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Series
The Sharpe series follows Richard Sharpe from service as a private soldier in India to command in the British Army during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The novels place him at the Siege of Seringapatam, Battle of Assaye, Siege of Gawilghur, Battle of Trafalgar, British attack on Copenhagen, retreat to Corunna, Talavera, Bussaco, Cádiz, Fuentes de Oñoro, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vitoria, the Nivelle and Nive campaigns, Toulouse, Quatre Bras and Waterloo. Other books use fictional forts, intelligence missions and raids within the same campaigns.
Sharpe’s rise is shaped by his ability to protect the soldiers under his command and by repeated conflict with corrupt officers, hostile aristocrats and enemy agents who resent his low birth. His partnership with Patrick Harper runs through much of the series, while Wellington, Nelson, Napoleon and other historical commanders determine the larger wars around him. Later stories follow Sharpe into occupied Paris and the Chilean War of Independence, showing how old loyalties and enemies survive beyond Napoleon’s defeat.
Reading order
India, 1799. Private Richard Sharpe is sent into Tipu Sultan’s fortress at Seringapatam disguised as a deserter so that he can contact a captured British agent. Inside the city, he must preserve his cover while uncovering a plan to destroy the attacking British army. When the…
India, 1803. Sergeant Richard Sharpe survives the massacre of a British detachment carried out by the renegade officer William Dodd and follows him into the service of the Maratha Confederacy. Sharpe joins Arthur Wellesley’s campaign and is drawn into the Battle of Assaye, where his pursuit…
After the Battle of Assaye, the newly commissioned Ensign Sharpe continues his pursuit of William Dodd. Dodd has taken refuge in the mountain fortress of Gawilghur, where the remaining Maratha forces prepare to resist Arthur Wellesley’s army. Sharpe must navigate treachery within the British ranks and…
Returning from India in 1805, Richard Sharpe travels aboard a merchant ship and becomes involved in a struggle over its passengers, cargo and loyalties. The voyage brings him into contact with the Royal Navy and places him aboard a British warship as the combined French and…
In 1807, a bereaved and disillusioned Lieutenant Sharpe is sent to Copenhagen to protect an agent carrying out a secret British mission. He discovers that the operation is compromised by traitors who intend to place the Danish fleet within Napoleon’s reach. As British forces bombard the…
During the retreat to Corunna in 1809, Sharpe and a group of riflemen are cut off from the British army and surrounded by French cavalry. His men distrust his authority and consider abandoning him, but an alliance with the Spanish officer Blas Vivar gives them a…
Portugal, 1809. Lieutenant Sharpe and his riflemen are sent behind French lines to find Kate Savage, the missing daughter of an English wine merchant. Their mission is complicated by Colonel Christopher, a British officer pursuing his own secret arrangement with the French. Trapped around occupied Oporto,…
In 1809, Sharpe is attached to the inexperienced South Essex Regiment under the incompetent Sir Henry Simmerson. After the regiment loses its colours during a disastrous encounter with the French, Sharpe promises to restore its honour by capturing an Imperial Eagle. The campaign leads to the…
Wellington’s army is short of money in 1810, and Sharpe is ordered behind enemy lines to recover a cache of Spanish gold needed to continue the campaign. The mission brings him into conflict with guerrilla leaders who have their own claims on the treasure and their…
Portugal, 1810. As André Masséna’s army advances towards Lisbon, Sharpe loses command of his company to a well-connected but inexperienced officer. He then uncovers a scheme by Major Ferreira and his powerful brother Ferragus to supply the French invaders. Separated from his men during the destruction…
In 1811, a failed attack on a French-held bridge leaves Sharpe, Harper and Brigadier Moon stranded in besieged Cádiz. Sharpe is ordered to recover compromising letters being used to blackmail the British ambassador and undermine the alliance with Spain. His search through the city leads him…
Spain, 1811. Sharpe is ordered to train the Real Compañía Irlandesa, a ceremonial Irish battalion in Spanish service, while guarding the isolated fort of San Isidro. A French brigade commanded by the ruthless General Loup attacks the position and threatens both the battalion and the alliance…
In 1812, Sharpe loses command of his company and discovers that Obadiah Hakeswill, his oldest enemy, has returned to the regiment. While the British army captures Ciudad Rodrigo and prepares to storm Badajoz, Sharpe is also trying to protect Teresa and their child inside the threatened…
Spain, 1812. General Rowland Hill sends Sharpe to reconnoitre the French forts protecting a pontoon bridge across the Tagus at Almaraz. The bridge allows two French armies to reinforce one another and must be destroyed before the British can advance. Sharpe’s reconnaissance becomes a larger mission…
During the Salamanca campaign of 1812, Sharpe is drawn into the hunt for a French intelligence officer whose network threatens the British army. The pursuit centres on a wounded British spy and a French colonel determined to silence him. After Sharpe is gravely injured, the conflict…
Recovering from his wounds after Salamanca, Sharpe is assigned to guard a commissary officer and a stock of captured French muskets at a small Spanish fort. The post controls an old bridge over the River Tormes, which the French intend to seize in a sudden raid.…
At the end of 1812, a force of deserters and renegades led by Obadiah Hakeswill seizes a mountain village and takes British and French women hostage. Sharpe is sent to rescue them but discovers that the pass also has military importance to the French. After confronting…
Spain, 1813. French intelligence officer Pierre Ducos arranges for Sharpe to be accused of murder, placing him under a death sentence and threatening the alliance between Britain and Spain. Sharpe escapes custody and follows the conspiracy through enemy territory in an attempt to prove his innocence.…
In 1813, the South Essex Regiment is being weakened because expected reinforcements have not arrived from England. Sharpe and Harper return home and discover that recruits are being hidden in a secret training battalion for the profit of senior officers and politicians. Operating without official protection,…
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…
Southern France, late 1813. After Wellington’s victory at the Battle of Nivelle, Sharpe is ordered to protect Rear-Admiral Joel Chase while the naval officer examines how the army might bridge the rivers around Bayonne. Chase’s determination to witness the fighting turns the escort into a series…
In 1814, Sharpe joins an amphibious expedition against the French coastal fortress at Teste de Buch. The raid is intended to threaten Bordeaux and draw troops away from Wellington’s main advance, but its commander is more interested in glory than the mission’s practical risks. Cut off…
Sharpe fights at Toulouse in 1814, unaware that Napoleon has already abdicated and the Peninsular War is effectively ending. After the battle, Pierre Ducos frames him for stealing a fortune, destroying his reputation and turning former allies against him. Sharpe and Harper pursue the real thief…
In June 1815, Sharpe is serving on the staff of the Prince of Orange when Napoleon’s return brings the allied armies into battle at Quatre Bras and Waterloo. Frustrated by the prince’s orders and alarmed by the danger facing his former regiment, Sharpe leaves his post…
Immediately after Waterloo, Wellington sends Sharpe into Paris to investigate a Bonapartist organisation preparing revenge against the victorious allies. In the occupied city, Sharpe searches for a spy while a trained assassin closes on a political target. The mission forces him to distinguish between former enemies,…
In 1820, the retired Sharpe and Patrick Harper travel to Chile to find their missing friend Blas Vivar, the former captain-general of the Spanish colony. Their journey takes them first to Saint Helena, where Sharpe meets the exiled Napoleon, and then into the Chilean struggle against…