| “ | You can't stop Captain Sharpe, sir. You can walk away from him or you can stand behind him, but don't ever try and get in his way.
— Harper
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” |
Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Sharpe is the protagonist of 19 Novels and 3 Short Stories by Bernard Cornwell. The series (chronologically) opens up in India, as Sharpe serves as an infantryman in the British Conquest of India, where he has to disguise himself as a British Deserter to infiltrate the Tippoo Sultan's Army, and not only rescue an intelligence officer, but then deativate a trap meant for the British. He then takes part in the final assault on the last stronghold, saves the life of the future Duke of Wellington, for which he recieves his battlefield commission. The rest of the Novels shift to Europe, where Sharpe takes place in many of the important battles in the Napoleonic Wars, where his first wife also dies, and all of his money is taken away by lawyers as part of his wife's estate. The strangest part of Sharpe's Service comes after he retires, in 1820, Sharpe is living in France when a Spanish Women whose life he had saved many years prior, comes asking for him to find her husband. So, Sharpe, and Patrick Harper (a former enemy now friend), go out to South America, where Sharpe not only gets embroiled in the Chilean War of Independence, but also gets to meet face-to-face with Napoleon.
During the novels, Sharpe's career spans 28 years. Bernard Cornwall took creative liscense by making Sharpe a hero by stealing the thunder of other men, but in this timeline he did commit all these acts. His list of achievements include: disabling a booby trap a Seringapatam (not a historical event), shooting and killing the Tipoo Sultan (alongside stealing his money), saving the life of Sir Arthur Wellesley's life at Assaye, storming the fortress of Gawilghur and opening the fort's gates, disabling the explosives going to destroy the Danish Fleet, being the scout to sigh incoming enemy boats and allowing an ambush to proceed, being the first British Soldier to capture a French Eagle, triggering the massive explosion demolishing Almeida, shooting the Prince of Orange, and commanding the regiment that drove off the French Imperial Guard at Waterloo.
According to the Nathaniel Starbuck Chronicles (another Cornwall Series), Sharpe is the father of Patrick Lassan, a French Calvaryman serving as a Confederate observer. Richard Sharpe is aid to have died on his farm in Normandy, France in 1860.
Battle vs. Jack Sparrow (by LB&SCR)[]
TBW.
Expert's Opinion[]
TBD.