Sharpe's Triumph -- Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Assaye, 1803 [Import] [Hardcover]

Bernard Cornwell (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Harper Collins; 1st UK edition (1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0002256304
• ISBN-13: 978-0002256308
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,301,289 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

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Up from the ranks, February 7, 2000

By 

Gene Bromberg - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sharpe's Triumph: Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Assaye, September 1803 (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #2) (Hardcover)

Cornwell takes us back to India in this book and the action is as intense as the novels set in Spain and France. These novels focusing on Sharpe's early career are especially interesting because the show him without the support of his Riflemen and without the officer's rank that is the source of much of his pride and many of his problems.

But this is the novel where Sergeant Sharpe suddenly realizes that his ambitions go far beyond his non-commissioned rank. And in making the decision to try to rise to officer he knows that he is consigning himself to an almost certain death, because his only chance to become an officer is through an act of suicidal bravery on the battlefield that is noticed by a senior officer.

The decision to attack at Assaye by Sir Arthur Wellesley gives Sharpe his opportunity. Longtime readers of the Sharpe novels know what he did to get himself promoted at Assaye, and Cornwell does his usual masterful job in describing this horrific, heroic deed.

This book has everything Sharpe fans have come to love, and anyone who has never read this series should gather up their pennies and carve out a few weekends to devour them all. You'll find yourself addicted.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sharpe's Famous Deed -- Finally Explained, July 27, 2001

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sharpe's Triumph: Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Assaye, September 1803 (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #2) (Paperback)

Readers of Cornwell's Sharpe series have long been tantalized by references to infantry Sergeant Sharpe being raised (promoted) from the ranks of the enlisted men to the gentleman's officer corps by Lord Wellington in gratitude for having saved his life on the battlefield at Assaye in India, back in 1803. In this volume, we finally get the full story behind that seminal event in Sharpe's career, one that is mentioned in every volume in the series. At the time, a number of Indian princes (the Mahratta confederation) had banded together to resist further British incursion into their territory, and assembled a massive army of European-led units along with local and Arab mercenaries. As in many of the other books, Sharpe is sent on a small mission and ends up meeting the main villain of the piece, here a renegade English officer who is part of the Mahratta forces. Sharpe is later detailed to help capture the rogue officer, leading him to Wellington's first major set piece battle, at Assaye. And while the book is ostensibly a Sharpe book, it is this battle which Cornwell is clearly most interested in, and with good reason. In defeating an army some 10-20 times its number and equal equipment, Wellington's victory is one the great feats of military history (one which he ranked above his more famous win at Waterloo). Cornwell's recreation of the battle makes it eminently clear that two Scottish Highlander regiments (the 74th and 78th won the day for the British.

Many of the usual Sharpe elements are there, bloody fighting, foul villains (including the odious Sgt. Hakeswill), treachery, and climactic massive battle. What's more interesting about this book, however, is how different this younger Sharpe is from the scarred veteran we meet in the Peninsular Wars. He has yet to be in a real battle, and is clearly tentative and bewildered by the fog of battle. He's on his own, with no men of his own to command, and without a sidekick to add any dram of levity to the tale (although the dour, Bible-thumping, vegetarian, Scottish Colonel he's attached to is a somewhat comic figure at times). There is a woman he beds, but shes much more peripheral to the plot compared with the ladies of Spain and Portugal Sharpe later encounters. Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is when he is tempted by the offer to become an officer in the Mahratta army, with men to command, and riches to follow. He is clearly wavering but his true dream is to be able to return to his gutter origins wearing a British officer's uniform, the only one that counts.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Early Sharpe, redux, February 5, 2001

By 

tertius3 (MI United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Sharpe's Triumph: Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Assaye, September 1803 (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #2) (Paperback)

This is the second novel of Sgt. Sharpe's early service (following TIGER), set in exotic India with places, battles, and currents of empire-building of which most American's haven't the faintiest idea. Here we finally see the enigmatic event (long alluded to in the original Sharpe series set later in Spain) that forever indebts the future Duke of Wellington to Sharpe; that icy young general in not one but two brilliant actions; Sharpe at his most ferocious ever; Sgt. Hakesbill at his absolute evil worst, consumed with jealousy and private revenge; and Sharpe receiving his first promotion to officer. After a meandering buildup, which includes a convincing Temptation of Sharpe by private pay, the climactic battle scene is horrendous, a vast set piece in front of Assaye where we witness the extreme heroism of the steadfast Scottish 78th under shot, shell, and shrapnel, 600 men (at the start) who rout 100,000. Just incredible. The battle that made the reputation of imperturbable Wellington. As usual, Cornwell brings the era alive through his details of everyday life, without the excessive technical fascination of techno-novels.