I have been told that I woud enjoy (and therefore MUST read) the Sharpe’s series of books by Bernard Cornwell.
From what I can see, it is another practically endless group of historical novels. I can find reading lists for it in internal chronological order, but I am an obstinate and perverse cuss. I prefer to read a series in the order the episodes were written. That way I can approach it as a work in progress; I want to experience it as the author originally presented it.
Several of the books were published in the same years. Does anyone have a list of the books in PUBLISHED order?
Cornwell’s official website lists them all in chronological order by the date in which they are set, but it also gives the year in which they were published.
I love the Sharpe books. I’m not as fond of the movies because I don’t feel the movies were accurate to the books and Sean Bean’s blond mullet (while playing a black-haired character) annoys me… but I can’t get enough of the books. I’ve only read about half of them so far and am tracking down the rest.
I remember card catalogs. Big cabinet, small cards with cryptic notes about books. A person had to be taught how to use it.
The oldest Sharpe book my local library has is Sharpe’s Honour from 1985. Several of the books were written before that.
I’ve been able to determine that Sharpe’s Eagle was the first published, followed closely by Sharpe’s Gold, both published in 1981. The rest I can puzzle out (since he seems to have written no more than one a year for a while) from the list at http://www.bernardcornwell.net/index.cfm (which I just found since I started this thread).
Oh well, off to pester my local used book shoppe proprietor once again…
Dr.:
You are going to love these books. It looks like the author is slotting books into their respective time slots and not telling a sequential story. If you have a doubt about which book comes first, I believe that he did kind of follow Sharpe sequentially, so for any two books published in the same year, you could look at the synopsis and determine which books came first. Better yet, purchase the entire set on ebay and read them at random. They’ll still entertain.
CJ
He wrote them in historical order, wrote in the last book “Sharpe and (Sgt whats his name) will not march again”. Then I guess his other series didn’t work out and he needed money and started writing more, not in order.
In publication order, at least for the original series, they are: Sharpe’s Eagle; " Gold; " Company; " Sword; " Honour; " Regiment; " Siege; " Revenge, and " Waterloo. That should keep you busy for a while.
The later books were retconned, filling gaps in his career, providing a postscript to his Peninsular and Waterloo service, and most importantly filling in the back-story of his early days as a private and sergeant in India: Sharpe’s Tiger; " Triumph and " Fortress. Some of the “fill in” ones are fun, if implausible {Sharpe’s Trafalgar}, but the India ones are excellently done, and highly recommended.
Hope that helps, and good reading: they really are an excellent series, far better written than they have any right to be, and well-researched without stuffing his knowledge down your throat.
I read the books in the chronological order, though I missed out some of the prequels. I’d agree that the Indian novels are very good - interestingly, until I read this thread I’d assumed that Sharpe’s Rifles was the first book written, as I noticed a sharp drop in the ‘polish’ of the writing between the Indian prequels and that novel.
This may be a controversial opinion, but I personally felt that the author’s Starbuck chronicles covering the American Civil War were better books than many of the later-published Sharpe novels. One explanation I’ve heard for this is that Cornwall himself is tired of writing for Sharpe, but his publishers keep pressuring him for more as they’re guaranteed sellers.
I dunno, I think he kind of wrote himself into a corner on those ones: Starbuck wasn’t a particularly attractive character - a brash, callow and annoying Yankee who went to fight for the Confederacy purely to spite his father, a fire and brimstone abolitionist Boston preacher: some nice writing, but too many basic similarities to Sharpe {commmanding officer hates him, misfit has to gain the respect of his men, etc.}, and all the plotting in the world couldn’t disguise that the series was about an irritating git fighting for slavery. Nice cameo by Sharpe’s son, though, although he was never referred to as such.