Sharpe’s Rifles was published by Collins in 1988. Though the seventh Sharpe novel to be written, it is the first chronologically in the Peninsular War sequence. The novel is set during the disastrous retreat to Corunna in January 1809, when Sir John Moore’s army — starving, freezing, and pursued by the French — staggered across northern Spain to the port where the Royal Navy waited to evacuate them.
Sharpe, newly promoted to lieutenant and freshly arrived from England, takes command of a squad of riflemen from the 95th Rifles after their officer is killed. The men — veterans who resent being led by a man they don’t know and whose rank they don’t respect — refuse to follow him. Sharpe must earn their obedience not through the authority of his commission (which means nothing to experienced soldiers) but through competence, courage, and the willingness to share their hardships.
The retreat to Corunna provides Cornwell with a setting of maximum adversity: the cold, the hunger, the disintegration of discipline, the abandoned wagons and dying horses, and the constant threat of French cavalry. Against this backdrop, Sharpe’s squad becomes entangled with a Spanish partisan force and a mission involving the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, and Sharpe must demonstrate the leadership qualities that will define him through the rest of the series.
The novel was adapted as the first episode of the ITV television series starring Sean Bean, which ran from 1993 to 2008 and made Sharpe one of the most recognizable figures in British popular culture.
Collecting Sharpe’s Rifles
First edition (Collins, London, 1988): Cloth with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $50–$150
- Very good: $20–$50