Plot summary
In 1814, Richard Sharpe and his second wife, Jane, quarrel over his imminent duel with Captain Bampfylde, resulting from the latter's cowardice in the previous novel, Sharpe's Siege . Just in case, Sharpe grants her full authority over the considerable sum of money he has lodged with his prize agent in London. Jane returns to England on her own. Sharpe wants her to purchase a country home in Dorset, but she makes it clear she wants to live in London. After Bampfylde shoots first and misses, he reveals his cowardice as Sharpe takes his time and carefully aims. Sharpe unintentionally wounds Bampfylde in the buttocks.
Sharpe then acts as chief of staff of General Nairn's brigade in the Battle of Toulouse. Shortly afterwards, however, he learns that Napoleon has been defeated and the war ended a week or two before. Sharpe, Harper and Frederickson go to Bordeaux to await transport to England. There Sharpe learns that Jane has closed out his account, withdrawing well over £18,000.
Sharpe and Frederickson are arrested in Bordeaux. They are accused of stealing Napoleon's treasure, which had been concealed at Teste de Buch, the fortress they had captured in Sharpe's Siege, based on a witness statement by Napoleon's spymaster, Major Pierre Ducos, an old and bitter enemy of Sharpe's. In reality, Ducos himself stole the treasure, murdering the colonel who delivered it to him and suborning most or all of the accompanying Dragoons. Sharpe and Frederickson realize that they need the testimony of the fort's French commander, Henri Lassan, to exonerate them, so with help from Harper and Captain Peter d'Alembord, the two men escape, and they and Harper set out to find Lassan.
In London, at the urging of a new friend, young widow Lady Spindacre, Jane buys a town house in fashionable Cork Street. On hearing of her husband's arrest, she contacts Sharpe's former ally, Lord John Rossendale, but instead of using his influence on Sharpe's behalf, he becomes Jane's lover.
Sharpe, Harper and Frederickson make their way to Lassan's ancestral home in Normandy. They arrive shortly after assassins sent by Ducos (disguised as British riflemen) kill Lassan and his mother. Lassan's widowed sister, Lucille Castineau, shoots and nearly kills Sharpe, mistaking him for one of the killers. When she learns the truth, Lucille takes the two fugitives in and nurses Sharpe. Harper is sent to deliver a letter to Jane.
Harper and d'Alembord separately return to England and contact Jane. D'Alembord receives a very chilly reception, while Harper is horsewhipped by Rossendale, at Jane's urging, when he tries to give her a letter from Sharpe. In Normandy, Frederickson grows attached to Lucille, and proposes to her, but is refused. He leaves for Paris to track down Ducos, leaving Sharpe to recover from his injuries. In his absence, Sharpe and Lucille become lovers.
Harper returns and tells Sharpe about Jane, just as Frederickson sends word that Ducos has fled to Naples. The three men travel to Italy, while Lucille, now pregnant, writes to the French prosecutor to exonerate Sharpe. The information is secretly passed on to Napoleon, in exile on Elba, who dispatches General Calvet and 13 Imperial Guardsmen to retrieve his treasure.
In Naples, Ducos passes himself off as a Polish count, buys the protection of the cardinal who actually runs the kingdom behind the scenes, and augments his few French soldiers with some mercenaries to guard the treasure.
Calvet finds Sharpe, and the two form an alliance. The combined force assaults Ducos's villa, capturing the treasure and Ducos, but before they can leave, the cardinal's forces surround the villa (the cardinal wanting the gold and jewels for himself). Sharpe loads a small cannon with gold coins and fires it several times around the Neapolitan troops. The ill-disciplined men break ranks to get the coins, allowing the besieged company to escape by sea, taking Ducos and the remaining treasure with them.
Ducos is executed by firing squad, and all charges against Sharpe are dropped. Sharpe and Frederickson have a falling out when Frederickson learns of Sharpe's relationship with Lucille. Harper, discharged from the army, goes home to Ireland with his Spanish wife and child. Sharpe returns to Lucille (with some of Napoleon's gold).
Television adaptation
The novel was adapted as the first episode of the fifth season of the Sharpe television series, introducing Cécile Paoli as Lucille, seeing Alexis Denisof take over the role of Rossendale and guest starring John Benfield as Calvet, Connie Hyde as Lady Molly and Milton Johns as Hopkinson. The adaptation was basically faithful to the novel but lost many of the connections to Sharpe's Siege as a result of an original story, Sharpe's Mission , being placed between the adaptations.
Instead of the duel with Bampfylde, Sharpe fights a similar duel with Colonel Wigram, the officer who later commands his court martial, for insulting him at Toulouse. Lucille's brother is not Lassan but Maillot, the officer in charge of Napoleon's treasure (with their mother omitted entirely). Nairn's role is given to Major-General Ross, an original recurring character in the series, and the character's fate changed so he is merely wounded, whereas Nairn is killed at Toulouse. D'Alembord is omitted and other characters have their names changed. Frederickson learns of Sharpe and Lucille's relationship much earlier, before travelling to Naples, leaving them semi-reconciled at the end and Ducos' death is altered, with Sharpe shooting him from a distance as he tries to escape. Lucille's pregnancy was also left out, since the adaptation was followed by another original story, Sharpe's Justice , and ends with Sharpe and Harper saying goodbye to Lucille and returning to England.
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 recording of other episodes in Turkey, England, Portugal and Spain. The two final episodes were filmed in India.
Sharpe's Regiment is the seventeenth historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 1986. The story is set in England as Sharpe looks for the missing Second Battalion of the South Essex Regiment needed in Spain to fight in the Napoleonic Wars.
The South Essex Regiment, later the Prince of Wales' Own Volunteers, is a fictional infantry line regiment in the British Army that was created by Bernard Cornwell in the Sharpe novel series.
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 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 intended to end the series here, but later changed his mind.
Sharpe's Revenge is a British television drama, the 12th of a series that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. The adaptation is based on the 1989 novel of the same name by Bernard Cornwell.
Sharpe's Honour is the sixteenth historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 1985. In the Vitoria Campaign of the Peninsula War in 1813, Sharpe is framed for murder. He must find a way to clear his name to preserve the fragile alliance between Britain and Spain during the Napoleonic Wars.
Sharpe's Siege is a British television drama, the tenth of a series that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. The adaptation is based on the 1987 novel of the same name by Bernard Cornwell.
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 Challenge is a British TV film from 2006, usually shown in two parts, which is part of an ITV series based on Bernard Cornwell's historical fiction novels about the British soldier Richard Sharpe during the Napoleonic Wars. Contrary to most parts of the TV series, Sharpe's Challenge, as well as the follow-up Sharpe's Peril, is not based entirely on one of Cornwell's novels, but it uses and adapts some characters and storylines from Sharpe's Tiger (1997). Both are set in 1817, two years after Sharpe has retired as a farmer in Normandy, so chronologically they come after Sharpe's Waterloo (1815) and before the final novel Sharpe's Devil (1820–21). Some of the events in the film are inspired by events in the first three novels of the series. In Sharpe's Challenge and Sharpe's Peril, Sharpe and his comrade in arms, Patrick Harper, have been temporarily called out of retirement and asked to go to India.
Sharpe's Enemy is a British television drama, the fourth of a series that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. This episode is based on the 1984 novel of the same name by Bernard Cornwell.
Sharpe's Regiment is a British television drama, the ninth of a series that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. This episode is based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Bernard Cornwell.
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 Enemy: Richard Sharpe and the Defence of Portugal, Christmas 1812 is the fifteenth historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 1984. The story is set in 1812 during the Napoleonic Wars.
Sharpe's Honour is a 1994 British television drama, the fifth of a series screened on the ITV network that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a fictional British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. It is based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Bernard Cornwell.
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 Ransom" is a short story written by historical fiction author Bernard Cornwell. It features Cornwell's fictional hero Richard Sharpe. It was originally written for the British newspaper the Daily Mail, which serialised it during the 1995 Christmas season. In 2003 the Sharpe Appreciation Society combined it with another short story, "Sharpe's Christmas", in the collection Sharpe's Christmas.
Sharpe's Assassin is the twenty-first historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, published in 2021. The story is set in June 1815, immediately after the Battle of Waterloo, and during the occupation of Paris.
