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Sharpe's Fury: Richard Sharpe & the Battle of Barrosa, March 1811 (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #11)
Author: Bernard Cornwell
ISBN: 0060530480
Publisher: HarperCollins - 2006-09-01
Format: Hardcover
Book Details Customer Reviews
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Customer Reviews:

He's a thief and a murderer - and that's why gentlemen need Sharpe

I am sad. "Sharpe's Fury" was my last Sharpe novel. I'd read the others in more or less chronological order, then gone back to read this, the most recently published and inserted midway in the series.

For me, there will be no more Sharpe wenches. There will be no more craven aristocrats, in commands they don't deserve, plotting Sharpe's demise, nor more admirable officers Sharpe and other men would follow through the gates of hell.

There will be no more moments where the Napoleonic Wars hang in the balance, no more Sharpe treasures plundered or lost, no more intrigues with French spies.

There will be no more riveting battle scenes, drawn in enough detail for the military buff but clearly enough for the novice to follow, with the human element so dramatically but naturally woven into the scene's fabric.

And no more chestnuts pulled out of the fire by Richard Sharpe, one of fiction's greatest soldiers, raised from the gutter to find the only thing he does well - fight. I feel a grief similar to that felt when finishing the Jack Aubrey series by Patrick O'Brian.

In this episode Sharpe and Harper, on a patrol near the border of English-controlled Portugal and French-held Spain, are separated with a few men and an injured brigadier, and end up in Cadiz, the only part of Spain not taken by France.

The British ambassador there, Henry Wellesley - brother of Lord Wellington - is embroiled in scandal. The love letters he wrote to a dubious woman are being made public by unknown enemies. Called in to handle the matter, threatening as it does England's delicate relations with Spain, is Pumphrey, the fey Foreign Office spy. Sharpe, available for the moment, is detailed to do what it takes to get the letters back - to guard Pumphrey in his meetings with blackmailers, or to steal them back if need be.

There are lots of good things in this book, probably the last Sharpe novel Cornwell will write. Sharpe's low background is brought to the fore: he's a thief and a murderer, but it is precisely those skills gentlemen need to protect a gentleman's honor. Wellesley's erstwhile lover Caterina Blasquez is a memorable Sharpeian wench, and without giving too much away is a key factor in the book's ending where a Sharpe antagonist gets his in a non-violent but amusing way.

This book portrays perhaps better than any of the others the deeply divided Spanish public - many wanting to make a separate peace with Napoleon in return for the restoration of the Spanish monarchy, but with many different reasons for doing so. Sharpe must operate in a Cadiz that's like a tinderbox, ready to go off against the English at any time.

An English night-time amphibious attack on French artillery shelling Cadiz from across the bay is well done. And while nothing in the series can top Cornwell's account of Waterloo, the Battle of Bussaco is a fine climax to this book. English troops, unassisted by their Spanish allies, face annihilation when cornered by a vastly superior French force. Cornwell pays tribute to the French in this battle scene, as one of his characters note the brave and relentless pressing of the battle characteristic of them.

Adieu, Sharpe.

A solid 4.5 star book that's true to the Sharpes Series

Something I've enjoyed for a number of years is the pleasure of Mr. Cornwell's Sharpes Rifles series. Recently I picked up Sharpes Fury to reacquaint myself with Mr. Sharpe and his erstwhile riflemen.

To help everyone get on the same page, Sharpes Fury takes place during the siege of Cadiz and the battle of Barrosa (1811). In this case, Mr. Sharpe and his riflemen aide a British gentleman in Cadiz; then the British troops at Barrosa (after all, what would a Sharpe book be without Mr. Sharpe helping out in the battle).

For me, this was a solid 4.5 star book. As always, Mr. Cornwell is direct and to the point with his actions. Mr. Sharpe is the type of officer who enlisted men love and fellow officers either love or hate. He's direct, brash, and unapologetic for his background or the way he is. This book does take a departure from the others in the series in that rather than having Mr. Sharpe command his company, Mr. Cornwell separates them and only permits Mr. Sharpe to have his trusty riflemen to fight the French (and yes, as always, one of the Frenchmen is a nemesis for Mr. Sharpe). Interestingly, Mr. Cornwell does an excellent job capturing the relations between the Spanish and the British, showing it nicely with the actions by Sir Thomas Graham, Father Montseny, and General Lapena. I was also happy to see the return of Lord Pumphrey. While all of this makes for an excellent read, I have a hard time raising this to 5 stars and reluctantly have to give it 4 stars. Btw, for those not familiar with the series, Mr. Cornwell's story is true to the history except where Mr. Cornwell documents it in the Historical Notes chapter at the end. Also, as with any in the Sharpes series, you don't have to read any of the predecessor books. This is pure, simple, and good fun that should be enjoyed with a nice brandy after a long day.

A Rather Disjointed Effort

I am a huge fan of all the Sharpe stories, and especially the audio books. This one was especially well done by a new reader.
As to the book itself, I found it rather odd. This book has three parts, but unlike his other novels they are three separate, unrelated parts.
Part 1 deals with a skirmish in which Sharpe is marooned and has to survive with an annoying superior. This is fine and good, and quite amusing in places.
Part 2 deals with clandestine operations in Cadiz with Sharpe being involved to get things set right. Also a good part, and probably my favourite.
Part 3 deals with the Battle of Barossa. This part is exceptionally well told and is one of his best battle depictions.

The problem is that the three parts have virtually no linking between each other. The villain of part 2 only appears there and vanishes again, being handed off with two sentences in the last paragraph. The villain of part 1 also vanishes until the very end...and there is little closure there.
It's like the author wrote three short stories and nailed them together with little relationship between them. Odd sequences such as the fire raft battle also seem stuck in and not very well fitted in.

Overall, it's a fine book, but the three parts of the book is confusingly disjointed.

And whatever happened to Sgt. Hakeswell, anyway?

This is one of the more self-indulgent in the Richard Sharpe series about a roguish British rifleman during the Napoleonic wars. It could also have been more accurately titled "Sharpe Gets Really P.O.'ed," since that's more or less the theme. It's a boring period in the French siege of Lisbon, so Sharpe's light company is detailed to escort a party sent to destroy a pontoon bridge near Cadiz, down in the corner of Spain. Things go wrong and the captain and five of his men are carried downstream on a runaway section of the bridge, have to flee farther south to avoid capture, and end up in blockaded Cadiz itself. Sharpe's more fundamental talents are called on to help the governor recover some incriminating love letters, but Cornwell kind of leaves that section of the story hanging. Sharpe then takes his squad off to get involved in the Battle of Barrosa, just down the peninsula from town, in what he admits is not his fight. But the author wants to tell the story of Sir Thomas Graham, a real-life hero who humiliated the French with less than half as many troops, so there we are. The battle itself is described with Cornwell's usual brio and close attention to important detail, but the book wouldn't have been long enough with just that -- hence the blackmail conspiracy. I'm continually amazed that the French -- especially Napoleon, who was far from stupid in military matters -- never caught on that arraying their battalions in column instead of widespread lines prevented most of their troops from being able to fight at the same time. Had they adopted the British infantry line, to which they lost battle after battle, the French would probably have taken and held all of Europe. Anyway, we never do find out what happened to Lieut. Bullen, except that he's apparently a POW at the end of the book. And I also have doubts that a brigadier would have been put in charge of such a small party on such a relatively minor errand.

A Rousing Account of the Battle of Barrosa Preceded by a Weak Beginning and Middle

I would tell you to skip this book, but you deserve to read the wonderful story of the Battle of Barrosa which the British won single-handed against horrible odds while the Spanish troops rested nearby. In the real-world history of the Peninsular Wars, this was the occasion when the British first claimed a French Eagle.

Before that, the book opens with a sequence where Sharpe is treated badly by a new foil, Brigadier Moon, who doesn't want any competition for credit from Sharpe. Naturally, it all comes apart and Sharpe has to save the day . . . but at what cost to his pride and to himself?

Eventually, Moon, Sharpe, Sergeant Harper, and a few men reach Cadiz, which is the tiny remnant of Spain that is not under French dominion. The Spanish expect Cadiz to fall soon to the surrounding French, and British influence is at a low ebb. Further problems arise when the British ambassador (Lord Wellington's younger brother, Henry Wellesley) finds himself being blackmailed and embarrassed by some letters he wrote to a woman he believed to be a Spanish lady, but who was not. Sharpe is pressed into temporary duty to pay the blackmailer. If that doesn't work, he's expected to steal the letters. The intrigue involves the future of Spanish politics as well as British-Spanish relations.

The opening sequence ends up being more interesting than it starts, but Brigadier Moon is more of an annoyance than a real threat to Sharpe . . . which undercuts the power of the story. The intrigue in Cadiz would be good if this were primarily a spy series, but it's not. So the intrigue mostly distracts from the opportunity to write more about the Battle of Barrosa, which is a far more interesting tale.

Sometimes authors can try to be too clever and hurt their books. I fear that's what Mr. Cornwell did here.

If you find your interest waning in the beginning or middle, just skip ahead to the part where the British and Spanish leave Cadiz by sea to attempt to attack the besieging French from behind.

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Editorial Reviews:

This is the long-awaited twenty-first novel in the number one bestselling series featuring Richard Sharpe. In the winter of 1811 the war seemed lost. All Spain has fallen to the French, except for Cadiz which is now the Spanish capital and is under siege. Wellington and his British army are in Portugal, waiting for spring to spark the war to life again. Richard Sharpe and his company are part of a small expeditionary force sent to break a bridge across the River Guadiana. What begins as a brilliant piece of soldiering turns into disaster, thanks to the brutal savagery of the French Colonel Vandal who is leading his battalion to join the siege of Cadiz. Sharpe extricates a handful of men from the debacle and is driven south into the threatened city. There, in Cadiz, he discovers more than one enemy. Many Spaniards doubt Britain's motives and believe their future would be brighter if they made peace with the French, and one of them, a baleful priest, secures a powerful weapon to break the British alliance. He will use a beautiful whore and the letters she received from a wealthy man. The priest will use blackmail, and Sharpe must defeat him in a sinister war of knife and treachery in the dark alleys of the city. Yet the alliance will only survive if the French siege can be lifted. An allied army marches from the city to take on the more powerful French and, once again, a brilliant piece of soldiering turns to disaster, this time because the Spanish refuse to fight. A small British force is trapped by a French army, and the only hope now lies with the outnumbered redcoats who, on a hill beside the sea, refuse to admit defeat. And there, in the sweltering horror of Barossa, Sharpe finds Colonel Vandal again. "Sharpe's Fury" is based on the real events of the winter of 1811 that led to the extraordinary victory of Barossa, the battle which saw the British capture the first French eagle of the Napoleonic Wars.

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