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imitira's review against another edition
3.0
Probably the least bad historical naval fiction I've ever run across (on the shelf in our Nantucket hotel), in that the misogyny generally seems more period-appropriate than authorial wish fulfillment.
alexctelander's review against another edition
5.0
The year is 1805 and Sharpe is currently on a voyage back from India to his beloved homeland, England. But of course, the voyage is not as smooth and sweet as English tea: treachery lurks ahead. It is one of England’s many enemies, in the form of a French warship called the Ravenant, which has been terrorizing the British in the Indian Ocean. Yet, the Ravenant possesses a treasure that could very well reignite the war between Indian and Britain. Sharpe is then captured by the French residing in the port of Cádiz, but British help is on the way and a grand battle will be fought off Cape Trafalgar, which Sharpe must win.
Originally published on April 15th 2002.
For over 500 book reviews, and over 40 exclusive author interviews (both audio and written), visit BookBanter.
Originally published on April 15th 2002.
For over 500 book reviews, and over 40 exclusive author interviews (both audio and written), visit BookBanter.
icarusabides's review against another edition
4.5
There were certainly some misgivings heading into this book because Sharpe surely has absolutely no business at the battle of Trafalgar whatsoever and perhaps this would really stretch Cornwell's use of Sharpe to tell stories at major events that bit too far. However, Sharpe's Trafalgar is a great change of pace for the series and possibly the strongest all round book in the series (going by Chronological order) so far. It's certainly up there with Sharpe's Tiger at any rate.
Sharpe being at sea for so long in this book, as he makes the voyage back to Britain from India, gives Cornwell a chance to to flex his knowledge of naval warfare and maritime life in general. Perhaps it's this new environment, previously alien to the Sharpe series, that makes Trafalgar feel so fresh after three books spent in India with the army. It's a nice change of pace for Sharpe too with him initially travelling as a passenger and needing to interact with polite society aboard ship, something Sharpe is completely out of his element with as he lacks the education to understand even the dullest of Latin puns nor the patience to deal with the typically snobbish proper gentlemen.
The surrounding characters feel a little more diverse and well drawn than in previous entries too including the snobbish Lord Hale, his odious secretary Braithwaite, and of course that fine fellow Captain Chase. The battle of Trafalgar itself is wonderfully done by Cornwell featuring his trademark intense and clear action but this time at Sea and it works brilliantly.
Sharpe being at sea for so long in this book, as he makes the voyage back to Britain from India, gives Cornwell a chance to to flex his knowledge of naval warfare and maritime life in general. Perhaps it's this new environment, previously alien to the Sharpe series, that makes Trafalgar feel so fresh after three books spent in India with the army. It's a nice change of pace for Sharpe too with him initially travelling as a passenger and needing to interact with polite society aboard ship, something Sharpe is completely out of his element with as he lacks the education to understand even the dullest of Latin puns nor the patience to deal with the typically snobbish proper gentlemen.
The surrounding characters feel a little more diverse and well drawn than in previous entries too including the snobbish Lord Hale, his odious secretary Braithwaite, and of course that fine fellow Captain Chase. The battle of Trafalgar itself is wonderfully done by Cornwell featuring his trademark intense and clear action but this time at Sea and it works brilliantly.
jamesjustjames's review against another edition
4.0
Another great Sharpe novel. Not a lot to say, its a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. This one was a quick and easy read, it didn’t really bring anything to the character, but it did advance the timeline to the 19th century and dealt with Trafalgar (bit shoehorned in) but I understand why. My only issue with Sharpe is that they all seem to end very suddenly and jarringly like the end of a television program which is set to continue next week. Ah, well, I liked it for what it was.
tome15's review against another edition
5.0
Cornwell, Bernard. Sharpe’s Trafalgar. Sharpe No. 4. HarperCollins, 2000.
This is one of the best of the Sharpe series. Trafalgar is a battle that everyone knows a little about, and Cornwell is happy to teach us a little more. He solves the problem of getting his infantry officer hero onboard a warship, albeit a fictional one, to take part in the battle by first putting him on an Indiaman taken over by the French and then rescued by a British warship in time for the battle. The novel also fills in a big hole in Sharpe’s personal history. The naval action is thrilling and detailed. I could almost see Patrick O’Brien looking over Cornwell’s shoulder and nodding his approval of the descriptions of naval warfare. Unlike most of the series, this one could be read as a stand-alone.
This is one of the best of the Sharpe series. Trafalgar is a battle that everyone knows a little about, and Cornwell is happy to teach us a little more. He solves the problem of getting his infantry officer hero onboard a warship, albeit a fictional one, to take part in the battle by first putting him on an Indiaman taken over by the French and then rescued by a British warship in time for the battle. The novel also fills in a big hole in Sharpe’s personal history. The naval action is thrilling and detailed. I could almost see Patrick O’Brien looking over Cornwell’s shoulder and nodding his approval of the descriptions of naval warfare. Unlike most of the series, this one could be read as a stand-alone.
erickluizse's review against another edition
2.0
Apesar de eu até ter gostado um pouco, tenho que admitir que esse é o livro mais fraco da série até agora. É bem óbvio que o autor só quis uma desculpa para escrever sobre a batalha de Trafalgar. Nada contra mas para enrolar até chegar a batalha a história lança mão de um triângulo amoroso que pouco importa
nigelbrown's review against another edition
4.0
It was dificult to imagine how Cornwell would pull this off without making it feel too contrived, but I should have known better than to have doubted him.
I've been a fan for a long time now, but this was my first Sharpe novel and allthough it wasn't quite what I was expecting I am always impressed by his writing, his fantasticly graphic battle scenes and the way he has this uncanny ability to make you believe he's written it just for you.
Thouroughly enjoyable and any other time I would have awarded it a five,unfortunately, for me, he has set the bar so high I'm afraid I prefered his King Alfred and Hundred years war series
I've been a fan for a long time now, but this was my first Sharpe novel and allthough it wasn't quite what I was expecting I am always impressed by his writing, his fantasticly graphic battle scenes and the way he has this uncanny ability to make you believe he's written it just for you.
Thouroughly enjoyable and any other time I would have awarded it a five,unfortunately, for me, he has set the bar so high I'm afraid I prefered his King Alfred and Hundred years war series
kateofmind's review against another edition
4.0
OK, I'll admit, I've been putting off reading this one just because the very idea of it seemed ludicrous and forced to me. As has been very firmly established, our man Richard Sharpe is a daring, lucky and resourceful infantry officer. Infantry. The guy can barely ride a horse, but he's the devil in a red coat on foot. But see, Trafalgar was a naval battle. As in between ships. Admiral Nelson. Sailing maneuvers (or lack thereof: just go right at 'em). Ramming. Boarding parties. Being on the water.
So how could Sharpe have a Trafalgar that wasn't preposterous and contrived?
Answer: well, he can't: but the contriving minimizes the preposterousness and soon the reader forgets her pre-book scoffing altogether. After all, Richard does have to get from India back to England somehow, and we readers have already swallowed his just happening to be the unknown man who killed the Tippoo Sultan and the man who "really" found the way into Gawilgur.
Anyway, lesson well learned: always trust Uncle Bernard.
Speaking of things we learn, Sharpe's Trafalgar is also where we learn, not only that Sharpe has sea legs, but that he doesn't require the heat of battle to be a killer. Oh, we've had hints of this before, witness his attempt in the first book to feed his Wile E. Coyote nemesis to a tiger, but what we see in his shipboard relationship with his would-be blackmailer*, Mister Braithwaite, shows new depths of cold-bloodedness. Sharpe has never known an even-handed, just application of society's rules and laws, so he doesn't feel particularly bound by them. Dude.
And Sharpe has a lot to learn as well, here, for he has in the person of his friend Captain Chase (whom he rescued from a nasty crew on land in the novel's prologue) an example of leadership like he's not seen before. His Pucelle**, on which Sharpe finds himself after he's sort-of-rescued from a captured Indiaman, is a great big ship of the line, a floating artillery battery, and, that rarity of rarities, a happy ship. How does he do that?
"Sharpe watched Chase, for he reckoned he had still a lot to learn about the subtle business of leading men. He saw that the captain did not secure his authority by recourse to punishment, but rather by expecting high standards and rewarding them. He also hid his doubts."
From what I know about Sharpe's future with a rifle company in the Napoleonic wars (these novels have such cultural currency that it's almost as impossible not to know Sharpe's going to end up a lieutenant in Spain as it is not to know what Rosebud is), these are good lessons for him to be getting, very important for his transformation from a gutter rat whose first (chronological) scene in fiction is of him getting flogged to a man who inspires loyalty.
The scenes with Sharpe and Chase are also a nice antidote to the soap opera adultery plot that comprises more than half this book.*** Ugh.
But the real star here is the famous naval battle, into which the Pucelle more or less stumbles. Cornwell gives Patrick O'Brian a run for his ramming, gunning, sailing money here; one could fully imagine the Surprise being somewhere in the smoke (but of course we know it wasn't. Sillies. The Surprise was as real as... as the Pucelle!). The action is described in loving detail, with an emphasis on its chaotic nature, for we are seeing it from the perspective of an infantry soldier serving as an "honorary marine" who barely understands what's going on.
And yes, Cornwell succumbs to the temptation to substitute his fictional ship for the real one that rescued Admiral Nelson's flagship just as the French were about to board her, and also to the temptation to make Sharpe the person Nelson finds most interesting at his pre-battle breakfast. But I ask you: who wouldn't? Scenes such as those are a big part of why historical fiction is fun, if one isn't simply writing a fictionalized biography of an actual historical figure the way, say, Jean Plaidy does. But yes, I rolled my eyes a bit. But I was also smiling. It's a Sharpe book, after all.
It's just not the best Sharpe book. Hey, they can't all be.
Onward to Europe!
*Of course the blackmail is over a woman. Cornwell knows and respects the principle of Chekhov's Gun; if a pretty woman shows up in the first act of a Sharpe novel, Sharpe is going to become her lover, even if, as in this case, she is married to an obnoxious nobleman.
**"Pucelle" in English is "virgin." Ho ho!
**The other half, at least until the Pucelle stumbles across the battle at Trafalgar, is a chase plot. While Sharpe is schtupping the nobleman's wife in every unseen corner of the ship that isn't too disgusting, the ship is chasing a French one, the Revenant, to which Sharpe's frenemy and also a suspected spy jumped after it took the first ship that Sharpe and co embarked on, the Calliope. It's all very exciting and Patrick O'Brian-ish, and I would have much preferred it without all the tedious adultery, but I'm just sort of like that, you know?
So how could Sharpe have a Trafalgar that wasn't preposterous and contrived?
Answer: well, he can't: but the contriving minimizes the preposterousness and soon the reader forgets her pre-book scoffing altogether. After all, Richard does have to get from India back to England somehow, and we readers have already swallowed his just happening to be the unknown man who killed the Tippoo Sultan and the man who "really" found the way into Gawilgur.
Anyway, lesson well learned: always trust Uncle Bernard.
Speaking of things we learn, Sharpe's Trafalgar is also where we learn, not only that Sharpe has sea legs, but that he doesn't require the heat of battle to be a killer. Oh, we've had hints of this before, witness his attempt in the first book to feed his Wile E. Coyote nemesis to a tiger, but what we see in his shipboard relationship with his would-be blackmailer*, Mister Braithwaite, shows new depths of cold-bloodedness. Sharpe has never known an even-handed, just application of society's rules and laws, so he doesn't feel particularly bound by them. Dude.
And Sharpe has a lot to learn as well, here, for he has in the person of his friend Captain Chase (whom he rescued from a nasty crew on land in the novel's prologue) an example of leadership like he's not seen before. His Pucelle**, on which Sharpe finds himself after he's sort-of-rescued from a captured Indiaman, is a great big ship of the line, a floating artillery battery, and, that rarity of rarities, a happy ship. How does he do that?
"Sharpe watched Chase, for he reckoned he had still a lot to learn about the subtle business of leading men. He saw that the captain did not secure his authority by recourse to punishment, but rather by expecting high standards and rewarding them. He also hid his doubts."
From what I know about Sharpe's future with a rifle company in the Napoleonic wars (these novels have such cultural currency that it's almost as impossible not to know Sharpe's going to end up a lieutenant in Spain as it is not to know what Rosebud is), these are good lessons for him to be getting, very important for his transformation from a gutter rat whose first (chronological) scene in fiction is of him getting flogged to a man who inspires loyalty.
The scenes with Sharpe and Chase are also a nice antidote to the soap opera adultery plot that comprises more than half this book.*** Ugh.
But the real star here is the famous naval battle, into which the Pucelle more or less stumbles. Cornwell gives Patrick O'Brian a run for his ramming, gunning, sailing money here; one could fully imagine the Surprise being somewhere in the smoke (but of course we know it wasn't. Sillies. The Surprise was as real as... as the Pucelle!). The action is described in loving detail, with an emphasis on its chaotic nature, for we are seeing it from the perspective of an infantry soldier serving as an "honorary marine" who barely understands what's going on.
And yes, Cornwell succumbs to the temptation to substitute his fictional ship for the real one that rescued Admiral Nelson's flagship just as the French were about to board her, and also to the temptation to make Sharpe the person Nelson finds most interesting at his pre-battle breakfast. But I ask you: who wouldn't? Scenes such as those are a big part of why historical fiction is fun, if one isn't simply writing a fictionalized biography of an actual historical figure the way, say, Jean Plaidy does. But yes, I rolled my eyes a bit. But I was also smiling. It's a Sharpe book, after all.
It's just not the best Sharpe book. Hey, they can't all be.
Onward to Europe!
*Of course the blackmail is over a woman. Cornwell knows and respects the principle of Chekhov's Gun; if a pretty woman shows up in the first act of a Sharpe novel, Sharpe is going to become her lover, even if, as in this case, she is married to an obnoxious nobleman.
**"Pucelle" in English is "virgin." Ho ho!
**The other half, at least until the Pucelle stumbles across the battle at Trafalgar, is a chase plot. While Sharpe is schtupping the nobleman's wife in every unseen corner of the ship that isn't too disgusting, the ship is chasing a French one, the Revenant, to which Sharpe's frenemy and also a suspected spy jumped after it took the first ship that Sharpe and co embarked on, the Calliope. It's all very exciting and Patrick O'Brian-ish, and I would have much preferred it without all the tedious adultery, but I'm just sort of like that, you know?
gigglewigglesquiggle's review against another edition
2.0
Characters: 2
Plot: 2
Setting/world building: 3
Atmosphere: 2
——
2,25
- Is this a romance novel???? WTF. I can like a good romance novel every now and then, but only when it’s expected. I did not expect a Sharpe novel to be this romance heavy, jesus. And an unbelievable and insipid romance at that!
- This really should have been a novella, not a main series novel. There is no plot but the end battle and even that was quite boring. Could have been tighter if it had been shorter.
Plot: 2
Setting/
Atmosphere: 2
——
2,25
- Is this a romance novel???? WTF. I can like a good romance novel every now and then, but only when it’s expected. I did not expect a Sharpe novel to be this romance heavy, jesus. And an unbelievable and insipid romance at that!
- This really should have been a novella, not a main series novel. There is no plot but the end battle and even that was quite boring. Could have been tighter if it had been shorter.