Sharpe's Escape (Sharpe, Book 10) [Paperback]

Bernard Cornwell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2004

The twentieth instalment in the bestselling Sharpe series. It is 1810 and the French are making yet another attempt to invade Portugal. Facing them is a wasted land, stripped of food by Wellington's orders, and captain Richard Sharpe. But Sharpe is in trouble. His job as Captain of the Light Company is under threat and he has made a new enemy, a Portuguese criminal known as Ferragus. Sharpe, discarded by his regiment, wages a private war against Ferragus -- a war fought through the burning, pillaged streets of Coimbra, Portugal's ancient university city. Sharpe's enemies are numerous but on his side he has Sergeant Patrick Harper, the Portuguese officer Jorge Vincent and a prickly English governess, whose first aim is to clean up Sharpe's language. Sharpe's Escape begins on the great, gaunt ridge of Bussaco where a joint British and Portuguese army meets the overwhelming strength of Marshall Massena's crack troops. It finishes at Torres Vedras where the French hopes of occupying Portugal quickly die. This is a classic Sharpe novel, with Richard Sharpe in his finest form reunited with Patrick Harper, and facing enemies on every side.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"So Sharpe and Harper will march again." Thus ended Sharpe's Havoc, the previous (19th) volume in Cornwell's series, and Sharpe aficionados will rejoice that the prophecy has been fulfilled. In September of 1810, just before repulsing the French army on the bare slopes of Bussaco ridge in central Portugal, Captain Sharpe is forced to take Lieutenant Slingsby, Colonel Lawford's arrogant, heavy-drinking brother-in-law, under his wing. Sharpe then stumbles into a confrontation with Ferragus, the malevolent brother of their treacherous Portuguese ally, Major Ferreira, whom he catches illegally hoarding flour to sell to the enemy. Sharpe is soon ambushed by the cowardly Ferragus and barely escapes with his life. The much abused captain is further humiliated when, despite Slingsby's poor performance at Bussaco, Lawford puts him in charge of the troops, then has the effrontery to reprimand Sharpe for refusing to apologize for insulting the fool. When the French find a way to flank them, the British retreat through Coimbra, where Sharpe and Harper, Sharpe's right-hand man, find themselves lured into a trap. Sharpe's old friend, Portuguese captain Vicente, and a young English governess come to Sharpe's rescue just in time for Sharpe to save his battalion, exacting retribution on his enemies in a resoundingly satisfactory denouement. With fully fleshed-out characters and keen human insight, Cornwell just keeps getting better. His faithful will be left hoping Sharpe goes on forever.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Captain Richard Sharpe, the inveterate self-made British soldier, returns in another thrilling adventure set during the Napoleonic Wars. As usual, Sharpe, a former private, is less than prudent when he thumbs his nose at authority to protect his beloved company from the unskilled officer he is assigned to train. Stationed in Portugal during the French invasion of 1810, Sharpe and his men fight valiantly to prevent further incursions by the despised "Frogs." In addition to repelling the enemy, Richard must also do battle with the dangerously underqualified Lieutenant Cornelius Slingsby, a newly minted officer protected by a convoluted kinship to Sharpe's commanding officer, Colonel Lawson. After gallantly prevailing on the treacherous ridge of Bussaco, Sharpe is busted down to quartermaster for refusing to apologize for insulting the incompetent Slingsby during the height of the conflict. But eventually the wily Sharpe saves his troops from certain annihilation under the command of the incompetent and inebriated Slingsby. The boffo battle scenes will appeal to an audience primed for epic military history by the success of the film version of Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander (1969). Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins Pb; U.K. edition (November 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007120141
• ISBN-13: 978-0007120147
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,536,565 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bernard Cornwell was born in London in 1944 - a 'warbaby' - whose father was a Canadian airman and mother in Britain's Women's Auxiliary Air Force. He was adopted by a family in Essex who belonged to a religious sect called the Peculiar People (and they were), but escaped to London University and, after a stint as a teacher, he joined BBC Television where he worked for the next 10 years. He began as a researcher on the Nationwide programme and ended as Head of Current Affairs Television for the BBC in Northern Ireland. It was while working in Belfast that he met Judy, a visiting American, and fell in love. Judy was unable to move to Britain for family reasons so Bernard went to the States where he was refused a Green Card. He decided to earn a living by writing, a job that did not need a permit from the US government - and for some years he had been wanting to write the adventures of a British soldier in the Napoleonic wars - and so the Sharpe series was born. Bernard and Judy married in 1980, are still married, still live in the States and he is still writing Sharpe.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Sharpe Winner!, April 26, 2004

By 

W. Zollo ""the queen"" (MA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sharpe's Escape: Richard Sharpe & the Bussaco Campaign, 1810 (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #10) (Hardcover)

In book 20 of the Sharpe series, Cornwell is still doing what he does best...keeping Sharpe alive, keen, and fresh...and writing the best breathtaking battlescenes ever!

The Battle of Bussaco is so gritty you can smell the gunpowder, feel your mouth go dry with the salt as the Riflemen reload, and feel the smoke smothering and embracing your lungs.
Cornwell's descriptions are vivid and detailed and as authentic as it gets in historical fiction.

Naturally, Sharpe has his own private nemisis - in vol. 20 he's Ferragus, all-around 'bad-boy' selling contraband to the French and annoying Richard with fists, deeds and words.

The lovely Patrick Harper is here also (charming & one of my favorite of Cornwell's characters) and more than a sidekick. Harper grows with each novel as does Hogan (another favorite) who's more than just an engineer.

Brilliant adventure tale!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More adventures in Portugal, April 16, 2005

By 

Frank J. Konopka (Shamokin, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sharpe's Escape (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #10) (Mass Market Paperback)

Richard Sharpe and Sgt. Harper are once again embroiled in Wellington's battle agsainst the French in Portugal. As usual, Sharpe has a chip on his shoulder about senior officers, and feels that his commander is favoring an incompetent officer over him because of the commander's marital relationship with the man. There is the usual fighting, a beautiful woman, a nasty villain, and other assorted problens to overcome before Sharpe and Harper are able to return to their army, having been left behind in a city captured by the French. It's exciting as always, and even though you know that Sharpe is going to come through, your heart beats faster at the tense scenes of trouble and danger. I certainly hope that the author has many more Sharpe adventures to tell, for it would be a shame to have this excellent series end.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Winner in Cornwell's Masterful Series, April 18, 2004

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sharpe's Escape: Richard Sharpe & the Bussaco Campaign, 1810 (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #10) (Hardcover)

Those of you who are coming to SHARPE'S ESCAPE after reading the previous nineteen volumes may be excused for sighing every now and then. Richard Sharpe, that dauntless desperado of Lord Wellington's Peninsular Campaign, is back, fighting against the forces of Napoleon in Portugal. And, of course, Sergeant Patrick Harper is here, wielding his massive nine-barreled gun and yet another incompetent English commander to contend with, and a perfidious ally. And, of course, Sharpe makes a powerful enemy early on, this time a heavily muscled Portuguese enforcer selling contraband to the French. By the time the innocent English governess shows up behind enemy lines, even the most devoted fan of Bernard Cornwell's masterful series may be rolling his eyes a bit. This is --- quite literally ---- territory that fans of the series have marched over before, more than once.

Cornwell has a gift and a curse. His gift is his intimate knowledge of Wellington's campaign against Napoleon and his ability to transmit that knowledge through the exploits of Richard Sharpe on the battlefield. (Sharpe's parallel achievements in the bedroom, of course, cannot be attributed to the Iron Duke, though Cornwell records those faithfully as well.) His curse is that he can't stop writing. Cornwell is almost maddeningly prolific --- but unlike other prolific writers, he is also incredibly consistent. SHARPE'S ESCAPE is the equal of the other nineteen; there's no appreciable difference in quality. Only the situations remain familiar. So if you're reading SHARPE'S ESCAPE and think you might have read it before, you may be very nearly right.

But if you haven't --- well, then, perhaps it's time that you had.

SHARPE'S ESCAPE is about a campaign as stern and unyielding as its hero. The British forces, in the early stage of the battle for the Iberian Peninsula, are marching towards the safety of the Lines of Torres Vedras, a great defensive bastion protecting the city of Lisbon from invasion. Wellington expects the French to besiege the lines of fortifications, and the best way to win such a siege is to deny as much rations to the enemy as possible. Lieutenant Richard Sharpe and his men are on a scorched-earth mission as the book starts, seeking to destroy as much food as possible while herding the local civilians behind friendly lines.

Sharpe's mission is complicated by a Portuguese major who is ostensibly gathering information from the enemy and, not incidentally, selling food to them --- food that coincidentally happens to be owned by his brother. Sharpe disrupts this flow of food and makes two powerful enemies. Additionally, Sharpe faces opposition in his South Essex Regiment, as his colonel seeks to promote a socially connected relative over his head. Add to that the implacable hostility from the French forces contesting for the control of Portugal, and Sharpe is arrayed against numerous --- and familiar --- enemies.

That Richard Sharpe gets the better of his enemies is not to be doubted. What makes the Sharpe novels so infectiously fun is how he does it; how he manages to outfight and outwit those who would stand in his way. Richard Sharpe is a thief and a rogue in search of gold, girls and glory, but he's uncommonly honest about it --- and immensely likeable as a result. Here, he's paired with a lawyerly Portuguese officer and a prim English schoolmarm, and it's not too long in their acquaintance before both come to Sharpe's way of thinking about plunder, bad language and survival.

SHARPE'S ESCAPE is about survival --- survival, in this instance, from a deadly trap and through two harrowing battles. The trap tests Sharpe's resourcefulness --- and his stomach --- while the battles test Cornwell's ability to make what's happening in combat clear and understandable. The author writes with the authority of one who has seen the ground, who has traipsed all over the sites of Wellington's campaigns, and who knows what it was like to serve in a nineteenth-century regiment and take on the legions of the Emperor for low wages, short rations and mortal danger. Cornwell is good enough at transmitting all of this that one wonders what he could accomplish as a straight historian --- though he's far too skilled as a novelist to lose.

There may be more than a ring of familiarity throughout SHARPE'S ESCAPE, but for those who have read the prior installments, it's a welcome sound indeed. And for those who haven't, it's an excellent chance to take up the Baker rifle and the green jacket, marching in the ranks and slogging through the mud of war with Lieutenant Richard Sharpe.

--- Reviewed by Curtis Edmonds