Customer Reviews

Sharpes Revenge Peace Of 1814

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"Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord. -- Romans 12:19

War's end is always a mixed blessing for professional soldiers and sailors. They are tired of fighting, glad to be alive, but wonder if they can deal the peace.

At home, they may not get the respect they deserve. They may find that people have been plotting against them.

As the days ran out for Napoleon, those thoughts and issues were on the mind of Major Richard Sharpe as he arranged a duel ("grass before breakfast") to gain revenge against the naval Captain Bampfylde who abandoned Sharpe and his men behind enemy lines and arrogantly sought to claim credit for a victory that belonged to the army. Sharpe's wife Jane hates the thought of a duel and headed off to England angry.

After the duel, there's still a battle to be fought. Marshal Soult's army is defending Toulouse and Sharpe is given a staff position in the battle. But naturally, he soon finds himself wielding his sword. After the battle, there's bitter irony in learning that the Emperor Napoleon had abdicated several days before.

Then, it's time to head home. There's tragedy as all those women who married without a colonel's permission are denied transport to England.

Before he can leave, Sharpe and Captain Frederickson find themselves falsely accused of stealing an enormous treasure. How will they cleanse themselves of dishonor? Could it be that an old enemy is involved?

This story should be thought of as a continuation of Sharpe's Siege because most of the same characters are involved. At the same time, the main theme is about the fickleness of governments, armies, war, and fate.

I thought that this was by far the least interesting story in the entire Sharpe series. It meanders slowly around and seems to be more like a series of short stories than one smoothly connected novel. The battle scenes aren't nearly as interesting as in the best of the books. The story's development left me feeling a little dirty and disgusted . . . not feelings that I usually have been reading about Sharpe.

Unless you feel that you have to read every book in this series, you could probably skip this one and be none the worse for the decision.

This book is set right after Sharpes siege. It pretty much continues on from there.

This book puts the penisular wars to rest. The peace has left the winning British army being disbanded and sent home. But Sharpes nemesis, Ducos, has one more torture to put Sharpe through. The book sees Sharpe and Fredrickson (followed always by Harper) on the run from both the British and the French armies. The rest you have to read but it is a great story and it fits in perfectly with the series as a whole.

4 Stars

If I can grossly break Sharpe readers into two camps (those who read just for the battle scenes, and those who read for the story of Richard Sharpe, of which battle scenes are one thrilling part), then Sharpe's Revenge is definitely for the second group. Other than the surprisingly hard-fought battle of Toulouse at the start, Revenge concerns Sharpe's (almost) one-man adventures in post-war Europe.

It's a strange world for Sharpe (and the Sharpe reader), one in which the dogged British army we've come to admire through ten books of the Peninsula War is no longer the underdog fighting overwhelming odds, but is the overwhelming force itself. Everyone knows Napoleon is doomed. Indeed, it's sad to read about the bloodshed at Toulouse because sacrifices which seemed heroic a year earlier just seemed tragically unnecessary in April 1814. What a sad thing to be the last soldier killed in a war.

Like the army, Sharpe is changing. As he gets older (he's now 36), he's losing his relish for battle and finding it harder to keep down the fear. For much of the book, his friend Frederickson is the go-getter, as Sharpe struggles with self-doubt over his post-army role, his wife's infidelities, etc.

And, after victory, the army is broken apart and Sharpe is adrift in this new world. But, of course, not for long. There's one more adventure with Harper and out of it, Sharpe's post-war world takes shape.

I've enjoyed reading Cornwell's series of Civil War novels (the Starbuck series). I recommend them, however, only with certain reservations.

These books are best approached as works of pure fiction that are set against approximations of history. People who read them either as an introduction to or as an adjunct to a study of actual history need to be wary here. Cornwell is a novelist, not an historian. Usually he gets the facts right; sometimes he does not. He freely invents major characters and events, and there are places where he alters established historical fact to suit his fiction. The result can be confusing.

For example, in _Copperhead_, Cornwell has Johnston hatching the battle plan for the Seven Pines offensive all on his own. That's not the way it happened. What's known about what did happen is far more interesting than Cornwell's altered and simplified version of events.

The second bone I have to pick with Cornwell's Civil War books, is that people who have read his previous novels (the Sharpe series) will find the many of the same characters and themes recurring in these. The characters here are somewhat less one-dimensional, but they're still transparent and predictable. The dialog is better.

As an historical novelist, I would spot Cornwell somewhere between Patrick O'Brian and the Shaaras (Michael and Jeff). He's not as good a novelist as O'Brian; he's not as good an historian as the Shaaras. On the other hand, he's almost as good as all of them combined. Not quite, but almost.

For those looking for the best Civil War novels, I would read these only after first reading the Shaaras' trilogy and The Red Badge of Courage. If at all possible, I would then read them alongside more carefully written accounts of the historical backgrounds.

That said, this is an excellent series of books. It will hold your attention and give you a fairly accurate impression of the sorts of things that really did go on back then. The facts are somewhat loose, but the final impression you'll get will not be.