Third in the Sharpe military fiction series set in the early 19th century. In this installment, Richard Sharpe has made Ensign while in India for saving Sir Arthur's life at the battle of Assaye.The StoryThe Mahratta confederation has rebelled against the English and it's Sir Arthur's job to subdue them as they lead him a merry chase across India to the invincible Fortress of Gawilghur where several of Sharpe's enemies has taken refuge. Richard has sworn vengeance against the man who murdered Colonel McCandless at the battle of Assaye.Unfortunately for Richard, the officers in his current regiment, the 74th, don't want him and a series of transfers begins for Sharpe. Good thing actually as it continues to bring him positive attention from ranking officers even as he must slither through the plots of those against him.The CharactersRichard Sharpe is the "scum of the earth" according to anyone of any rank, and, admittedly, Richard has only recently learned to read and write and the manners of those above him are still outside his experience. Thankfully, Sharpe is also very intelligent with great ambition to move up in the ranks. An achievement he soon finds has its negatives for neither the enlisted nor the officers really know what to do with him. Nor does Sharpe really know what to do for he absolutely hates the duties of an ensign---there's no real action. None of the regiments want him although there is a new regiment forming back in England into which he may be a perfect fit. There is also a little matter of Sharpe's innocence with the ladies.Major General Sir Arthur Wellesley is still at the start of his career but is slowly starting to win the men over with his tactics. He's determined to make a name for himself militarily and get back to England to help subdue Boney. He's also an extremely reluctant admirer of Sharpe's. Funnily enough, intelligen t men of rank also admire Sharpe for his sharpness and do their best to support his actions in spite of those soldiers who despise Sharpe for his origins and his intelligence.Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill is a "lying, thieving bastard" who continues to hound, harass, and plot against Sharpe. The guy is whacko-nutso and believes he cannot die ever since he was hung and it didn't take. I can't decide if he's merely a sociopath or a psychopathic sociopath…Major William Dodd leads his Cobras, his own army of British Army renegades, in aid of the Mahratta intending to make his fortune and keep out of British hands for his traitorous conduct. If he can take out Sharpe...it's a bonus.My TakeI adore this series. I first learned of it through the BBC series and was intrigued enough to start reading the series. It's definitely worth buying and I read it over and over again. A fascinating exploration of military tactics, military history, and social manners across a wide range of society and cultures.If you enjoy battle and lots of action, you will adore Richard Sharpe. I love how he gets the best of Major Torrance, find the, ahem, missing military supplies, finds justice for men, women, and children while using his sly wit and street smarts to overwhelm his personal enemies especially, ugh, the jettis who intend to literally tear Sharpe into little, bitty pieces and Obadiah and his cohorts.This story ends Richard's Indian adventures and sees him off to the 95th Rifles.The CoverThe cover pays homage to battle with a telescope, British rifle, drum, bedroll, Union Jack, and a Scots bonnet piled up on the rocky ground with the fortress of Gawilghur rising up far in the distance on the Deccan Plain through the early dawn. The title is accurate enough for it's thanks to Sharpe's ingenuity and never-say-die attitude that the British get inside Sharpe's Fortress.
“Aliás, suar era a única coisa que ele tinha para fazer ali. Maldição. Aquela era uma companhia muito boa, e não precisava nem um pouco de Richard Sharpe. Urquhart comandava-a com muita competência, Colquhoun era um sargento magnífico, os homens estavam sempre tão satisfeitos quanto soldados podiam ficar, e a última coisa que a companhia precisava era de um oficial recém-promovido, ainda por cima inglês, que apenas dois meses antes era sargento.”Índia, dezembro de 1803. Apenas alguns meses antes, a Batalha de Assaye representou grandes mudanças na vida de Sharpe. Naquela batalha ele salvou a vida de sir Arthur Wellesley e por isso ganhou a patente de alferes no 74° Regimento do Rei, mas, também perdeu o grande mentor Coronel McCandless por culpa do desertor William Dodd e sua vingança contra Hakeswill foi adiada mais uma vez.Sharpe sempre acalentou o sonho de ascender no exército e ser um bom oficial, mas sua nova ascensão, longe de promover boas mudanças em sua vida, está é lhe trazendo muitos problemas. Os soldados não veem sua ascensão com bons olhos e é claro que além de perder o companheirismo que tinha quando ainda era apenas um soldado, eles também não o respeitam como oficial. E os outros oficiais, bem, estes o reprovam abertamente, veem nele alguém que usurpou um direito daqueles de bom nascimento. E o fato de ter sido alocado em um batalhão escocês também não contribuiu para melhorar essa situação. E sendo Sharpe como é ele até poderia suportar toda essa humilhação. Mas, quando lhe sugerem que venda a sua patente e lhe comunicam que após a batalha em Gawilghur ele será transferido para o batalhão de fuzileiros e que enquanto isso ele ficará responsável pelo comboio de bois, leia-se, bem longe do front de batalha. Sharpe não acha certo desperdiçar seu treinamento ficando retido na retaguarda do exército e percebe que é hora de mostrar seu valor e lutará como nunca.E quer melhor oportunidade do que a batalha da Fortaleza de Gawilghur? Considerada inexpugnável, ela tem todos os elementos de uma destruidora de carreira e o coronel Wellesley não pode nem pensar em perder essa batalha se quiser voltar para Londres e continuar sua carreira de sucesso no exército. Para Sharpe, a motivação é outra. Vingança. Porque em Gawilghur estão escondidos dois bandidos que ele jurou destruir: William Dodd e Obadiah Hakeswill. E não terá assassinos treinados, falta de uma companhia ou uma imensa muralha que o impeça de conseguir seu intento. Em A Fortaleza de Sharpe, Cornwell consagra seu herói. Um herói persistente, que frequentemente é passado para trás por aqueles a quem ousa confiar e que apesar de todos os seus atos de bravura e heroísmo continuar sendo visto como o soldado que ousou sair das fileiras e que sofrerá muito por isso. Mais do que cativada pela sua força e carisma, adoro o senso de humor que ele consegue imprimir até quando a situação é totalmente desfavorável.Continue lendo em: http://blablablaaleatorio.com/2013/03...
What do You think about Sharpe's Fortress (2005)?
More reliably fun Sharpe stuff, this one concludes the trilogy of Sharpe's adventures in India with Sharpe confronting the seemingly unassailable fort of Gawilghur. Of course, the "impenetrable fortress" is a fun and familiar Cornwell plot element (I think my first one was Dunholm from Lords of the North) and you can be sure Sharpie doesn't mill about outside the walls kicking the dirt for 300 pages, although he still doesn't make enough puns on his own surname enough for me. Thusly this book focuses more on the siege aspect of land warfare of the time, which remarkably was very similar to what I read in another Cornwell novel set in the middle ages, Agincourt; you just shoot a big gun at what looks like the most forgiving part of the wall to cross until it collapses and then just run in with a bunch of guys and stab everyone to death. Obviously a book about this kind of thing is gonna be fun, right?The Sharpe-Hakeswill death struggle continues on in more fascinating ways in this one. Some of the nastiest deeds in the series yet are perpetrated by both sides and it's just gross fun. Sharpe is not tolerating people's shit in this book and sometimes he even comes off as meaner than Hakeswill. That said, as fun as these two are the others in this book seemed kind of bland. I'm thinking back and I can't even remember some of these people's names, even though I finished the book last night. I don't know, maybe that's a testament more to my godawful memory than Cornwell's characters. I'm not even sure why Clare Wall was even in this book, the romance part was silly and she was utterly boring. As interesting and multifaceted as Cornwell can make his female characters (as in his Arthur stuff) sometimes he insists on including the bland damsel in distress with big doe eyes and it's just really dull. I'd rather just have those twenty pages of "romance" be Sharpe kicking people in the groin while calling them "sodding bastards". And I've dug myself into a horrible paragraph pit here and I don't feel like coming up with a segue.Cornwell's writing, for me, most often breaks down into two groups; the fun but relatively shallow adventure stuff and the stuff where he's more inspired to deeper themes, characterization, plot, description, etc. This is obviously in the first group but they're both satisfying in their own ways. Man, these books are addicting. It's so easy to just pick one up and finish it in a sitting or two. Sharpe's utter lack of Mary-Sueness seems to keep it interesting every time. Next is Sharpe's Trafalgar. That should be fun, as I know embarrassingly little about naval stuff. Apparently Trafalgar was a big deal or something...?
—Nate
I just love these books. They are very exciting. But they contain a lot of typos and I'm unsure whether it is just the Kindle version or if the other versions also contain them. I would not let the typos dissuade me from reading them. They are fun fast reads. The history is good and fairly accurate. Author Cornwell lets us know where most of the big inaccuracies are and where the liberties have been taken.However in this book there is one major historical inaccuracy that goes unexplained. I won't mention what it is so as I don't need a spoiler alert.The histories behind these fictionalized accounts are well documented and anyone can figure out what it is with very little research.
—Andrew
I love all of Cornwell's books, but I think the Sharpe series is his masterpiece. He has a gift for bringing to life historical events that are so far removed from our reality today that in any other setting they could potentially be labeled as irrelevant. His fictional characters are amazing, and he breathes life into the historical figures. I also appreciate his Historical Notes at the end of each book, where he clarifies exactly how he manipulated the story to make Sharpe the hero and tells the reader the facts of the events. Definitely looking forward to reading the remaining books of the series!
—Nancy Ellis
