Sharpe's Trafalgar
By Bernard Cornwell
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REVIEW BY DERRICK M. NORMAN
In his latest Sharpe adventure, author Bernard Cornwell has done for land battles what C. S. Forrester, in the Horatio Hornblower series, did for sea battles, giving a starkly visual description of the Battle of Trafalgar. For those acquainted with Sharpe from the beginning -- Sharpe's Tiger: Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Serringapatam, 1799 -- Sharpe's Trafalgar is the fourth chronological entry in a 17-book series. Popular with readers on both sides of the Atlantic, Sharpe novels span the years 1799 to 1821 and cover adventures in Colonial India and the Napoleonic Wars. In this new novel, Sharpe is stranded in Bombay, India, after the Battle of Assaye (Sharpe's Triumph) and the Siege of Gawlighur (Sharpe's Fortress), awaiting passage back to England on the Calliope, a merchant vessel of the East India Company. He soon discovers that among his fellow passengers is Lord William Hale and Lady Grace, who is "breathtakingly, achingly, untouchably beautiful," a likely combination for a shipboard romance that is not without its dangers. The Calliope is captured by the French warship the Revenant. The ship is rescued by Captain Joel Chase of His Brittanic Majesty's Navy, a man deeply indebted to Sharpe. This intervention will lead Sharpe into one of the greatest naval battles in maritime history. This battle off Cape Trafalgar, on the 21st of October 1805, is an encounter between the massed fleets of Spain and France and Admiral Horatio Nelson and the English fleet. The description of the Battle of Trafalgar displays the author's vividly imaginative skill in depicting battle scenes. So graphic are they that the squeamish would do well to avert their eyes from the narrative. Sharpe's Trafalgar is Cornwell doing what he does best -- gripping the imagination and thrusting the reader into the heat, stench and bloody violence of a sea battle. For those unacquainted with Richard Sharpe's adventures Sharpe's Tiger: Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Serringapatam, 1799 is the one to read first, followed by Sharpe's Triumph: Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Assaye, September 1803 and Sharpe's Fortress: Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Gawilghur, December 1803. These precede Sharpe's Trafalgar. Thirteen books follow, ending with Sharpe's Devil: Richard Sharpe and the Emperor 1820-21. Derrick M. Norman is now retired after a long career in publishing and book selling.
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