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 enlarge | Manufacturer: HarperCollins e-books
Category: EBooks
List Price: $7.99
Buy New: $6.39
You Save: $1.60 (20%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 6123
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
ASIN: B000FC1PSE
Publication Date: May 4, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Cornwell continues his betrayal July 28, 2007
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I read all of the original Sharpe series in the eighties and thought that the series had come to it's natural conclusion with Sharpes Waterloo in 1990. I was very suprised to see Sharpes Devil a couple of years later and to my mind this was a book too far in the series. Cornwell was always writing other books including the excellent Redcoat as well as his nautical thrillers. When he started the Starbuck chronicles I was delighted and followed Nates adventures in the same manner as I had Sharpe's. Then, after the Sharpe series had been shown on tv Cornwell abandoned "The Starbuck Chronicles" mid-series (after four books)and resurrected Sharpe. Not to sound too cynical but the only reason for this betrayal of fans who had bought the new books and were following Starbuck could only have been money...Cornwell betrayed and sacrificed the Starbuck fans for a newer and more lucrutive market...the new Sharpe fans worldwide who came to the books after the tv series. In order to continue to cash in along came all the new books each one inserted in a different period of Sharpe's career. If you have read the original series you won't recognise Sharpe's description in the new books..because it's Sean Bean!...Thanks Bernard, how's the yacht?
Sharpe And The Battle For Poutugal June 4, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Captain Sharpe is a tough "rough" officer in his majesty's forces. Having risen through the ranks, unlike some of the refined officers. Resourceful, a bit crude, and a heck of a commander, he has the respect and loyalty of his men and seems always to get into, and out of a scrape.
The story is set in 1810 Poutugal, with the French advancing on Lisbon to drive the English from the peninsula. In between dealing with the drunkard Lieutenant Slingsby taking over his battalion, he also manages to get into a scrape with the Portuguese Major Ferreira and his brother Ferragus, as they attempt to circumvent the British scorched earth strategy by hoarding food to sell the French.
What I found especially interesting Cornwell's work is the detail he puts in to describing the ins and outs of the various battle scenes throughout the book. Very detailed and puts you right in the heat of the battle.
Also, even though this is one of a number of books in the Sharpe series, it is certainly possible to read this without reading the others first.
 Richard Sharpe March 18, 2007
Sharpe's Escape: Richard Sharpe and the Bussaco Campaign, 1810
by Bernard Cornwell. I like all of cornwell's books I like the Sharpe's series!
Another Sharpe adventure worthy of the name October 10, 2006
At some point, I'm going to have to stop reviewing the books in Bernard Cornwell's Richard Sharpe series. Each book is an enjoyable thrill-ride through various battles and clashes for the British Army, and Sharpe and his cohorts change very little from book to book. Cornwell mastered the battle scene early on, and his skills show no signs of flagging. And so there is very little to distinguish one book from the next.
Sharpe is a lethal killer and leader of the lethal bunch of ruffians the Brits employ as skirmishers. He's also an uncouth seducer of women and despiser of (most) officers. One of Sharpe's charms is that he never changes - he is a cuss, but a reliable cuss. And while this charm works well with fighting men and with damsels in distress, it does little to endear him with the officer's corps, so Sharpe's position in the army is rather tenuous. His achievements merit advancement, but his rough edges deny him that opportunity.
Cornwell explores this element of Sharpe in great detail in "Sharpe's Escape." Colonel Lawford, Sharpe's comrade since the early days, must promote the advancement of his brother-in-law, Cornelius Slingsby. And so he gives Slingsby Sharpe's command - a slight that earns Slingsby Sharpe's undying hatred and Lawford some of Sharpe's contempt. Cornwell, true to form, makes Slingsby into a comically reprehensible character - almost the anti-Sharpe. But the reader, along with Sharpe, gets to experience the infuriating classism that permeated the British Army.
Slingsby isn't the only villain of the piece. As the French Army marches south toward Lisbon, the last bastion of the British Army on the Continent, the French must starve through a wasteland created by Lord Wellington. Two Portuguese brothers, Major Ferriera and the brute merchant Ferragus, conspire to feed the French Army and negate Wellington's brilliant, desperate strategy. But Sharpe catches them at their game and stops a preliminary transaction, thereby incurring the brothers' undying hatred.
Most of Cornwell's villains are mustache-twisting noblemen of great panache. Ferragus is a surprising creation, a demon of a man who loves nothing more than money, unless it is beating another man to death with his bare fists. A giant who towers over even the Sharpe's close friend Harper, Ferragus plans to hear Sharpe whimper for mercy as he pounds his bones into powder.
All in all, between Slingsby, the traitorous brothers, and the French Army, Sharpe has his hands full as he finds himself caught in various traps behind enemy lines. That Sharpe solves the problems by using his bulldog tenacity and his cunning mind should be no surprise. It should also be no surprise that Sharpe once again finds a beautiful woman in dire need of rescuing. But the lack of surprises doesn't mean that this is anything less than a vintage Sharpe expedition. Check it out.
Wonder audiobook reader. Perfect for the Sharpe series. August 17, 2006
I've been working my through the audiobooks for the Sharpe series (written by Bernard Cornwell), and when I got to Sharpe's Escape, the reader changed from Frederick Davidson (who died in 2005) to Patrick Tull. Mr. Tull is wonderful and he hits the comic elements beautifully. I hope he reads the unabridged audiobook for Sharpe's Fury, due out September 2006. M. Tull also reads the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey Maturin series (Master and Commander, etc.), so I've also begun working my way through that series.
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