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    Sharpe's Gold
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    Sharpe's Gold
    Unavailable
    Sharpe's Gold
    Audiobook8 hours

    Sharpe's Gold

    Written by Bernard Cornwell

    Narrated by Frederick Davidson

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Only a year after its stunning victory at Talavera in July of 1809, Wellington’s Peninsular army-vastly outnumbered, its coffers empty-is on the brink of collapse. The Spanish government has fallen, and the last Spanish armies have been crushed by the French. But Wellington has one hope left: in the dangerous Portuguese hills lies a fortune in gold, enough gold perhaps to turn the Peninsular War around. And he knows of one fighting man capable of stealing it: Captain Richard Sharpe of the South Essex Regiment.

    This installment in the best-selling historical fiction series takes the charismatic Richard Sharpe all the way from Talavera (Sharpe’s Eagle) to the glory of Waterloo, on a secret mission that is unlike any form of warfare Sharpe has known in his long and embattled career as a soldier fighting his way up through the ranks.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBlackstone Audio
    Release dateJan 19, 2010
    ISBN9780786107162
    Unavailable
    Sharpe's Gold
    Author

    Bernard Cornwell

    Bernard Cornwell was born in London, raised in Essex and worked for the BBC for eleven years before meeting Judy, his American wife. Denied an American work permit he wrote a novel instead and has been writing ever since. He and Judy divide their time between Cape Cod and Charleston, South Carolina.

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    Reviews for Sharpe's Gold

    4/5

    219 ratings11 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Second (publication order) in Cornwell’s Sharpe series about the Napoleonic Wars. Cornwell’s hero is larger than life, always pulling victory from impossible situations and getting the girl, no matter how implausible it might seem. Along the way you get a rowsing adventure story and a good bit of the history of battles and maneuvers of this period. Sharpe’s Gold is the story of Sharpe’s bid to find the Spanish treasure that will enable the British to live to fight another day. It leads him to Almeida just in time to witness the beginning of the siege.
    • 4/5
      Excellent addition to the series. Very enjoyable.
    • 3/5
      The fall of 1810, as the Peninsular Army begins falling back to the lines of Torres Vedras. There's a pile of money in this novel, and that strains the relationship between the Spanish Guerillas and Sharpe's band of adventurers. Well crafted.
    • 5/5
      Sharpe is involved in bringing back a large amount of gold for the use of Wellington,to help in winning the war. In doing so he makes an enemy of the leader of the Spanish partisans. Slightly less good than many other books in this series in that he is not directly involved with fighting the French.
    • 4/5
      I've never been more eager to see a TV/movie adaptation of a novel as I am that of Sharpe's Gold. This is not because of its quality, which is fair to middling as Sharpe novels go.* Rather, it's because I'm dying of curiosity as to how the continuity problem is going to be handled.

      The continuity problem named Teresa Moreno, whom I've already seen played to dashing perfection by the great Assumpta Serna in the TV movies of Sharpe's Rifles and Sharpe's Eagle. Even though her character didn't belong in them. Ahem.

      Of course, I didn't realize until I got to this book what a problem she was going to pose, as this, Sharpe's Gold, is the novel wherein Sharpe and Teresa meet, and it's not at all cute. Sharpe has been directed to go collect rather a lot of Spanish gold that was moved to a sort-of-safe place until it could be paid out to the Spanish army -- their wages -- but then the Spanish army got its collective posterior well and truly kicked by the French and there basically isn't one anymore. There are just guerrillas (and I just this second noticed that this word basically translates into something like "mini-war"), known as the Partisans, herding sheep and growing barley by day, making life hell on earth for the French by night, sleeping, uh... sometime?

      A family of them is more or less guarding the gold, in the family crypt, until what's left of the Spanish government figures out what to do with it and how to transport it to where it's needed.** Except said government has pretty much farmed that task out to the British, who have, via the newly made Lord Wellesley, in turn farmed it out to one Richard Sharpe, killer of men, destroyer of armies, hopeless dimwit when confronted with a pretty face (or, in this case, a girl with the guts and the looks to lead the French army away from her men by running naked through the night).

      But see, the Partisans don't trust the British. And Teresa's fiance is chief of the Partisans thereabouts. And may also have some ideas of his own about what to do with that gold.

      So next thing we know, Teresa is a hostage. Who doesn't seem to think much of Sharpe. Whom she has just met. But in the TV movies, in the movies, they've already made whoopie and promises. Quite a lot.

      So as I said, for this one, I'm mostly interested in seeing how the whole Teresa plot gets handled for the little screen. My guess is the fiance will just turn out to be an ex-lover and there will be no side-switching and whatnot. Which will be duller than this novel was.

      But maybe I'm wrong. Because there is plenty to enjoy aside from the Teresa plot, of course. I can't wait to see that great German brute, Helmut, in action, for instance. Because anyone Pat Harper regards as a big ol' monster is going to be something to see, a veritable Hodor, except trained with the sabre. Zowie!

      And also, one of my favorite minor characters dying. Le sigh.

      And also, Alameida. Which, OMG Alameida.

      *Meaning it's still a damned fine book, but there have been better ones. I still like all the India books better than any of the Peninsular ones, so far, and this one didn't change my mind. And Sharpe's Havoc is still the best of the Peninsular War novels I've read.

      **This, of course, reminds me of the bit with the heaps of Nazi war gold in the middle of the Philippine jungle in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, and of Goto Dengo's observation that "gold is the corpse of value." But unlike that gold, Sharpe's gold is needed for a mind-blowingly epic purpose, in one of Cornwell's neatest weaving of history and fiction and speculation I've yet seen. Well done!
    • 5/5
      The only man who can make sure Wellington defeats Napoleon is at it again. This time Richard Sharpe is facing down one of his more dangerous enemies, El Catholico. They are supposed to be allies, but both of them are after Spanish gold and the same woman. Excellent battle scenes, sword fights and massive explosions. Our hero's fatal flaw, namely women, are certainly around to distract him. After having been jilted by Josefina he finds new romance with the beautiful and deadly partisan Teresa, who also happens to be the fiancee of the murderous El Catholico. Sharpie's life would be so much simpler if only he could leave the women alone, but of course, then he wouldn't be so much terrifying fun.
    • 4/5
      Sharpe’s Gold by Bernard Cornwell is another enjoyable volume in Cornwell’s Napoleonic War series featuring our hero, Richard Sharpe. I found this one particularly interesting not just because it’s a good story that proposes an unusual solution for the cause of a huge explosion that destroyed the fortress at Alameda, but also because of the huge ethical dilemma that Sharpe creates for himself. To my way of thinking, Sharpe doesn’t linger long enough on the ramifications of his act, which kills hundreds, in order to release himself from the order of a superior officer so that he can fulfill the order of another, Wellington. The general had ordered Sharpe to take his company into enemy territory and steal 16,000 gold coins from the Spanish, ostensibly a British ally. Wellington insists the gold is needed to save the war for the British. Sharpe succeeds, of course, after the usual narrow escapes and plunges into manure piles and beautiful women, but I found the decision he makes to get out of his dilemma totally disturbing.
    • 4/5
      Second (publication order) in Cornwell’s Sharpe series about the Napoleonic Wars. Cornwell’s hero is larger than life, always pulling victory from impossible situations and getting the girl, no matter how implausible it might seem. Along the way you get a rowsing adventure story and a good bit of the history of battles and maneuvers of this period. Sharpe’s Gold is the story of Sharpe’s bid to find the Spanish treasure that will enable the British to live to fight another day. It leads him to Almeida just in time to witness the beginning of the siege.
    • 4/5
      I recognized some of the scenes in the BBC Adventure's of Sharpe series, but, if I recall aright, they were used in a different episode than Sharpe's Gold...but I can't remember. Anyway.One thing I do remember is that I liked Teresa immensely in the movie version. She was tough and sexy, independent, and wore clothing that fit her role as a fighter.The Teresa in the novel is... well, your typical Bernard Cornwell woman. She is slightly better than most of the others, but she still falls for Sharpe, she still seeks him for protection, and most annoying of all, she wore a white dress. If she's going to be sneaking around the countryside looking for French to kill, why would she wear white? She would stick out like a sore thumb.Other than that, Cornwell does his homework. His battles are always convincing and exciting, and the historical notes at the end are always very informative, interesting, and often amusing.And Patrick Harper... I love 'im! He's adorable ^_^
    • 5/5
      “Sharpe’s Gold” is another rousing success from the pen of Bernard Cornwell. This time our hero is at Almeida the last bastion, wink wink, and supposed British forlorn hope on the Iberian Peninsula. The story moves quickly and is obviously an earlier work from Mr. Cornwell and lacks some of the depth and ambiance of his later work. However, this does not dampen the sorties and intrigue as Sharpe is challenged by both a new dynamic villain and vitriolic woman. The KGL also make an appearance and add greatly to the atmosphere of this first modern continental war that started off as Napoleon’s Spanish Ulcer.
    • 5/5
      No. 9 in the Richard Sharpe series.In August of 1810, the British Army is bottled up in southern Portugal near Lisbon. Spain, except for Cádiz, is occupied by the French, thanks to the dismal performance of the Spanish armies. Marshall Masséna heads a French army poised to strike into Portugal; the very real threat is that the French will wipe out the badly-outnumbered British. The now-Lord Wellington (thanks to the magnificent victory at Talavera) is out of money, due to the stinginess of Parliament and the fact that Wellington is paying not only British expenses but Portuguese ones as well. Morale is terrible; everyone thinks that the war is lost.But there is a long shot chance at latching onto a sizeable amount of gold cached in the Portuguese mountains that border Spain. The money really belongs to the Spanish government, but partisans have managed to rescue it. The British have offered to “escort” the money to Cádiz; in reality, Wellington hopes to steal it for his own needs. This is obvious to the Spanish partisans as well, and they refuse to hand over the gold.Wellington turns to Captain Sharpe who leads an irregular company of the South Essex. Sharpe’s mission: get the gold. Wellington is desperate and Sharpe must succeed.That’s the context for this installment in the series. Unlike his other books, this one does not have Cornwell’s signature epic battle at its climax; instead, Sharpe makes a dramatic escape from the British-held fortress of Almeida. But the story is still absorbing, thanks to the description of the Spanish partisan guerrilla (little war) warfare against the French, filled with atrocities committed on both sides as all partisan wars are.I’ve always thought that one area where Cornwell’s series suffers in comparison to Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series is in the romantic interest. O’Brian had believable, complex relationships between his male and female characters. Sharpe’s interactions with women are predictably boring, and this time is no exception.Still, that’s not why you read the series. All in all, another page-turner. Highly recommended.