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Sharpe's Havoc (Paperback)

by Bernard Cornwell (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
RRP: £6.99
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Frequently Bought Together

Sharpe's Havoc + Sharpe's Eagle: Richard Sharpe and the Talavera Campaign, July 1809 + Sharpe's Gold: Richard Sharpe and the Destruction of Almeida, August 1810
Price For All Three: £13.44

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Product details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd; New edition edition (29 Mar 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0007120125
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007120123
  • Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11.1 x 3.7 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 7,459 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #30 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > C > Cornwell, Bernard > Sharpe Novels
    #56 in  Books > Fiction > Historical

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

One thing is as sure as death and taxes: that each successive Bernard Cornwell novel will be as exhilarating as its predecessor. Sharpe's Havoc continues the trend, demonstrating once again why the Richard Sharpe books by Cornwell are among the most cherished examples of historical derring-do around. While the novels are all assiduously detailed, with a precise sense of period, Cornwell knows how essential it is that his hero, the danger-prone Richard Sharpe, is as vividly characterised as ever. True to form, in Sharpe's Havoc we never lose sight of the character of the protagonist and the many members of the idiosyncratic supporting cast.

This time, we are taken to the spring of 1809 when a few British soldiers are stationed in Lisbon as Marshal Soult undertakes his assault on the garrison of Northern Portugal. It's not for Sharpe and his trusty crew of riflemen to dwell on the finer points of politics when they are sent into the city of Oporto to save the lives of two British women who have elected to stay. But when one of the women, Kate Savage, goes missing, Sharpe (along with Sergeant Patrick Harper and several battle-hardened colleagues) finds himself besieged in the city when the bridge over the river falls to the enemy. The English are forced on in a desperate journey back to the safety of the British encampment, but things become very murky when an enigmatic English officer informs them that they will be staying in the hellhole that is Northern Portugal.

Cornwell admirers will know exactly what to expect, and all the heady pleasures that distinguished such earlier books as Sharpe's Battle and Sharpe's Company are fully in place here, with the added impetus that comes from a notably picaresque narrative. All the central characters are drawn with the customary forcefulness, and instead of the expected tension and release that is the hallmark of most Cornwell novels, there's a steadily increasing excitement engendered here that leads to an all-stops-out finale. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.



Review

'Cornwell is a terrific storyteller and Sharpe's adventures in and around Porto in 1809 are stirring stuff.' Daily Telegraph
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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (20 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Sharpe as ever!, 25 April 2003
By Suetonius (England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sharpe's Havoc (Hardcover)
For long-time fans like me who found "Sharpe's Prey" a bit below par, I'm pleased to say that this one returns to first principles, frog-bashing in the Peninsula; and the author is back on form. If you wondered what happened to Sharpe, Harper & Co. after they joined forces on the retreat to Vigo (Sharpe's Rifles, Jan.1809) and before Talavera (Sharpe's Eagle, July 1809), here's the answer. The Greenjackets are in the wilds of Portugal, where the best Sharpe stories are set, on a mission for Capt. Hogan, the future spy-master. Marshal Soult, 'Duke of Damnation' and aspiring King of Portugal, is closing in. Is all lost? Wait! an obscure sepoy general called Wellesley has landed at Lisbon ...

I'll leave the plot there except to say that it's a ripping yarn (and I've been reading them for twenty years). We meet an upper-class villain fit to take on Sir Henry Simmerson; a beautiful, runaway heiress; and a young Portuguese officer of character and education who has a thing or two to learn from Sharpe. Deja vu? Well, some of the best vus are deja. There have been better ones than this but not many. The atmosphere is as thick as Dan Hagman's tea. There are passages of real sardonic humour, which comes as a relief after the last outing. The action sequences are many and unsurpassed. My only regret is that an old favourite, Sweet William, hasn't shown up yet.

The time slots are filling up but Cornwell makes good use of them. Sharpe and Harper march again. What are you waiting for? And if you didn't understand any of the above, still read the book.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars "Wall to wall dead Frenchmen", 28 Nov 2007
By Iain S. Palin (Northern Ireland) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
Someone once summarised the essence of a Richard Sharpe novel as "wall to wall dead Frenchmen" and there is truth in this. After all they are (mostly) set in the Napoleonic War and killing Frenchmen is what Sharpe and his fellow soldiers are there to do. But Bernard Cornwell's books about the up-from-the-ranks rifleman will also feature a plot which requires Sharpe to use all his ingenuity and bravery to succeed against the odds, a woman in distress whom Sharpe must rescue, and a villain, from within his own side but usually of a higher class, whom Sharpe must outwit and (perhaps) kill.

"Sharpe's Havoc" has all the ingredients but in a well-developed way. The military clashes are well-observed and in line with historical fact (apart from the insertion of Sharpe, of course), and there is a deeper sense of the comradeship of the riflemen and of what war does to people than some of the other books, while both the woman and the villain are real people in whom one can take an interest.

It is a bit bloodier than some of the other Sharpe novels, the violence is not caricatured or sanitised, and the general atmosphere is more intense than some. Cornwell's novels can be uneven in their quality (in Amazon terms they vary between 3 and 5 stars) and some were beginning to fear the series was getting a bit tired. This novel has dispelled all such fears.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Sharpe has his revenge, 17 Sep 2007
By Didier (Ghent, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
'Sharpe's Havoc' is set in the spring of 1809: the French, under Marshal Soult, have just taken Oporto and now effectively control northern Portugal. During the retreat from Oporto Sharpe and his men from the 95th Rifles find themselves cut off from the British army, and must take to the hills. Meanwhile, rumour has it that Sir Arthur Wellesly (the later Duke of Wellington) is coming out to Portugal to take on the French. But Sharpe has more to worry about than the French as he is confronted with a dubious Colonel Christopher, detached from the Foreign Office...

This is a novel in the best Sharpe-tradition, full of action, nothing too complicated in the plot, and easy to read (it took me slightly more than a day of non-stop reading). The final chapters in the hills of northern Portugal when Sharpe exacts his revenge are among the best I've read so far in any Sharpe-novel.

By the way, if you're planning to read the Sharpe-novels chronologically it's good to know that, contrary to what it says on the inside cover pages of the HarperCollins paperbacks, this novel does not come after but BEFORE 'Sharpe's Eagle' (which is set in July 1809 during the Talavera-campaign).

So now it's on to 'Sharpe's Gold'. I do love the smell of a fresh Sharpe-novel in the morning! ;-)
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars The French Cut a Bloody Swath in Portugal While Sharpe Parries a Traitor

Sharpe's Havoc is for long-time fans of Richard Sharpe who want to know about all of his fictional adventures. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Professor Donald Mitchell

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great instalment - based on one of Wellesley's little known battles
I read this book recently before a visit to Oporto, where much of the story is set, immediately after Sharpe's Rifles, which is set in the aftermath of Sir John Moore's retreat to... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Mr. Nicholas Dougan

1.0 out of 5 stars Sharpe's Havoc Audio Book CD
Susannah's husband here. Having read all the Sharpe series I was looking forward to the audio book. Big mistake! Read more
Published 18 months ago by Mrs. Susannah T. Foottit

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Good
In this outing, Sharpe is in Portugal, during the Peninsular War, in 1809.
The book is fairly much all action, as Sharpe and his men are cut off from the main British force... Read more
Published on 27 Jul 2007 by J.Flood

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book yet
All I can say is that I have read all of the Sharpe books and this is by far the best so far...............and the others were brilliant. Read more
Published on 26 Aug 2004 by tony1962

3.0 out of 5 stars Expect the usual
As the author continues to milk the series, here we find Sharpe in Northern Portugal. Sharpe has been squeezed into a minor conflict with the usual mix of pretty female, bad... Read more
Published on 8 Mar 2004 by N. Brett

3.0 out of 5 stars Below par
Although this is a story well told it is disappointing nonetheless and fails to meet the usual standards of a Sharpe novel. Read more
Published on 17 Nov 2003

2.0 out of 5 stars A Dissapointing Entry in the Sharpe series
The recent Sharpe novels covering his early career have been very good so this book is something of a dissapointment. Read more
Published on 6 Jun 2003 by Mark Palmer

4.0 out of 5 stars back to the best
The first question is, do I have to have read the other Sharpe books to enjoy this one?
The answer is absolutely not! As a book in it's own right this is a cracking read. Read more
Published on 30 May 2003 by marcos simpson

1.0 out of 5 stars One for Mr Cornwell's retirement
As an avid follower of both Sharpe's adventures and Mr Cornwell's work I opened Sharpe's Havoc with my usual sense of anticipation, only to be left wondering whether this Sharpe... Read more
Published on 20 May 2003

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