Richard Sharpe at San Miguel, defending the River Tormes, 1812
***
This was a fascinating book for many reasons. At only 61 pages, clearly it wins the title as shortest of my reads thus far. More curious, however, is the fact that it was originally written in 1998 as a special short story to be given away to customers who purchased Cornwell's regular length novel Sharpe's Fortress. The author says he wrote the tale at the last minute, in just four days. The give-away was limited to a single British bookseller, and the short story limited to ~1000 copies. Others (booksellers and customers alike) felt slighted not being able to access the material. Soon a secondary market developed wherein the short work fetched unbelievable prices whenever it could be found.
This edition was commissioned by a fan club called The Sharpe Appreciation Society, and profits from its sale go to that society and to charity. Cornwell decided to give the original, hurried tale the once-over, and wound up completely rewriting it; in the process making it longer as well.
The short story tells the tale of a French thrust toward the Wellesley supply lines, occurring in a sleepy town Sharpe is guarding as he recuperates from his pistol injury. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition...er...the French to attack, so this assignment is a bit of light duty for the South Essex Light Company. As if.
As usual, a thrilling tale of adventure and derring-do, like we have come to expect from our good Rifle Captain.
