Sharpe’s Christmas

by Bernard Cornwell Book 20 in the Sharpe series.

First published 2003

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This volume contains two stories from different stages of Sharpe’s life. In “Sharpe’s Christmas”, he commands a small force in the Pyrenees in 1813 and becomes trapped between an enemy brigade and French soldiers retreating from Spain. In “Sharpe’s Ransom”, set after the wars, old enemies kidnap Lucille and her child, forcing Sharpe to pursue them through rural France.

The two stories show Sharpe at very different points in his life. The first returns him to the uncertainty of active campaigning, where enemies and exhausted soldiers may be forced into temporary cooperation; the second asks what happens when old violence follows him into civilian life. Together they contrast battlefield command with the difficulty of protecting a family after the wars are supposedly finished.