Sharpe's Fortress: Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Gawilghur, December 1803

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This begins at the tailend of 1803 and takes place in India. The British under Wellesley, allied with the East India Company, have followed Dodd, his fellow traitors, and the Mahratta to an intimidating impregnable fortress called Gawilghur. Dodd and the gang hunker down, secure in the knowledge that no assault could ever breach the walls of Gawilghur. Thus begins an incredible siege. Sharpe's Triumph is the second historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 1998. Sharpe is a sergeant in the army who attracts the attention of General Arthur Wellesley at Ahmednagar. Perhaps my four stars is because I just finished and hated The Amber Spyglass, elevating Sharpe's Fortress to something greater than it was, but I think it is a lot more likely that I am just a fan of a good old-fashioned yarn full of action, one ethically complicated character and one truly nasty and imbalanced villain. Sharpe's Fortress has all that and Bernard Cornwell's muscular prose to boot. Richard Sharpe is now a brand-spanking new ensign. He is learning that he should have been careful what he wished for. None of the enlisted respect him since he came up from the ranks; the officers look down upon him as a dirty peasant. The poor guy can't win for losing! He's a tenacious fellow, though. Knowing his character from the rest of the series, I enjoyed seeing Sharpe begin to develop into the character I know and love. After the battle, Urquhart recommends Sharpe transfer to the 95th Rifles, an experimental unit, though nothing can be done while the war rages on. For the moment, he assigns Sharpe to assist Captain Torrance, in command of the baggage train. The army is short of many desperately needed supplies, and Sharpe soon discovers why. Lazy and deeply in debt, Torrance has been selling them to the merchant Naig, with the assistance of Sharpe's old nemesis, Sergeant Hakeswill. When Sharpe finds many of the stolen supplies in Naig's tent, Torrance has his associate hanged immediately to avoid being implicated. Jama, Naig's brother, is not pleased, so Torrance agrees to betray Sharpe into his hands. Hakeswill is only too glad to waylay Sharpe; besides their mutual hatred, he rightly suspects that Sharpe has a fortune in jewels looted from a dead enemy ruler.

Cornwell published the non-fiction book Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles in September 2014, timely for the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. [2]

Saving Arthur Wellesley's life at the Battle of Assaye (Wellesley was unhorsed and forced to defend himself from Maratha artillerymen for a few crucial moments; Cornwell notes that if any soldier or officer had saved his life during this fight, he would almost certainly have rewarded him with a promotion); After publishing eight books in his ongoing Sharpe series, Cornwell was approached by a production company interested in adapting them for television. The producers asked him to write a prequel to give them a starting point to the series. They also requested that the story feature a large role for Spanish characters to secure co-funding from Spain. The result was Sharpe’s Rifles, published in 1987, and a series of Sharpe television films staring Sean Bean. This time The Fortress of Gawilghur is in his sights. The Fortress of Gawilghur is generally believed, by the Indians, to be impregnable. But if the British are to be successful in their attempt to conquer India Gawilghur must be taken. Major General Arthur Wellesley– commander of British and Indian Allied Forces in South Central India Restored to rank of captain in the South Essex Battalion after successfully leading an unofficial forlorn hope to take the third breach of Badajoz and the death of several captains in the Battalion.

In the third installment in the series, Richard Sharpe struggles as a young officer in the Army. His heart still lies in the Frontline, a theme continually brought up to his detriment throughout the book. Forget the enemy in front of him, Sharpe is constantly put to the trash by his own peers before our old buddy Hakeswill and other officers cook up a plot and get him sold to the Indians and Colonel Dord inside of Gawilghur; A supposedly impregnable fortress. That said, Sharpe’s tales have a much more contemporary flavor, and not only in the terseness of the language, carnage of the action and sometimes suspect sensationalism (as, when Indian janni “religious musclemen” drive enormous nails into the heads of condemned men with their bare hands). What I sense is the creeping of modern super-heroism into the adventures and misadventures of this child of a London whore avoided by every musket ball.… Cornwell was born in London in 1944. His father was a Canadian airman, and his mother, who was English, a member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. He was adopted and brought up in Essex by the Wiggins family, who were members of the Peculiar People, a strict Protestant sect who banned frivolity of all kinds and even medicine. After he left them, he changed his name to his birth mother's maiden name, Cornwell.Manu Bappoo, the younger brother of the Rajah of Berar, decides to turn around and fight the British again, with his best unit, composed of Arab mercenaries, leading the charge, but he is again routed. During the fighting, Sharpe is impressed by the bravery of a teenage Arab boy, Ahmed, and saves his life when the boy is surrounded. Ahmed becomes his servant. Deliberately triggering the massive explosion that destroyed the fortress of Almeida (usually attributed to accident, combined with careless British handling of their munitions store); During the earliest (chronological) books Sharpe is a private and later sergeant, and so his uniform and weapons largely are in line with Army regulations. His first sword and officer's sash are taken from the dead in the wake of the Battle of Assaye, although no specifics are given on the weapon. After being disappointed by the previous book in the series, Sharpe's Fortress does not leave you wanting. While it's predecessor fails to provide sufficient detail of a famous battle, this novels lets you live the pain, drama and excitement of what has been called by some as a mere footnote to history. If you read Sharpe's Triumph and considered putting the series aside, please read this one before making your final decision. Lccn 00059703 Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Openlibrary OL6793253M Openlibrary_edition

On transfer to the 95th Rifles, Sharpe becomes a second lieutenant, equivalent in rank to an ensign, as the Rifles do not have ensigns. Cornwell is again masterful in his description of the action. The pace is brisk and siege is fully explored. I walked away from the book feeling as if I had a sense of what could have take place during the siege. The story unfold masterfully. This is HF action written at its best. When two of Hakeswill's henchmen are killed, Hakeswill realises Sharpe is responsible, so he deserts and finds service with the renegade Englishman William Dodd in Gawilghur. It is said that whoever rules in Gawilghur, rules India, and Dodd intends for it to be him. When the Outer Fort falls, Dodd keeps the gates of the Inner Fort closed, trapping Manu Bappoo outside to be killed by the British. Dodd also has Hakeswill murder Beny Singh, the weak, pleasure-loving commander of Gawilghur.Sharpe promoted to lieutenant – the exact time frame is not referred to in the novels but occurred sometime after the events of Sharpe's Prey and before Sharpe's Rifles. In this installment, the character of Richard Sharpe is more fully developed. The character is forced to deal with emotions and the anger and disappointment that when your dreams do not unravel as planned. Sharpe is described as "brilliant but wayward" in Sharpe's Sword, and he is portrayed by the author as a "loose cannon". He becomes a highly skilled and experienced leader of light troops. In contrast to the honourable Horatio Hornblower, the inspiration for the series, Sharpe is a rogue, an unabashed thief and murderer who has no qualms about killing a bitter enemy when the opportunity arises. However, he is protective of women in general and has a number of lovers over the course of his life. Struggling to come up with a name as distinctive as Horatio Hornblower, he used a placeholder based on the rugby union player Richard Sharp; eventually, he kept it, just adding an "e". [1] The author had intended to write 11 novels, the same number as in the Hornblower series, ending with Sharpe's Waterloo, but later changed his mind and continued writing. Sharpe is born to a whore in the rookeries of London. Orphaned at an early age, he grows up in poverty. He is eventually taken in by prostitute (and later bar owner) Maggie Joyce and becomes a thief. He has to flee the city after killing a man to protect Maggie.

Storming the walls of the inner fortress at Gawilghur and opening the gates to the besieging forces (in reality, this was achieved by Captain Campbell leading the light company of the 94th Scotch Brigade; in the novel, Campbell and his troops are the first to join Sharpe once they realise what he's planning);The majority of the story takes place on an active battlefield and sex does not play a significant role. There are several references to prostitutes in the story but no graphic discussions or descriptions. One character has a penchant for lounging completely naked but again, there is nothing graphic. A sexual encounter is implied on one occasion without any detail save that the parties were unclothed. Sharpe serves four uneventful years as a sergeant. In 1803, he is the sole survivor of a massacre of the garrison of a small fort carried out by a turncoat Company officer, William Dodd ( Sharpe's Triumph). Because he can identify Dodd, Sharpe is taken along by McCandless on a mission to capture and punish Dodd, to discourage others from deserting. Their search takes them first to battles at Ahmednuggur and then Assaye. Retrieving and restoring the Imperial Family's treasure (in his note, Cornwell notes that several chests of personal belongings and riches did get lost in the chaos of the French defeat of 1814, but how this happened and their final fate are unknown) Firing the shot that wounded the Prince of Orange during the Battle of Waterloo, forcing him to retire from the field (in reality, this shot was most likely fired by a French skirmisher); Cornwell was sent away to Monkton Combe School, attended the University of London, and after graduating, worked as a teacher. He attempted to enlist in the British armed services at least three times but was rejected on the grounds of myopia.