Plot summary
Sharpe's battalion, acting as rearguard to the British Army in its retreat to Corunna, are cut down by a squadron of French regular cavalry. Sharpe takes up Captain Murray's heavy cavalry sword after Murray dies and takes command of the surviving riflemen (from the 95th Rifles). However, the men do not want to follow him. Their leader, Patrick Harper, and Sharpe fight, but they are interrupted by the arrival of Spanish Major Blas Vivar and his men.
Vivar invites the British to travel with him to escort them back to Portugal, but does not reveal his hidden agenda. The Spanish commoners hate the French invaders, but are dispirited and need something to rally around. In the course of the journey, Sharpe begins to gain the respect of his men, especially when his ability as a soldier gets them through a French ambush. Travelling on, they meet the Parkers, a Methodist couple, and their niece Louisa, with whom Sharpe falls in love, though it does not work out. Sharpe learns from a map the Parkers possess that Vivar is not taking them home at all and after a confrontation, falls out with Vivar and takes his men home.
On their way back, they are attacked by a French detachment led by Pierre D'Eclin and Vivar's pro-French brother, who had earlier been pursuing Vivar. Vivar comes to the rescue and helps them escape, though Louisa's aunt and uncle are captured and later sent home, being civilians.
Vivar confesses he lied to Sharpe because he needed Sharpe's help for an odd mission: taking the gonfalon of Santiago (the biblical saint James) to the city of Santiago de Compostela. According to legend, raising the gonfalon there will summon the saint to Spain's aid; Vivar is certain that the act will rouse his people. However, the city is held by a strong French force and the French are aware of Vivar's goal. Sharpe agrees to help Vivar take the city if Vivar can convince Patrick Harper to become a sergeant, something Sharpe had failed to do.
Through deceit, Sharpe seemingly manages to draw away many of the French soldiers on a wild goose chase, and against all odds, the city is seized. But then Sharpe realizes—almost too late—that the French were not fooled, and had hidden most of their supposedly absent troops in a building. They launch a surprise attack, but due to Sharpe's actions, they are defeated, and Vivar is given enough time to raise the gonfalon. Pierre D'Eclin and Major Vivar's brother are killed in the subsequent retreat from the city. Vivar inherits his elder brother's title of Count of Mouromorto and marries Louisa, who does not wish to return to England and a boring fiance.
Sharpe finally makes it back to Portugal, where he meets engineer Captain Hogan who reveals that the British have not abandoned the war and offers Sharpe the opportunity to work with him.
Television adaptation
Sharpe's Rifles came about because a Spanish production company expressed interest in investing in a television series, so Cornwell wrote a novel featuring a major Spanish character. It worked.
Sharpe's Rifles was adapted as the first episode of the Sharpe television series starring Sean Bean as Sharpe, Brian Cox as Hogan and Daragh O'Malley as Harper and guest starring Simon Andreu as Vivar, Julian Fellowes as Major Dunnett and Tim Bentinck as Captain Murray. The adaptation also introduced the character of Teresa Moreno (played by Assumpta Serna), Sharpe's future wife, prior to her introduction in the novels in Sharpe's Gold , as a colleague of Vivar and replaced the company of men from the novels with five key characters: three of these, Hagman (John Tams), Cooper (Michael Mears) and Tongue (Paul Trussell), came from the novel, the other two, Harris (Jason Salkey) and Perkins (Lyndon Davies), were invented. It added an opening sequence of Sharpe saving the life of Sir Arthur Wellesley (David Troughton) and earning a battlefield commission (an event that happened during the Second Mahratta War in the novels). Major Dunnett, who is merely captured in the book, is killed in the opening ambush, as is Sergeant Williams who survives until halfway through in the book. The backdrop of the retreat to Corunna was dropped and instead Sharpe is searching for an army banker, James Rothschild (Kerry Shale). Louisa, the primary love interest from the novel, is reduced to a minor character whose uncle turns out to be a colleague of Hogan and whose "aunt" is Rothschild in disguise (in the book she travels with her actual aunt and uncle). Hogan is given a larger role, manipulating Sharpe into assisting Vivar. The death of the primary villain Colonel De L'Eclin is altered slightly: In the book, he hides in Santiago with an army, in the television version, he returns alone to confront Sharpe and is killed by Perkins when he pulls a gun on him.
Sharpe is a series of historical fiction stories by Bernard Cornwell centred on the character of British soldier Richard Sharpe. The stories formed the basis for an ITV television series featuring Sean Bean in the title role.
Sharpe is a British television drama series starring Sean Bean as Richard Sharpe, a fictional British soldier in the Napoleonic Wars, with Irish actor Daragh O'Malley playing his second in command, Patrick Harper. Sharpe and Harper are the heroes of the Sharpe series of novels by Bernard Cornwell; most, though not all, of the episodes are based on the books. Produced by Celtic Films and Picture Palace Films for the ITV network, the series was filmed mainly in Crimea, with recordings of other episodes in Turkey, England, Portugal and Spain. The two final episodes were filmed in Jaipur, India.
Sharpe's Havoc: Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Oporto is the seventh historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 2003.
Sharpe's Prey is the fifth historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 2001. The story is set in 1807 during the Napoleonic Wars.
Sharpe's Eagle is a historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 1981. The story is set in July 1809, in the midst of the Talavera Campaign during the Peninsular War. It was the first Sharpe novel published, but eighth in the series' chronological order.
Sharpe's Gold is the second historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell first published in 1981. The story is set in August 1810 and features the destruction of Almeida during the Peninsular War.
Sharpe's Battle is the twelfth historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 1995. The story is set during the Peninsular War in Spain in 1811.
Sharpe's Company is a historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 1982. It was the third in the series to be published, but is thirteenth in chronological order. The story covers January to August 1812, featuring the Siege of Badajoz during the Peninsular War.
Sharpe's Sword is a historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell. It is the fourth in the series, being first published in 1983, though the fifteenth chronologically. Set in the summer of 1812 including the Battle of Salamanca on 22 July 1812, the story follows Sharpe and his friend Sergeant Harper involved in espionage while hunting down the sadistic and highly dangerous Colonel Philippe Leroux.
Sharpe's Waterloo is a historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell. Originally published in 1990 under the title Waterloo, it is the eleventh novel of the Sharpe series and the twentieth novel in chronological order. Cornwell stated that he intended to end the series here, but later changed his mind.
Sharpe's Devil is the twelfth historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series written by Bernard Cornwell and published in 1992. The story is set in 1820, with Sharpe and Harper en route to Chile to find their old friend Blas Vivar. Along the way they encounter the exiled Napoleon Bonaparte and the Scottish former Royal Navy officer Lord Cochrane. Chronologically, this is the most recent book in the series, with all subsequent novels depicting earlier events in Sharpe's career.
Sharpe's Escape is the twenty-third historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, published in 2004. Sharpe is embroiled in the British retreat through Portugal in 1810 from the defence of the ridge at Bussaco to the Lines of Torres Vedras, where the French offensive is successfully halted.
Sharpe's Rifles is the first of the Sharpe television dramas, based on Bernard Cornwell's 1988 novel of the same name. Shown on ITV in 1993, the adaptation stars Sean Bean, Daragh O'Malley and Assumpta Serna. It began a long series of successful and critically acclaimed television adaptations of the novels.
Sharpe's Eagle is the second in the series of Sharpe historical war television dramas, based on the 1981 novel of the same name. Shown on ITV in 1993, the adaptation stars Sean Bean, Daragh O'Malley and Assumpta Serna.
Sharpe's Gold is a 1995 British television drama, the sixth of a series screened on the ITV network that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. The drama has almost nothing in common with the novel of the same name by Bernard Cornwell. Scriptwriter Nigel Kneale explained, "I didn't use much of [the book]. I used the first ten pages, I think. Then I had an idea which would be more fun to do. It was all about magic by the time I was through with it."
Sharpe's Justice is a British television drama, the 13th of a series that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a fictional British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. Unlike most of the other instalments of the series, this episode was not based on a novel by Bernard Cornwell. A key scene in the story is based on the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, reset here to Keighley in Yorkshire, in 1814.
Sharpe's Siege is the eighteenth historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 1987. The story is set on the Atlantic coast of France in the Napoleonic wars during the British Invasion of France in 1814.
Sharpe's Waterloo is a British television drama, the 14th part of a series that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a fictional British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. The adaptation is based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Bernard Cornwell.
"Sharpe's Skirmish" is a historical short story by Bernard Cornwell in the Richard Sharpe series.
