliance with the French to remove the British from his lands forever. When a senior British officer is captured, Sharpe is given the task of saving him, as a way out of the huge number of lashes he has just been given as punishment for striking an officer. The sentence is the result of the utterly odious Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill's incessant victimisation of the soldiers beneath him - Sharpe being his least favourite. And there the fun begins. Firstly the infiltration of the fort, then the discovery of the captured officer and then the escape. Except Sharpe cannot do anything the easy way. In fact the beauty is that he seems to go out of his way to find the trickiest route, causing as much mayhem as he does it. It is a credit to Cornwell that Sharpe never suspends belief for the sake of more amazing thrills. Everything he allows Sharpe to do is possible and in some instances, probably rather close to a re-enactment of some courageous derring-do of a real-life British soldier 200 years ago or so. It is the adroitness of Cornwell's writing that he manages to carry this off with such aplomb. If you like this sort of thing, then I think it safe to say there is no better than Mr. Bernard Cornwell. And now onto Sharpe's Triumph (I am doing them in chronological order, you see, I believe that to be the best way.)
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Summary: Great story, grounded on fact
Review: This is the first thing I have read by Bernard Cornwell, and I am glad that I have the series to yet read. I found this a fast-moving, slashing story and one has the impresion that it is carefully researched. I read my encyclopedia's entries on the siege and battle of Seringapathan and as far as I could tell the book is all right, except that the fictional characters are not mentioned in the article. (: We all know of Arthur Wellesley but some of us did not know of Baird. In the Brittanica article on Baird we find: "In the defeat of Col. Baillie's force by Hyder Ali, Baird was taken prisoner, and remained a prisoner for four years. After a short interval at home he returned to India in 1791 and took part in the campaign against Tippoo. After serving at the Cape of Good Hope he returned to India, and took part in the last war against Tippoo. Maj. Gen. Baird stormed Seringapatan and became master of the place where he had so long been a prisoner. He was bitterly disappointed when the command of the place was given to Sir A. Wellesley..." So nice to learn accurate history from rip-roaring fiction. I have read all the reviews to date (32) and agree with the good things everybody says.
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Summary: Why did I wait so long to read this?
Review: This is the first Sharpe novel I've read and what a mistake it was to wait so long. My general avoidance of fiction, especially of the serial nature, caused me to foolishly ignore this series. Sharpe's Tiger was a mixed blessing: Yes, I loved the book, but as another reviewer warned, I am now addicted. Thankfully, I picked the right book to start with, this being the first chronologically in Sharpe's military career. Now, rather than go into detail about the plot and characters (which have been adequately covered in other reviews) I wanted to underscore how impressed I am with the historical accuracy. Cornwell has been first rate in his attention to detail and in describing the conditions of military life in the British Army of the period, even in drawing distinctions between regular army regiments and those of the British East India Company. But even more impressive is the amount of research that must have gone into writing such a novel. With historical fiction you always have people such as myself looking for errors and making pedantic statements like, "But the 52nd Regiment of Foot was never involved in the attack on Java". But Sharpe's Tiger, and presumably the rest of the series, is meticulously researched. Probably not one person in 10,000 has heard of the battle of Mallavelly (the only reference I have found is in Vol.4 of Fortescue's History of the British Army which is, sadly, long ago out-of-print) yet Cornwell presents a robust picture of this engagement. Being particularly interested in the Peninsular War (the setting for many of the other Sharpe adventures), I was elated to finally discovered what so many fans of Cornwell had known for a long time: The Sharpe series, like Hornblower, is sure to be a classic of this genre.
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Summary: A great read!
Review: What can I say about about this author except that he never fails to disapoint. After having read his Arthur and Starbuck series it took me some time to get around to the Sharpes series and now I wonder why I waited so long. A great story, very realistic battle scenes and even some great humor to. This is a great introduction to the character Richard Sharpe. I highly recomend this book to anone who enjoys history and adventure. My only criticism was that it was to short, despite their being many more Richard Sharpe books!
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Summary: Richard Sharpe without Harper
Review: I must admit that I love Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series. The characters are always memorable, the story interesting(and based partly on fact), and the battle scenes very exciting. This isn't the first Sharpe book I've read, but it's the first in chronological order, and that made it even more of a pleasure to read. Richard Sharpe is only a private in his early 20's in this one, and his tough but likable personality and incredible bravery are fully intact, so you'll be cheering for Sharpe in no time. Obadiah Hakeswill, Sharpe's nastiest enemy, and one of Cornwell's best characters, plays a significant role in this book which makes it even more interesting. Just like the other Sharpe novels, as soon as you finish it you'll immediately want to read the next one. So be warned: Sharpe becomes an addiction very quickly. But hey, and addiction like this is a good thing, right?
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Summary: Stirring stuff
Review: Sharpe's Tiger moves along at a cracking pace and captures the life of times of soldiers in that era very well. A good rollicking read and it's not hard to imagine that Cornwell spent a previous incarnation trudging through India with a trail of bibbis behind him.
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Summary: Richard Sharpe prior to the Penninsular Campaign.
Review: Richard Sharpe and the battle of Assaye form the conculsion of this book. Richard Sharpe is young, scared, in India and has to do what is called "dessert" his own regiment to infiltrate the Sultan's domain to get information for the English army so that they can overcome the Sultan and have a victory that is well executed and well planned. Most of the English believe that Sharpe has turned traitor so that he can penetrate the domain of the Sultan who does have tigers in the city and Sharpe does have his mooments with the Tigers, and he has his moments where he is taught to read in prison with the bible, and taught to love a woman who is another mans wife, who he gives some of the sultans illegal jewels. He learns that he can be used as a man to get the job done in a fight, and he learns that he can be used as a pawn and he learns that he can learn to survive on his own if he has to and not to rely on the army if he gets himself in situations that he cannot handle. We see the boy who is the ruffian and a child of the gutter come to life, we see the boy become a man, and we again see the brilliant writing of Bernard Cornwell who has thrilled millions with the stories of Richard Sharpe! I look forward to his next book and hope if you are a fan of Sharpe that you will read this volume. The character of Richard Sharpe becomes more of a man than the child that he was who joined the British Army to overcome poverty and a penniless existence, its the story of a character who learns to read the bible and makes a friend of the officer who teaches him to read it, its the man against the tiger, and the tiger loses. Its the man who takes gold and jewels to survive and better himself its the story of a beloved character by Bernard Cornwell as a young man, who develops into the Colonel who defeats Napolean at Waterloo its the story of Richard Sharpe who came out of the gutter and became an officer and a leader of men, its the story of a man who will rise in the ranks to be an officer and a "sometimes" gentleman. I recommend this book if you are a fan of Bernard Cornwell and the Sharpe series.
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Summary: Sharpe is one hell of a series.
Review: I had read the starbuck series, by Cornwell. Just now I started reading the sharpe series. I finished this book within 24 hours, after getting it. A true recommendation if you like to read cornwell.
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Summary: The genesis of Cornwell's Sharpe Saga
Review: After having read the Starbuck serie (Civil War) fromB. Cornwell, i had great expectations. To my great delight, the samefeeling of plunging in the middle of an historical battlefield seized me after a few pages, making me forget about (every bloody thing I had to do in) my new house for a few hours. SHARPE'S TIGER is the first in the serie (of about 12) in chronological order. Even though Mr. Cornwell does'nt write them this way, if you want to appreciate the historical flavor and Sharpe's career in Her Majesty's army, you want to read them chronologically. The reader looking for nice fancy figures of speech will be left unsatisfied. Political correctness is also left in the closet. It is blunt, direct cannon-fodder daily life we are looking at and it is written that way One thing is sure, we will all finish that book with the smell of gunpowder floating around us and a smile in the historical note about general Wellington
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