Cornwell Bernard

In a battery of events that will make a hero out of an illiterate private, a young Richard Sharpe poses as the enemy to bring down a ruthless Indian dictator backed by fearsome French troops. The year is 1799, and Richard Sharpe is just beginning his military career. An inexperienced young private in His Majesty's service, Sharpe becomes part of an expedition to India to push the ruthless Tippoo of Mysore from his throne and drive out his French allies. To penetrate the Tippoo's city and make contact with a Scottish spy being held prisoner there, Sharpe has to pose as a deserter. Success will make him a sergeant, but failure will turn him over to the Tippoo's brutal executioners — or, worse — his man-eating tigers. Picking his way through an exotic and alien world. Sharpe realizes that one slip will mean disaster. And when the furious British assault on the city finally begins, Sharpe must take up arms against his true comrades to preserve his false identity, risking death at their hands in order to avoid detection and thus to foil the Tippoo's well-set trap.

Major Richard Sharpe awaits the opening shots of the army's Vitoria campaign with grim expectancy in this 17th book of his chronicles, from 1985. Victory depends on the increasingly fragile alliance between Britain and Spain-an alliance that must be maintained at any cost. But Sharpe's enemy Pierre Ducos seizes a chance to both destroy the alliance and take a personal revenge on Sharpe. And when the lovely spy, La Marquesa, takes a hand in the game, Sharpe finds himself caught in a web of deadly intrigue and becomes a fugitive, hunted by enemy and ally alike. Bernard Cornwell grew up with the Hornblower novels, following C.S. Forester's fictional hero through Lord Nelson's navy during the Napoleonic wars, and created his army counterpart in Richard Sharpe, a rifleman in Lord Wellington's land campaign. Cornwell has produced 24 novels and stories in the series, which traces Sharpe's career from 1799 and the Siege of Seringapatam in India to an encounter with the exiled Napoleon himself in 1821, and inspired the British television series Sharpe, starring Sean Bean.

Amid rumors that Napoleon is dead, or has run away, Richard Sharpe has one last battle to fight before he can lay down his sword, in this 21st book of the Sharpe chronicles, from 1989. Little does he know the 1814 battle for Toulouse will be one of the bloodiest conflicts of the Napoleonic wars, but it is far from Sharpe's only battle. Accused of stealing Napoleon's treasure, Sharpe must discover the unknown enemy who has tried to frame him-and his revenge is ingenious and devastating. Bernard Cornwell grew up with the Hornblower novels, following C.S. Forester's fictional hero through Lord Nelson's navy during the Napoleonic wars, and created his army counterpart in Richard Sharpe, a rifleman in Lord Wellington's land campaign. Cornwell has produced 24 novels and stories in the series, which traces Sharpe's career from 1799 and the Siege of Seringapatam in India to an encounter with the exiled Napoleon himself in 1821, and inspired the British television series Sharpe, starring Sean Bean.