Sharpe outsmarts a Portuguese deserter. Subterfuge to defeat the French and rescue his men. Escape from a locked cellar through a sewer. ( )

Cornwell, Bernard. Sharpe’s Escape. Sharpe No. 10. Harper, 2004.
In the campaign to expel Napoleon from Portugal, Richard Sharpe is separated from his unit and must fight a local bandit as well as the French. Good stuff from Cornwell—as usual. ( )

Couldn't get interested ( )

Excellent write up of the battle of Bussaco and description of the Lines of Torres Vedras.

Sharpe come across as very gritty in this book, even more so than usual. He retains his usual ability to operate while suffering from major injuries.

I enjoyed the English governess who actually manages to find something positive about wading naked through a Roman sewer. ( )

I am now officially obsessed with the Lines of Torres Vedras. Which is hilarious, since I'd never even heard of the Lines of Torres Vedras until a few weeks ago, when I read a highly fictionalized/romanticized version of one possible way those amazing fortification/lines of defense/great big military things were built and paid for in Sharpe's Gold. Now in Sharpe's Escape, I get a closer look at what they were for and how they were intended to -- and actually did -- work.

The principle, basically, is this: build two all but nation-spanning lines of forts and earthworks and walls that keep your enemies from reaching a desirable _target, say, the city of Lisbon, and then, quickly before said enemy arrives, practice the most severe scorched earth campaign you possibly can. There must be no food or potable water of any kind anywhere. Armies march on their stomachs, and Napoleon didn't like big bellies so made his armies raid for their suppers. No big vulnerable supply trains from France for Boney! His soldiers must root, hog, or die. Which makes them vulnerable to a plan like the Lines of Torres Vedras, which is basically meant to starve them out if they can't be killed any more quickly. Phew!

And this is not just historical color here, for the plot of Sharpe's Escape is intimately concerned with this plan. Sharpe starts off the novel with an encounter with a Portuguese officer and the officer's brother and their stash of contraband flour they've been planning to sell to the French; he makes a grudging admirer of the former and a bitter enemy of the latter when he foils this plan and destroys the flour. Because what Sharpe needed most of all was another enemy, and this one a great big ruthless brute of a man, a true bastard who could almost be a combination of Sharpe himself and his giant Irish Sergeant, Pat Harper. Except, you know, not funny. Subsequent acts repeat and enlarge on this theme as it turns out the Portuguese duo, even though their country is being invaded by the French and the British are their allies in trying to fight the French off, have an even bigger plan to provide the French with even more food!

It is in the midst of foiling that second, bigger version of this novel's treason plot that Sharpe finds himself in need of an escape, which takes him through a Roman sewer that is still in very foul and recent use in the company of his old friend Jorge Vincente (a Portuguese good guy), Sgt. Harper, a feisty Portuguese woman they've saved from rape, and a pretty Englishwoman who used to be a tutor to the children of the bad Portuguese officer and who Sharpe has also spared from rape. She doesn't like Sharpe too much at first, but ah, doesn't he know how to show a girl a good time?:

"Something strange had happened to her in the last few minutes, as if by undressing and lowering herself into a sewer she had let go of her previous life, of her precarious but determined grip on respectability, and let herself drop into a world of adventure and irresponsibility. She was, suddenly and unexpectedly, happy."

And now we know the secret of the old Sharpe charm. I wonder how many unacknowledged little Sharpes there wound up being in addition to the daughter he had with Lady Whossername from Sharpe's Trafalgar? I'm sorry, it's lazy and shallow of me, but Sharpe's Chicks are legion and I'm not in the mood to sift through the roster just now.

Anyway, there was nothing in this novel to contradict Dave Slusher's Sharpe Trek theory, and that's fine with me. These are fine adventure stories, and I continue to love and fear their hero devotedly. But no, I would not be one of Sharpe's Chicks. Not in the days before penicillin and whatnot. ( )

Set in the Penninsular War, Sharpe destroys a supply of food that was going to be sold to the French by two Portuguese and creates an implacable, ruthless enemy. Closer to home, his commanding officer tries to sideline him so another officer can gain more experience and (Sharpe fears) take over his job.
This is a fast-paced, exciting adventure where Sharpe has lots of death-defying encounters (as usual) and struggles hard to save the day.
Wonderfully narrated by William Gaminara. ( )

Tells the story of the Bussaco Campaign in Portugal in 1810. Sharpe is once again in trouble as he fights a personal war against a dangerous enemy.
An extremely exciting episode in the Richard Sharpe series. ( )

This one of the best Sharpe's! I'm fond of Bussaco, a classic Wellington battle, and the war reporting by Cornwell is well done. The scale of peril to our hero and the amount his actions will have on larger issues is well balanced in this book. It is not so much a spy story which can be a draw-back with Cornwell. ( )

Typically exciting Sharpe story. This one set in Portugal with Sharpe and Harper separated from the army and trying to reach them. Great stuff. ( )

One of the best in the series, with nonstop action from beginning to end. ( )

Cornwell uses the same formula here that he does with other Sharpe stories; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. This time, it's brilliant - the best Sharpe story since Sharpe's Fortress. Richard Sharpe and Patrick Harper are a two man wrecking crew, and my favorite characters in historical fiction. ( )

A very fast read. I cut into the series at Sharpe's Gold but really the book stands on its own for the most part. I love the twists in the plot. I love the character development. I want to get the first of the Sharpe series (think it is Sharpe's Tiger) and really see the characters develop especially Sgt Hardy...love his character.

This is a non-stop action ride. A page turner that only took a day to read...could not put it down. ( )

“Sharpe’s Escape” by Bernard Cornwell couples quite nicely all the elements of daring and adventure this reader has come to expect from Mr. Cornwell’s novels. All the Sharpe regulars -like Harper, Sharpe and the prerequisite lady in distress- are back with an old friend and a new vicious enemy. Naturally the action is replete and with such intricate and descriptive language as to make one feel they were actually at Bussaco hearing the Baker rifle fire and the French cries of “Vive l’Emperor.” I’ve become so enamored with Mr. Cornwell’s Sharpe novels that I savor them like a fine wine and take the time to appreciate each nuance and turn-of-phrase. Fans of Sharpe, enjoy. ( )

No. 10 in the Richard Sharpe series.

It’s still 1810, and the British Army and Captain Richard Sharpe are still in Portugal. Bought by Sharpe’s stolen gold, Wellington has had built enormous defences known as the Torres Vedras just north of Lisbon, constructed with Sharpe’s stolen gold. Wellington has ordered the Portuguese countryside stripped of all food, hoping in that manner to force the French to retreat out of starvation, since Napoleon’s army existed by living off the land. As yet, the French do not have any idea of these new defences.

But in any country, under any conditions, there are always those who put profit ahead of patriotism. Two such are the Ferreira brothers. One is a major in the Portuguese Army, playing both side, the English and the French. But, convinced that the French army is unstoppable, he throws in with them in order to safeguard his family fortune through war profiteering—making money by selling hoarded, contraband food while his countrymen starve. The other, nicknamed Ferragus, is a thug, a criminal for whom this is simply another way to earn even more money than he already has through other criminal activities.

Sharpe runs into the brothers while on patrol as the allied army retreats down the country, headed for Lisbon. He and Ferragus strike up an instantaneous hatred, but for the present, Ferragus has to back down as Sharpe orders a supply of contraband food belonging to the brothers to be destroyed. But unknown to the British or Portuguese authorities, the brothers have hidden a huge amount of stores—food, forage, military supplies—in Ferragus’ warehouse in Coimbra, a town that is best known for its ancient university, one of the oldest in Europe. Sharpe is destined for a confrontation in Coimbra, a dramatic escape from the town—only to wind up at the Battle of Bussaco just north of the town.

Standard Cornwell and Sharpe, with the usual climax of the story being a graphically-described bloody battle between the English and Portuguese on one side, and the French on the other. This has all the elements that a fan of the series is used to seeing—excitement, well-researched history, and excellent writing.

Highly recommended. ( )

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