Sharpe's Regiment: Difference between revisions
Clarityfiend (talk | contribs) →Plot summary: some cleanup |
Clarityfiend (talk | contribs) →Plot summary: cleanup and corrections |
||
| Line 27: | Line 27: | ||
==Plot summary== |
==Plot summary== |
||
The South Essex Regiment is |
The 1st Battalion, South Essex Regiment, is desperately short of men. Major General [[Nairn (fictional character)|Nairn]] is notified by Lord Simon Fenner, the secretary of state for war, that no reinforcements will be sent. Fenner recommends the unit be broken up. The 2nd Battalion, stationed back in England, is supposed to train and send recruits, so, while Wellington prepares his army to invade France, Nairn sends Sharpe back to England to find out what is going on. Sharpe heads to the 2nd Battalion's headquarters with Regimental Sergeant [[Patrick Harper (fiction)|Harper]], [[Major d'Alembord]] and Captain [[Harry Price (fictional character)|Price]] and finds only a skeleton staff. However, an old comrade-in-arms stationed there tells him that he has seen a South Essex recruiting party with recruits in tow, though they do not bring them in for training. |
||
Sharpe is then summoned before [[George IV of the United Kingdom|the Prince Regent]] where he meets Lord |
Sharpe is then summoned before [[George IV of the United Kingdom|the Prince Regent]], where he meets Lord Fenner. Fenner has his mistress, Dowager Countess Lady Anne Comoynes, meet Sharpe to find out what he knows. She seduces Sharpe for her own purposes and warns him to stop investigating. Two men are sent to assassinate Sharpe, but Sharpe kills them after visiting an old friend, Maggie Joyce. One of the dead men is wearing the uniform of a sergeant of the South Essex. |
||
Sharpe and Harper then enlist in the South Essex Regiment under assumed names. They are taken to a secret and brutal training camp in [[Foulness Island]], run by the 2nd Battalion's commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel [[Bartholomew Girdwood]], and. Sharpe learns that Fenner, [[Sir Henry Simmerson]] (the regiment's disgraced founder and Sharpe's enemy) and Girdwood are [[Crimp (recruitment)|secretly selling trained recruits to other regiments]] and profiting enormously. |
|||
| ⚫ | Harper is sentenced to be hunted |
||
| ⚫ | Harper is sentenced to be hunted and killed as training after he objects to a deserter being killed in cold blood. Sharpe rescues him and, with help from Simmerson's niece [[Jane Gibbons]], they escape to [[London]]. Sharpe reports his findings to his former commander Sir [[William Lawford]], but Lawford tries to do a deal with Fenner, offering to cover the matter up in exchange for a lucrative position for him and command of a battalion in the Americas for Sharpe. Lady Anne, who has been forced to prostitute herself to Fenner to pay off her late husband's enormous debts, warns Sharpe. Sharpe illegally takes charge of the training camp from Girdwood, but he and his comrades are unable to find evidence of the crime. Jane tries, but fails to obtain two incriminating ledgers. |
||
Fenner and Simmerson attempt to have Sharpe court-martialled but are foiled when Lady Anne arrives, having found the incriminating ledgers. Fenner is forced to cancel Lady Anne's debts and give in to Sharpe's demands: A proper second battalion and training camp will be set up, while Sharpe will take the recruited soldiers, including Girdwood, back to Spain with him. He also marries Jane. |
|||
In desperation, Sharpe takes the 2nd Battalion to London and presents them to the Prince Regent at [[Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park]] during a celebration, proving they exist. Fenner, however, is too crafty, and Sharpe is in great trouble, that is until Lady Anne arrives, having found the ledgers and rescued them from being burnt. She blackmails Fenner into cancelling her debts and fulfilling Sharpe's demands: A proper 2nd battalion and training camp will be set up, while Sharpe will take the trained soldiers, including Girdwood, back to Spain with him. Sharpe marries Jane because he loves her and also to protect her from her infuriated uncle. |
|||
At the [[Battle of the Nivelle]], Girdwood, the regiment's nominal commander, suffers a [[combat stress reaction|complete nervous breakdown]] after his first experience of battle, leaving Sharpe in command until a new colonel is appointed. |
At the [[Battle of the Nivelle]], Girdwood, the regiment's nominal commander, suffers a [[combat stress reaction|complete nervous breakdown]] after his first experience of battle, leaving Sharpe in command until a new colonel is appointed. |
||
Revision as of 23:26, 20 October 2020
 First edition | |
| Author | Bernard Cornwell |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Richard Sharpe |
| Genre | Historical novel |
| Publisher | Collins |
Publication date | 20 January 1986 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 416 p. (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | 0-00-221430-X (first edition, hardback) |
| OCLC | 12585653 |
| Preceded by | Sharpe's Honour |
| Followed by | Sharpe's Christmas (chronological) Sharpe's Siege (publication) |
Sharpe's Regiment is the seventeenth historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 1986. The story is set in England as Sharpe looks for the missing Second Battalion of the South Essex Regiment needed in Spain to fight in the Napoleonic Wars.
Plot summary
The 1st Battalion, South Essex Regiment, is desperately short of men. Major General Nairn is notified by Lord Simon Fenner, the secretary of state for war, that no reinforcements will be sent. Fenner recommends the unit be broken up. The 2nd Battalion, stationed back in England, is supposed to train and send recruits, so, while Wellington prepares his army to invade France, Nairn sends Sharpe back to England to find out what is going on. Sharpe heads to the 2nd Battalion's headquarters with Regimental Sergeant Harper, Major d'Alembord and Captain Price and finds only a skeleton staff. However, an old comrade-in-arms stationed there tells him that he has seen a South Essex recruiting party with recruits in tow, though they do not bring them in for training.
Sharpe is then summoned before the Prince Regent, where he meets Lord Fenner. Fenner has his mistress, Dowager Countess Lady Anne Comoynes, meet Sharpe to find out what he knows. She seduces Sharpe for her own purposes and warns him to stop investigating. Two men are sent to assassinate Sharpe, but Sharpe kills them after visiting an old friend, Maggie Joyce. One of the dead men is wearing the uniform of a sergeant of the South Essex.
Sharpe and Harper then enlist in the South Essex Regiment under assumed names. They are taken to a secret and brutal training camp in Foulness Island, run by the 2nd Battalion's commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Bartholomew Girdwood, and. Sharpe learns that Fenner, Sir Henry Simmerson (the regiment's disgraced founder and Sharpe's enemy) and Girdwood are secretly selling trained recruits to other regiments and profiting enormously.
Harper is sentenced to be hunted and killed as training after he objects to a deserter being killed in cold blood. Sharpe rescues him and, with help from Simmerson's niece Jane Gibbons, they escape to London. Sharpe reports his findings to his former commander Sir William Lawford, but Lawford tries to do a deal with Fenner, offering to cover the matter up in exchange for a lucrative position for him and command of a battalion in the Americas for Sharpe. Lady Anne, who has been forced to prostitute herself to Fenner to pay off her late husband's enormous debts, warns Sharpe. Sharpe illegally takes charge of the training camp from Girdwood, but he and his comrades are unable to find evidence of the crime. Jane tries, but fails to obtain two incriminating ledgers.
In desperation, Sharpe takes the 2nd Battalion to London and presents them to the Prince Regent at Hyde Park during a celebration, proving they exist. Fenner, however, is too crafty, and Sharpe is in great trouble, that is until Lady Anne arrives, having found the ledgers and rescued them from being burnt. She blackmails Fenner into cancelling her debts and fulfilling Sharpe's demands: A proper 2nd battalion and training camp will be set up, while Sharpe will take the trained soldiers, including Girdwood, back to Spain with him. Sharpe marries Jane because he loves her and also to protect her from her infuriated uncle.
At the Battle of the Nivelle, Girdwood, the regiment's nominal commander, suffers a complete nervous breakdown after his first experience of battle, leaving Sharpe in command until a new colonel is appointed.
Television adaptation
The novel was adapted as the opening episode of the fourth season of the Sharpe television series. The adaptation introduced Abigail Cruttenden as Jane and Caroline Langrishe as Lady Anne and guest starred Nicholas Farrell as Fenner, Mark Lambert as Girdwood, Julian Fellowes as the Prince Regent and Julie T. Wallace as Maggie Joyce. It also introduced James Laurenson as an original character, Major-General Ross, who took on the role given to Nairn in the book. The adaptation was faithful to the novel but omitted D'Alembord and Price along with various scenes, including much of the aftermath of the Hyde Park sequence.