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Sharpe 3-Book Collection 7: Sharpe’s Revenge, Sharpe’s Waterloo, Sharpe’s Devil

Page 102

by Bernard Cornwell


  I am indebted to Donald Thomas also for the extraordinary story of how Cochrane plotted to bring Napoleon to Valdivia and thus begin a campaign for a United States of South America. The plot was so far advanced that, following the capture of Valdivia, Cochrane did indeed send a rescue ship to Saint Helena. When Lieutenant Colonel Charles reached the island he found Napoleon in his last illness, and so abandoned the attempt to free the emperor. What might have occurred had Bonaparte lived, and had Cochrane rescued him, remains one of the great tantalizations of history.

  But Bonaparte was dead, probably poisoned by French royalists who feared his return to France. He remained in his grave on Saint Helena until 1840, when his body was returned to France to be interred in the Dome Church of Les Invalides in Paris. Sharpe also returned to France, and Harper to Ireland, where, so far as I know, they lived happily ever after.

  About the Author

  BERNARD CORNWELL is the author of the acclaimed and bestselling Richard Sharpe series; the Grail Quest series, featuring The Archer’s Tale, Vagabond, and Heretic; the Nathaniel Starbuck Chronicles; the Warlord Trilogy; and many other novels, including Redcoat, Stonehenge 2000 B.C., and Gallows Thief. Bernard Cornwell lives with his wife in Cape Cod.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

  BOOKS BY BERNARD CORNWELL

  The Sharpe Novels (in chronological order)

  SHARPE’S TIGER*

  Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Seringapatam, 1799

  SHARPE’S TRIUMPH*

  Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Assaye, September 1803

  SHARPE’S FORTRESS*

  Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Gawilghur, December 1803

  SHARPE’S TRAFALGAR*

  Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805

  SHARPE’S PREY*

  Richard Sharpe and the Expedition to Copenhagen, 1807

  SHARPE’S RIFLES

  Richard Sharpe and the French Invasion of Galicia, January 1809

  SHARPE’S HAVOC*

  Richard Sharpe and the Campaign in Northern Portugal, Spring 1809

  SHARPE’S EAGLE

  Richard Sharpe and the Talavera Campaign, July 1809

  SHARPE’S GOLD

  Richard Sharpe and the Destruction of Almeida, August 1810

  SHARPE’S ESCAPE*

  Richard Sharpe and the Bussaco Campaign, September to October 1810

  SHARPE’S BATTLE*

  Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro, May 1811

  SHARPE’S COMPANY

  Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Badajoz, January to April 1812

  SHARPE’S SWORD

  Richard Sharpe and the Salamanca Campaign, June and July 1812

  SHARPE’S ENEMY

  Richard Sharpe and the Defense of Portugal, Christmas 1812

  SHARPE’S HONOUR

  Richard Sharpe and the Vitoria Campaign, February to June 1813

  SHARPE’S REGIMENT

  Richard Sharpe and the Invasion of France, June to November 1813

  SHARPE’S SIEGE

  Richard Sharpe and the Winter Campaign, 1814

  SHARPE’S REVENGE

  Richard Sharpe and the Peace of 1814

  SHARPE’S WATERLOO

  Richard Sharpe and the Waterloo Campaign, 15 June to 18 June, 1815

  SHARPE’S DEVIL*

  Richard Sharpe and the Emperor, 1820-21

  THE GRAIL QUEST SERIES

  The Archer’s Tale*

  Vagabond*

  Heretic*

  THE NATHANIEL STARBUCK CHRONICLES

  Rebel*

  Copperhead*

  Battle Flag*

  The Bloody Ground*

  THE WARLORD CHRONICLES

  The Winter King

  The Enemy of God

  Excalibur

  OTHER NOVELS

  Redcoat*

  Gallows Thief*

  Stonehenge, 2000 B.C.: A Novel*

  *Published by HarperCollins Publishers

  Bernard Cornwell On:

  I. The Origin of Richard Sharpe (Memo to the Sharpe Appreciation Society, http://www.southessex.co.uk)

  Richard Sharpe was born on a winter’s night in 1980. It was in London, in a basement flat in Courtnell Street, not far from Westbourne Grove. I had decided to marry an American and, for a myriad of reasons, it was going to be easier if I lived in America, but I could not get a work permit and so, airily, I decided to earn a living as a writer. Love makes us into idiots.

  But at least I knew what I wanted to write. It was going to be a land-based version of C.S. Forester’s Hornblower books. I wasted hours trying to find my hero’s name. I wanted a name as dramatic as Horatio Hornblower, but I couldn’t think of one (Trumpetwhistler? Cornetpuffer?), so eventually I decided to give him a temporary name and, once I had found his real name, I would simply go back and change it. So I named him after Richard Sharp, the great rugby player, and of course the name stuck. I added an “e” – that was all.

  The book was finished in New Jersey. Now, eighteen years, innumerable battles and well over a million words later, he’s still going strong, and there are yet more books to write. I thought I had finished with Sharpe after Waterloo, but so many people wrote wanting more stories that he had to put on his green jacket and march again. Being a hero, of course, he has more lives than a basketful of cats, but maybe Sharpe’s greatest stroke of good fortune was meeting Sean Bean.

  He has also been outrageously lucky in his other friends who, collectively, are the Sharpe Appreciation Society. He would not think there was that much to appreciate (“Bloody daft, really”), but on his behalf, I can thank you for being his friends and assure you that, so long as I have anything to do with him, he will not let you down.

  And, finally, time for confession: Years and years ago I was a journalist in Belfast and I remember a night just before Christmas when a group of us were sitting in a city-centre pub getting drunk and maudlin, and discussing, as journalists are wont to do, how much easier life would be if only we were novelists. No more hard work, just storytelling, and somehow we invented the name of an author and a bet was laid. The bet was a bottle of Jameson Whiskey from everyone about the table to be given to whichever one of us first wrote the book with the author’s name. Years later I collected the winnings (long drunk) which is why, in second-hand shops, you might find the following: A Crowning Mercy; The Fallen Angels;Coat of Arms – all by Bernard Cornwell, writing as Susannah Kells.

  II. Sharpe’s Adventures

  I thought, when I began writing Sharpe, that there could not possibly be more than ten novels in him, but there are now eighteen and more are on the way.

  So who and what is he?

  Richard Sharpe is a soldier, one of the thousands of Britons who fought against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France between 1793 and 1815. He shadows the career of Sir Arthur Wellesley, who becomes the first Duke of Wellington, and in so doing he takes part in some of the most extraordinary exploits of the era – from the storming of Seringapatam in 1799 to the bloodbath at Waterloo in 1815.

  By 1814, when Napoleon is first defeated and sent into exile, the Duke of Wellington leads what is arguably the finest army that Britain ever raised. About one in twenty of its officers had come up from the ranks, and Richard Sharpe is one of them. Is he real? No, there was no Rifle officer called Sharpe, though there was a cavalryman whose rise from trooper to Lieutenant Colonel took the same amount of time that it takes Sharpe to be promoted from private to Lieutenant Colonel. Sharpe is also a Rifleman, a new breed of soldier in the British army who fought, not with a smoothbore musket, but with the much more accurate rifle. Above everything, though, Sharpe has adventures. That is the point of the poor man’s existence.

  — Bernard Cornwell

  (Material culled from http://www.bernardcornwellbooks.com and from The Sharpe Appreciation Society website, http://www.southessex.co.uk.)

  The Sharpe Appreciation Soc
iety

  The Sharpe Appreciation Society was formed in 1996 amid growing demands from fans wanting more information about the books, television series, the people involved in making the series, the Napoleonic period, weaponry – in fact anything remotely connected with Sharpe.

  After finding there was no central point of contact for fans, Chris Clarke, now secretary, made contact with Richard Rutherford-Moore (historical and technical advisor to the television series) and wrote to the author Bernard Cornwell as well as to Malcolm Craddock, one of the producers.

  With Richard Moore’s help, Chris started the fan club in July 1996, expecting fifty to 100 fans to join her. We now have over 1,500 fans across the world and they are still joining! In May 1998, we held our first convention, where we were joined by Bernard Cornwell, Malcolm Craddock, Muir Sutherland and some of the actors involved in bringing the world of Sharpe to life.

  We are the official fan club, approved by the author, producers, Carlton Television and Central Television. For more information, please write to Chris who will be pleased to send you an application form.

  The Sharpe Appreciation Society

  P.O. Box 14

  Lowdham

  Nottingham

  NG14 7HU

  England

  Sharpe Query Line:

  Tel: 0(044) 115 966 5405

  Secretary: Christine Clarke

  sharpe@southessex.co.uk

  http://www.southessex.co.uk

  About the Publisher

  Australia

  HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.

  25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)

  Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia

  http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au

  Canada

  HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

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  http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca

  New Zealand

  HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited

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  Auckland, New Zealand

  http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.nz

  United Kingdom

  HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

  77-85 Fulham Palace Road

  London, W6 8JB, UK

  http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk

  United States

  HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

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  New York, NY 10022

  http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Contents

  Sharpe's Revenge

  PROLOGUE

  PART ONE

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  PART TWO

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  PART THREE

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  PART FOUR

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  EPILOGUE

  HISTORICAL NOTE

  Sharpe's Waterloo

  THE FIRST DAY

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  THE SECOND DAY

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  THE THIRD DAY

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  THE FOURTH DAY

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  EPILOGUE

  HISTORICAL NOTE

  Sharpe's Devil

  Map

  PROLOGUE

  PART I

  BAUTISTA

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  PART II

  COCHRANE

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  PART III

  VIVAR

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  EPILOGUE

  HISTORICAL NOTE

  About the Author

  BOOKS BY BERNARD CORNWELL

  Origin of Richard Sharpe

  The Sharpe Appreciation Society

  About the Publisher

 

 

 


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