Sharpe fans, help me!

[CaptainCernick]

The Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell caught my eye lately in the library, but there are so many of them and I don't know which one I should read first. Or can you read them all independently?
And while you're at it, how historically accurate are they?

[removeduser_426582376423734]

The Sharpe books are very accurate. Great depictions of places, battles, even good ole Wellesley. Depends if you want to start in India, France or Spain.

I think you should start with Sharpe's Rifles. Btw, if you have Sky Digital, the shows are on the History Channel. You'll find Boromir in it...

[CaptainCernick]

The Sharpe books are very accurate. Great depictions of places, battles, even good ole Wellesley. Depends if you want to start in India, France or Spain.

I think you should start with Sharpe's Rifles. Btw, if you have Sky Digital, the shows are on the History Channel. You'll find Boromir in it...

So I can read them all independently? Or are there subseries? What I mean is, if I read, say, Sharpe's Trafalgar whitout having read the other books in the series, I will be able to follow, the characters will be built up properly and the general storyline will be introduced.

Oh bugger. I searched the online catalogus of the local libraries, and it seems they've only got Sharpe's Tiger, Trafalgar, Triumph, Havoc and Escape. Which one of those should/can I read?

[removeduser_426582376423734]

Well, without spoiling it:

Tiger - set in India
Trafalgar - wild guess
Triumph, Havoc, Escape - all basically random. If you read into it, you'll see summaries of the past books.

[IronBrig4]

It's best if you read them in historically chronological order. I'd start with Sharpe's Tiger.

[LSJ]

Starting with that book ^^^
Use the index on the first few pages or the website, and follow up oin cronological order.
If you skip some books, you may not know who Harper or his dead wife is. You can read them separately because they all have different scenarios in each book, but it is better to start with the first and work up, so you get character deveopement (corporal into Lt. and such) and know more people, and can understand things mentioned that happened earlier (Sultan's jewels and all).

[CaptainCernick]

Great. Thanks for the info!

[removeduser_426582376423734]

And thanks for spoiling Harper's dead .... something to the rest of the viewers

[King Henry V]

Start either with Rifles or with Tiger, doesn't make much difference since the India and Trafalgar novels were written after Cornwell wrapped up the series. They're prequels, so none of the plots in them impact the following books and some of the characters are never mentioned in Rifles and onwards.

[Libertine]

yeah, but in Tiger you leanr about the real bastard! The Sergeant

[Semper_Crecis]

Hakeswill's got to be one of the greatest characters in that series, Cornwell really knows how to make you hate his guts.

[Libertine]

lol too damn true, Pierre Ducos is a real evil gimp also though :laughing:

[BKB]

The books in India with the sadistic Obaidiah Hakeswell are great those are Tiger, Triumph, and Fortress. The last two have Colonel William Dodd a real great villain for the books. Trafalger is one of my favs and prey is also good, set at the attack on Copenhagen in 1807. His last two books Havoc and Escape were pretty crap compared to the early books. My fav is Sharpe's battle, set in 1811 at the Battle of Fuentes D'Onoro and the great one eyed leader of the Wolf Brigade General Gey Loup and real bastard as Sharpe would say

[IronBrig4]

It's impossible to feel any sympathy for Obadiah Hakeswill. Yes, he had a poor upbringing, but it doesn't excuse his downright evil acts.

My favorite is Sharpe's Eagle, the very first book of the series. From the start, you realize that Sharpe is innovative and smarter than the average bear.

[Horza]

So I was watching something on ITV (UK) Last night and up comes some adverts for several new drama series. Included amongst them was a new series of Sharpe! For anyone who isn't familier with the Sharpe series, a quick google serch has come up with this LINK which can proberbly explain it better than I can.
Unfortunaly the advertisment gave no dates as to when it will be screened, just and unhelpful "comming soon".

[BKB]

My favorite is Sharpe's Eagle, the very first book of the series

Wasn't the first Sharpes Rifles?

[King Henry V]

No, Rifles was written well after Eagle, when they decided to make a series out of it.