Sharpe's Trafalgar: The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October, 1805

by Bernard Cornwell

Book Overview

From New York Times bestselling author Bernard Cornwell, now available in paperback--bestselling historical novelist Bernard Cornwell brings life to one of the most spectacular naval battles in history with SHARPE'S TRAFALGAR.

"The greatest writer of historical adventures today."
--Washington Post

Critically acclaimed, perennial New York Times bestselling author Bernard Cornwell (Agincourt, The Fort, the Saxon Tales)...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061098620
• ISBN13: 9780061098628
• Release Date: October 2012
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Great change of pace after the India books

An homage to Patrick O'Brian's "Master and Commander", the series based on the British Navy of the same period. The fan of both will see numerous similarities. Sharpe's new friend, Captain Joel Chase, is the spitting image of Jack Aubrey. He's a bluff, good-natured fighting captain whose men would follow him through the gates of Hell, and he personally feels the same way about Admiral Lord Nelson. Sound familiar? He rarely flogs erring sailors. He loves his coffee. He pays for extra powder and shot out of his own pocket so that his crew can practice gunnery. And he's loyal to friends like Sharpe, who comes to Chase's rescue during a Bombay brawl with a dishonest merchant who cheated them both. There are other touches as well. Sharpe's struggle to climb the masts and perhaps avoid using the maintop's "lubber hole" refers to the same running gag about Stephen Maturin, Aubrey's friend and intrepid but without sealegs. Sharpe, a soldier, doesn't really belong at Trafalgar. But Cornwell contrives a plausible way to get him there, as Sharpe returns to Britain in 1805 to join a rifles regiment. The India books were fun but, after we've seen all those city walls stormed, all those rajahs plundered, and all those hideous Oriental tortures meted out, it's time to move on. Putting Sharpe on a ship, with its backstays and quarterdecks and scuppers pouring blood during battle, is a fine change of pace. Cornwell's battle detail is typically gripping. And in this book Sharpe finds a romance that, one senses, may be more fateful than those he's had in previous books.

Richard Sharpe on vacation!?

After a gap of two years from FORTRESS, here we contemplate Richard Sharpe at his leisure on a pleasant sea voyage back to England: fighting Indian thugs, befriending an amusing naval captain, stiffing a lord, smelling treason, and falling into yearning love with Lady Grace. She utters the best capsule description of Sharpe: "You're like a weed, Richard. You can grow anywhere." Also, there's reminiscing of his orphan childhood, ignominious capture, rescue and pursuing the traitors, breakfasting with an admiral, and becoming a Marine for a crucial month. This is Sharpe "off-duty?" There are lots of interesting tidbits about fighting a sailing man-o-war, but little of the complex and esoteric business of sailing her that would confuse a lubberly admirer of the Sharpe series. The endpapers display a highly useful cutaway diagram of the type of ship in which Sharpe goes to battle. The description of ship-board battle during the crucial encounter off Trafalgar is better and bloodier than anything I've read in standard naval fare, focusing as Cornwell does on the stinking and bloodied men and not the cool captain as series hero. The French & Spanish line of battle was "capping the T," normally the decisive maneuver in sea battle, but Nelson smashed it with his audacity and firepower. The relative casualties of the French & Spanish vs. the British, given in Cornwell's historical note, are simply astonishing, given the mutual slaughter described here. Note: there has got to be at least one more book to get Sharpe into his Rifles and then to Spain (yeah!).

Contrived but magnificent

Yes, Cornwell has to jump through some literary and historical accuracy hoops to get Sharpe -- confirmed landlubber extrordinaire -- to Trafalgar, but, here, it just plain works. After a few preliminaries, Cornwell uses the heart of the book to tell the story of Trafalgar through the eyes of the redoubtable Ensign Sharpe. Yes, Sharpe gets more tail than your average movie star . . . and, yes, some traditional British cliches are present -- the nasty sneering aristocrat, and so forth, but Cornwell's sheer story-telling ability makes it one of the finest (along with Waterloo) Sharpe novels yet. The final hundred pages, even though the feature ships are fictional, tell the story of the great naval battle in more readable style -- while getting all the important details correct -- than any non-fiction book I've yet encountered. As the afterword teases, our hero must march again. If I can kick in my two cents, I'd suggest sending an aging Col. Sharpe to help the Greeks win their independence from the infidel Turks. All in all, a great read.

Cornwell does his duty fivefold

Sharpe's Trafalgar is a recent addition to the Sharpe saga although one of the earliest in chronology. While I had seen some of the Sharpe movies on TV, Sharpe's Trafalgar was my introduction to the books. As much of the action occurs at sea, it is has a quite different setting than the other works. Fortunately, the novel works well in the tradition of novels pioneered by C.S. Forester.Sharpe's Trafalgar begins with Sharpe making friends with a Captain of a third rate Royal Navy ship. Rating refers to the number of guns as the captain and crew are first rate. Sharpe books passage back to India on a commercial vessel and after some chicanery participates in a sea chase around the Cape of Good Hope and up the Atlantic, arriving at Cape Trafalgar on October 21, 1806. On board there are intrigues but it all takes a back seat to the Battle of Trafalgar.Cornwell has done a good job of writing a novel of wooden ships and iron men. Unlike the heroes of Forester, Woodman or Kent, his Sharpe has no official standing in the ship although we know that Sharpe won't miss out on any of the action when it comes. However, by establishing a friendship with the captain we are privy to much of the inner workings of the ship. Cornwell also provided a sketch of a typical ship so that a reader unschooled in naval literature will understand where everything is. The sailing details are minimal but I get bored with reading about the t'gallants being let out or the royals being reefed. If a reader found O'Brian impassible then Sharpe's Trafalgar might be a welcome introduction to the genre.Cornwell also does a superb job of describing the Battle of Trafalgar. Unlike the most notable writers of the genre Cornwell does not describe a naval battle in elegant terms. Essentially naval warfare is like a vicious, bloody street fight in which the two fighters get in close and kick, gouge and bite until one falls. The kicking of the downed fighter only stops when it is sure he will no longer get up. Trafalgar is brutal savage butchery and Cornwell excels in blood and gore.While Sharpe is the hero of the novel, not all of his actions are justifiable. Some of his actions are totally inappropriate and totally unacceptable even under the circumstances. Perhaps that's part of the interest in the series is that the hero doesn't always do the right thing. Paradoxically, I had the most sympathy for one of the villains when he gave his traditional- I'm gonna kill you and here's why- speech. The man made some good points. However, Sharpe's Trafalgar is a novel where the good guys wear white hats and the bad guys wear black, so to speak. Having a hero who does some unconscionable things and a villain who has some legitimate motivation for his evil, make it a little more interesting.One thing that Cornwell communicates very well is Nelson's charisma. Sharpe's Trafalgar has the best presentation of Nelson of any novel of the era that I have read. Not only does he present

Sharpe at sea

Another outstanding addition to the classic Richard Sharpe series. With Sharpe departing India and sailing aboard an English warship, he soon becomes embroiled with a renegade, an unfaithful wife, a wealthy and jealous husband, a scattering of nautical characters worthy of Kent and Pope not to mention some terrific descriptions of life at sea aboard a King's ship. The author once again demonstrates his uncanny ability of placing our hero in some dangerous prediciments, with some splendid details about ship board hazards and some rousing sea battles and some rather torrid romantic interludes as well. A worthy addition to the collection, filled with adventure, thundering battle and splintered decks, romance and sudden death. I hope that Mr Cornwall considers doing a few books featuring a new naval hero, his writing style would capture that quite well. Once again, Sharpe marches on.