Sharpes Rifles

[michael steinrok]

Any Of You Ever See Any Of The Richard Sharpe Series? Lots Of Brief Glimpses Of Highlanders The Series Was Written By Bernard Cromwell. Hate The Last Name. Hope He's Not A Relative Cause The Books Are Great Reading

[filman]

great book series have them all.. have the tv series on dvd as well.

[cavscout]

Love this series.

[Streetcar]

I've seen a few and read a couple. Good fun.

However, if you like that sort of thing, may I suggest any of the Flashman novels....

[Schultz]

His last name is Cornwell, not Cromwell. He's one of my favorite authors. I believe I've read all but two of his books, but all of the Sharpe series, the Starbuck Chronicles, the Winter King saga and the Bowman books.

[jfellrath]

This sounds like a series that would be right up my alley. As someone who can be totally anal about reading things in order (example: I just bought the ENTIRE James Bond 007 series by Fleming so I didn't have to worry about not reading them in order) I looked and found this Amazon list of Sharpe's books IN ORDER, for anyone who is interested.

[Schultz]

Haha! I'm like that too with series. It drives me crazy to read them out of order, particularly if the main characters show some real growth, like Inspector Monk of Anne Perry's mysteries.

The problem with reading the Sharpe's books in order now is that Bernard Cornwell is going back and adding new adventures in between old ones. His last two books were actually set just after the first Sharpe's book, Sharpe's Rifles. It can get confusing, but it's also really cool, too, as it fills in gaps that he mentions in stories later in the series.

I have yet to come across a villain in the Sharpe stories that I didn't like..er..despise. Cornwell's knack for a good villain is far and above anything Ian Fleming came up with, IMHO.

[JayFilomena]

Any Of You Ever See Any Of The Richard Sharpe Series? Lots Of Brief Glimpses Of Highlanders

I am odd man out again. Never herd of the series or the author. Before I try to buy them on ebay...can someone give me a very very simple idea of the books story line?

[Schultz]

The books are the saga of the bastard son of a London whore who joined the British army at the tail end of the 18th century, fought in India, saved the life of the future Duke of Wellington (who taught Sharpe how to read and write in an Indian prison), and later rose up from the ranks to become an officer, an feat practically impossible at the time. The bulk of the series focuses on the Peninsular Campaign of the Napoleonic Wars, where Sharpe leads a unit of the 95th Rifles known as the Greenjackets with his Irish sidekick Sgt. Patrick Harper.

There's also a television series starring Sean Bean, who most recently played Boromir in the Lord of the Rings films. They're top-notch war drama.

They're a rip roaring good read. Go get a library card and check them out for free!

[cavscout]

The stories incorporate a ton of military history dealing with tactics, medical practices and technology of the period. Cornwell does an excellent job of portraying the Napolionic period.