Sharpe's Fury: The Battle of Barrosa, March 1811

From his Saxon Chronicles to Agincourt to the Sharpe series (approximately 21 books long plus short stories), Cornwell is a masterful writer of action and adventure. Richard Sharpe, a whore's bastard raised in the rough London streets, starts out as an English private serving in India in 1799, where he is flogged early on for trumped up charges. Despite his humble origins, one thing he excels in is fighting - he is a superb and lethal soldier - rising to the rank of sergeant. Fate brings him into contact on the battlefield with the future Lord Wellington, whose life he saves, earning him a commission to junior officer. This opens a whole new set of challenges, as he faces the distrust of his enlisted ranks and the disdain of his gentlemen officers. Sharpe's adventures take him through the Napoleonic Wars in western Europe and promotions through the ranks to regimental commander. There is abundant action, politics, brutal violence, sex, complicated plot lines and studies in human nature, all written in with gripping prose and attention to historical and military detail. At the end of each story, Cornwell summarizes the actual history into which Sharpe's adventures have been woven.

I have loved the Sharpe series but most of the recent ones have dealt with his early days in India instead of the Peninsular campaign which is where most of the story takes place. This book represents a return to the "older" stories and it is a welcome return.The story is of the siege of Cadiz and the battle of Barossa. It takes place shortly after the Talavera story in which Sharpe captured a French eagle. In Sharpe's Eagle, Sharpe was credited with the first capture of a French standard. This story tells the story of the real first capture.While tasked to help blow up a bridge, a bumbling brigadier gets himself, Sharpe and his riflemen stuck on one of the pontoons drifting towards the sea. They make their way to Cadiz where the rump of the Spanish government is located. There, feelings are running high. Though the Spanish are now allied with the English, they are still bitter about their defeats when they were in opposition and mad about matters of Britain's foreign policy. There is a faction that wants to come to a settlement with Napoleon and that faction is doing anything to discredit the British. In particular, they have their sights set on the British Ambassador, the brother of Gen. Wellington. They have some of his letters and are threatening to publish them and embarrass the government. Sharpe is detailed to help buy them back from the blackmailers or steal them if he must.Other matters are brewing as well. The British garrison is preparing to sally forth to hit the French in company with their Spanish allies. The problem is that the Spanish contingent is larger so the Spanish general is in overall command. He is a coward and an inept one at that. He manages to get his forces cut off and then, when battle is joined, refuses to fight. He lets the Brits and Portuguese do the fighting. It is a desperate fight which the allies have no hope of winning but then history, and this book, tell a different story.This is a good story and well worth reading.

Since I purchased this book (roughly 15 years ago when it came out) I've probably read it a half dozen times. The Richard Sharpe's series is one where I can pick one off the shelf at random when I need a little comfort food reading and just sit back and enjoy myself. I enjoyed the more recent ones where Cornwell was writing to fill in the various gaps in Sharpe's Peninsular War career, and this was a wonderful read along with the others. A shame the series was put on hiatus while Cornwell worked on other books. You get the best of both worlds with Sharpe here - a little bit of the solo mission, political intrigue with the Spanish allies plotline, and then enough of the major battle with the French plotline to keep it historically honest. So I'd highly recommend this one to anyone looking for a good story.Again if you love the series you'll undoubtedly pick this up, but for those thinking about where to start with Bernard Cornwell's Richard Sharpe it's always best to either start with the first books Cornwell wrote in the series (Sharpe's Eagle, Sharpe's Rifles) or go all the way back chronologically to the start of Sharpe's career (Sharpe's Tiger) and fill in from there.

Another excellent book in the Sharp series. It has all the elements I’ve come to expect but rearranged in some new and surprising ways.

I read this series, start to finish. Chronological order. Every book is excellent . the story in full is excellent.All winter, rainy days, fireplace, coffee, cookies. Great time spent with wonderful characters, good and bad.The stories built into history lessons were just masterful.Sorry, Do to so many read, I am copying one review for all. Singularly or Collectively, you can not go wrong with Bernard Cornwell.

I stumbled on to the Sharpe series accidently. I have now read all 20+ and am working on the video series. The books are better, even though Sean Bean does a good job in the videos, he is not whom I pictured as Richard Sharpe. (Too short and too fair.) The books have some repetitive themes, the battle horrors, while accurate get a little tiresome when repeated so often, but then Cornwell didn't write them intending them to be read one after the other.As a history major I am very impressed with the research the author has done to make his novels so real. Tarring mustaches! I'd never heard of that. The action scenes are well written and the plots are mostly realistic, even though getting saved at the last minutes time after time stretches it. As I said, I'm sure these books were not meant to be read back to back to back.In all, worth the effort.

Enjoyed the book. Took only a few days to read it. Story held my interest. Sharpe is a superhero of his day..

It may be historical fiction, but Bernard Cornwell does the research and it show,you can't go wrong reading any of these books well worth the price and a great way to while away the time .

Standard Sharpe and Bernard Cornwell excellent.

Wie immer und auch so erwartet, eine spannende Story von Bernard Cornwell! Kann diese Serie allen Lesern spannender Bücher empfehlen.

Questo libro comincia abbastanza male, con l'ennesimo ufficiale che ce l'ha con Sharpe e che sembra anche abbastanza arrogante e incompetente.Poi andando avanti la cosa migliora, incontriamo anche il fratellino di Wellington e Sharpe riesce ad avere una storiella romantica ai limiti dell'assurdo.Sharpe ha una parte fondamentale nella storia "finta", dove ormai tra le alte sfere è riconosciuto come l'uomo da cercare quando ci sono lavori difficili e non proprio legali da fare.Poi con uno stratagemma viene spedito a fare da spettatore, in pratica, alla battaglia che invece viene riprodotta fedelmente.La serie onestamente comincia un po' a trascinarsi, ma ormai dovrei essere quasi alla fine dei libri "recenti", penso quindi di resistere per vedere se una volta rientrati nel filone dei libri originali si noterà più freschezza ed energia nelle storie.

If you like the Sharpe series this is a good addition. A little less detail than some others but satisfying all the same.