Sharpe's Siege

Richard Sharpe invades France, is abandoned with a small group, and survives, c. 1814

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Pierre Ducos is really out to get our good Major Sharpe. Nice try, Ducos! It seems the Peer (Fieldmarshal Arthur Wellesley, at this point Earl of Wellington) wants to cross the Adour River and needs two things: some chassee-marées (boats) and a distraction.

Oh Richard! Kindly go kick some for us, would you now? That's a good lad. Sharpe is asked to lead a small force against an almost abandoned French fort. Resting under the fort's guns are the aforementioned ships. Intelligence intrigue follows, wherein some traitors deliberately catch wind of a proposed foray into the city of Bordeaux, which, sources say, is almost ready to rebel against Napoleon. 

Along the way Sharpe meets an American privateer, Captain Killick. I can't help but consider this guy, in name only, to be a nod to Aubrey & Maturin. This novel has a lot (for a Sharpe novel) of nautical flair; perhaps it is the Cornwell tip of the cap to O'Brian.

At any rate, Sharpe ends up alone, with his small force of men, trying desperately to defend a partially destroyed fortress from a much larger French attack. They make it out, in the end, but just. Sadly, our friend Major Hogan dies of the fever while Sharpe is gone.

The Hundred Days

Aubrey and Matruin during that tumultuous time, 1815

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Oh, Patrick O'Brian, how could you do this to us? Do you know, at the time of this writing, that the end is near for these wonderful books? Written in September 1998, O'Brian himself was less than 18 months from the end of his life. Two most shocking deaths occur herein, both of them out of the blue, both of them striking to the core.

Author and book reviewer Christina Hardyment said of this novel: "There is another aspect to the novel, as it starts with deaths ... so that its recurring leitmotif is one of the subtlest sketchings of deep, deep grief in literature."

The Hundred Days is originally a name given to that period of time after Napoleon escapes his exile in Elba and before he meets his final defeat at Waterloo. It was actually 111 days, but the tumultuous period provides an exciting back drop to our nautical tale.

In this wonderful novel, the nineteenth, Aubrey & Maturin are called upon to prevent a plot by Barbary Cost pirates and Adriatic muslims to finance a large group of mercenaries to delay the arrival of the Russian and Austria forces to the Waterloo campaign. Napoleon wishes to fight the allies piecemeal, and defeat them separately. Our friends also set in motion plans to derail much of the French naval activity in these waters, mostly via clandestine operations to set fire to the ship yards and dock facilities that side with the emperor returned.

Adventures throughout the Mediterranean and North Africa are to be had within. At the close of the novel, we see our friends richer via prize money and off again to South America, to pursue the mission which was interrupted by Napoleon's return.

Back to our dear author. He will find time to write number twenty (Blue at the Mizzen) and be in the midst of number twenty-one before he is no more. Fascinating.

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I will truly be sad to complete this reading endeavor. As many have stated about these books:

The New York Times book review said "Taken as a whole, the Aubrey-Maturin novels are by a long shot the best things of their kind, so much better than the competition that comparisons long ago ceased to be relevant: they are uniquely excellent."