|
| Sharpe's Company (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #13) | 
 enlarge | Author: Bernard Cornwell
Publisher: Signet
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy New: $3.85
You Save: $4.14 (52%)
New (28) Used (23) from $3.85
Avg. Customer Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 67939
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.5 x 4.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0451213424
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780451213426
ASIN: 0451213424
Publication Date: August 3, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: GREAT BUY!Brand New From US Distributor! WE ARE A 5 STAR SELLER with OVER 3,500,000 BOOKS SOLD!!! OVER ~ 675,000 FEEDBACKS ~ POSTED!!!
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Looming on the border of Portugal and Spain is the Fortress of Badajoz. It represents the last chance of the French to keep Wellington out of Spain, and Richard Sharpe must lead the assault to save his wife and daughter. Third in a series taking Sharpe all the way to Waterloo.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
 Very Fine December 16, 2008
Since I've already reviewed the television adaptation on Sharpe's Company, I'll only briefly give my praise for the Bernard Cornwell novel.
The film adaptation keeps true to the written word, but the battle scenes on the page are much more detailed and complex. Cornwell finds historical niches for Richard Sharpe to appear, and the siege of Badajoz is lengthy, rough, deadly, and dirty. Several failed siege attempts are also in the book-unlike the film-raising the stakes for Sharpe-who of course has to deal with army politics, enemies within, and the rescue of his wife and daughter.
Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill makes just as much trouble for the written Sharpe as he does onscreen. It's morbidly delightful to read the twisted thoughts of this madman, and Pete Postlehwaite does a fine job of bringing the character to the screen. Of course, on film characters are dropped or combined and dismissed, but in the Sharpe's Company novel, all the supporting officers and soldiers are given plenty of time to develop themselves and their relationship to Sharpe. Hard core friendships and army loyalty between Harper and Sharpe are almost more of a delight to read than see.
Historical fans will love any Sharpe novel. I'm not really reading them in order, more as I find them, but it's easy to jump into the series-especially for Hornblower fans. As realistic as C.S. Forester's books are on naval warfare, Sharpe is their equal on the battlefield. The British-ness may take a few folks some getting used to, but Sharpe's Company is well worth the journey.
 This series just gets better and better July 16, 2008
So far this is my favorite of the Sharpe books, and they are all magnificent. I don't want to think too hard about any similarities in plots from one to the other because if they are there they are well hidden. I rented the BBC video of this book from the library and was astounded at how it was butchered. The finale looked like Sharpe and about fifteen men finally took Badajoz by slipping into a crack in the wall. Money must have been very tight.
That is beside the point - the book is fantastic. I love the human frailties of this character. I read Sharpe's Sword before any of the others and was so mad at Sharpe that I through the book away. Now that I have read the prior books everything fell into line and now he is my favoriate character - outside of Thomas of Hookton from Cornwell's Grail Quest and the magnificent Uhtred of the Norse tales.
This is a really good writer.
His best siege writing in the last ten episodes June 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you're reading them in chronological order, rather than the order Cornwell wrote them in, this one has a greater intensity than the earlier Spanish books. Some enjoyable elements have returned. Sharpe is truly up against the career wall once more, his provisional appointment to Captain denied. He has a real love interest, his earlier dalliance with Spanish partisan Teresa Moreno taking a more serious turn. Harper's career is in jeopardy as well with the return of Sharpe's nemesis Obadiah Hakeswill, absent since the end of the third book, "Sharpe's Fortress" and the Indian battle of Gawilghur almost a decade before. All this fateful tension takes place against the backdrop of a monumental battle, the British assault on the heavily fortified city of Badajoz, held by the French and essential to any invasion of Spain. The heavily walled city is surrounded by a dozen strongpoints, water on two sides and modern fortifications elsewhere.
Losing his company to a well-born stranger with no experience, the now merely Lieutenant Sharpe must plot his future as the British wallow in the winter mud outside Badajoz waiting to breach its walls.
Cornwell's best writing in this series has been about 18th century siege warfare - the battering of the walls with artillery, use of the rubble as a ramp up to the broken part of the wall, and the hell the first invaders must go through to sieze the hole, after which they are invariably dead, or heroes. It is this and nothing but this, Sharpe thinks, that will win him back his captaincy.
Cornwell's writing of the storming of Badajoz, and the pillaging of it by British troops, has a special and fearful intensity to it, his best siege and fortress storming since the aforementioned Gawilghur in "Fortress". And Hakeswill - merely evil, malign and relentless in the first three books - is here not only that, but mad as well. At times he sounds like Tolkien's Gollum, talking to ... well, you'll see.
In the order that Cornwell originally wrote them, this is the first time he does a real siege and the first time he writes Hakeswill. Both come horribly alive. This book is short and bowstring-taut. Not a word is wasted.
Talk about fast paced June 11, 2008
The adventure just doesn't stop. It is worth the read. Keep it up, Mr. Cornwell.
Another good Sharpe book July 13, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In the early months of 1812, Wellington led his army to French-occupied Spain. Captain Richard Sharpe participates in the storming of the fortresses of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz. The siege of Badajoz is bloody for the British army. They failed twice before and now Wellington wants the fortress at any cost. As Wellington moves on Badajoz, a new Colonel and a new Captain arrive from England and the command of Sharpe's Light Company has been given to this new Captain who bought the promotion. Sergeant Hakeswill, who is ruthless, cruel, indestructible and Sharpe's oldest and toughest enemy also joins the company. Hakeswill could do anything to terrorise everyone in the company, including Sharpe and Harper. Sharpe desperately fights for his company, and for Teresa, the woman he loves and with her is Antonia, their daughter, both blocked in the besieged city of Badajoz.
Again, Mr Cornwell did an excellent job in Sharpe's company. I would highly recommend this book to any Cornwell fan and any history buff.
|
|
|
---- | |
