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Sharpe's Trafalgar (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #4)
Bernard Cornwell and his Richard Sharpe series are some of the most exciting historical fiction around. There are quite a few people reviewing this book and suggesting works Patrick O'Brien, especially if interested in nautical fiction. I would also like to include anything by James L. Nelson. He writes nautical fiction with battle scenes and stories that suck you in at the same level of the Sharpe books.
Sharpe's Trafalgar (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #4)
This book is about the battle. The battle scene is one of the longest I've ever read, and every word is worth it.Pre-battle, the book is enjoyable, though marred with a continuity error here and there. Sharpe needs to get home from India. The ship he's on gets taken by the French (in circumstances I didn't find absolutely believable, but let that be), and he ends up on a man-of-war. Of course, as in every Sharpe book, he ends up in a love affair. It's about as believable as they always are. Some of the secondary characters, particularly Captain Chase and the merchant Fairley, stand out.The battle is wonderful, appalling, graphic, gory, exhausting, vivid and terrifying. No, Cornwell's no Shakespeare (and he's no O'Brian, either) but he writes a mean battle scene, and this is one of his best. As a non-specialist in the period, I didn't find many errors; and, again as a non-specialist, I found his characterization of Nelson especially vivid.I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the period and in non-stop, no-holds-barred battle scenes.
Sharpe's Trafalgar (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #4)
Richard Sharpe, fresh from the wars in India, is on his way hometo England, to sign up for a company that is called the "green jacket." He is young, carries stolen jewels, falls in love with a woman that he cannot have named Lady Grace Hale, he becomes involved in a piracy, and he becomes involved in the death of Lady Grace Hale's husband! He learns to fight on water, and he learns how to love, but he find that he does not like to fight on the sea and prefers land! Its Richard Sharpe at its best, its Sharpe getting his "sea legs" and its Sharpe in love with a woman that is a class above him. Enjoy the book, I did!
Sharpe's Trafalgar (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #4)
Sharpe's Trafalgar puts Richard Sharpe directly in the most important naval battle of the Napoleonic Wars. Sharpe is on his way home from India when he meets up with the captain of the HMS Calliope. After helping the captain get some money back, Sharpe finds out that his shipmates aboard the ship home include a former enemy, a member of parliament accompanied by his aloof wife Grace. Filled with stirring battles, suspense and passionate love, Sharpe's Trafalger is a rolicking adventure yarn where Sharpe meets the great Admiral Nelson in a battle to save England from invasion. This is a fun book, but it is not one of my favorites. I have no problems with it except that sometimes the story is overdramatic. However, this is an important addition to the Sharpe's series as it establishes much of what happens later in the series.
Sharpe's Trafalgar (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #4)
I have read and read the Sharp's series several times as well as the Starbuck series by Cornwell. All are excellent. I am a retired rear admiral. What could be better than living through Nelson's battle at Trafalgar through the eyes of Dick Sharp!
Sharpe's Trafalgar (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #4)
This is one of the best of the back-story Sharpe novels that Cornwell wrote long after the original series was published. There are some marvelous set action pieces, the characters are engaging and lively, and, unlike some of the other novels that comprise the back-story series, the female love interest is an attractive character in her own right, and the romance itself is well handled and credible. I really enjoyed this book.