It's the early fall of 1803 and Richard Sharpe of His Majesty's army in India has had his sergeant's stripes for four years. He's good at his job, but he has developed the ambition of becoming an officer, if only so he can go back home someday and swagger into his old haunts with a sash and sword. Meanwhile, though, he's sent off with Col. McCandless, General Wellesley's head of intelligence, to locate and drag back a traitorous lieutenant from the East India Company who has changed sides and is now fighting as a major with the army of an enemy rajah. Wellesley is seeking battle with yet another traitorous Company man who commands the rajah's huge army, and Sharpe, McCandless, and the general will all reconverge at the Battle of Assaye -- which, even after Waterloo, Wellesley (now Duke of Wellington) still considered his own greatest victory. As always, the plot is complex, with numerous subplots, the action is meticulously and accurately described, the characters are entirely believable, and the narrative will carry you right along. Sharpe continues on his way up the ladder of promotion and the reader will be following right behind him.

I typically don't like books that depicts battles since I find them hard to follow, but this one I liked. Looking forward to the 3rd in the series.

Small wonder that the brick and mortar shopping venues are in trouble; with Amaazon shopping is just a click and a delivery, so simple and precise and I can purchase used books and tapes at a substantial discount!
Hail the new medium!!
Matt

If you haven't yet read Sharpe's Tiger, I recommend that you begin your reading of this exciting series with that book. The characters and story in Sharpe's Triumph will make more sense that way.

If you liked Sharpe's Tiger, you will probably enjoy Sharpe's Triumph even more. The story here is more historically accurate, the various battles are brilliantly described, and readers will find it easier to identify with Sharpe as the hero of the story.

As the book opens, Sergeant Sharpe has been sent to pick up some ammunition . . . a seemingly dull assignment that soon becomes quite meaningful. There's a rogue lieutenant from the British East India Company who has a bounty on his head, and Sharpe is soon drawn into the search for Lieutenant Dodd and the sepoys he took with him.

In the background, Sharpe has been enjoying a leisurely four years since he earned his sergeant's stripes in Sharpe's Tiger. The cushion that his wealth has brought is about to become a curse, however.

In the search for Dodd, Sharpe is presented with the opportunity to better his station in life, meets a new love interest, and has some hard choices to make.

The high point of the story comes in the detailed recounting of the Battle of Assaye which was important to defeating the Indian forces and helped establish the reputation of Sir Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington).

Those who don't want to read about the bloody side of war would do well to avoid this book.

All I have to say is, "Incredible." I felt as if I was on the fronts lines of a British regiment and fighting side by side Sharpe.

My husband loves these books and actually came back to get more after he was done with this one.

This is a fine book about a forgotten but important battle in a long-gone empire. The battle of Assaye, won against far superior numbers of natives and European mercenaries by a great general who made his reputation there, quelled native revolt and let the British push north into previously unoccupied parts of India.

Richard Sharpe is a sergeant here, longing for promotion to officer but with scant chance of it in the class-constrained British army. He is detached to hunt a deserter who has gone over to the other side, to become a coldblooded but effective officer. Sharpe is the sole survivor of a massacre by Major William Dodd's troops, and wants him taken down.

Dodd serves Colonel Anthony Pohlmann, also a defector from the East India Company. Now army commander of the Mahratta Confederation, he has become in the process a fabulously rich, elephant-riding, harem-keeping nabob. Sharpe must weigh Pohlmann's atractive offer to change sides himself, and meanwhile dodge a trumped-up criminal charge levied by an enemy suspecting Sharpe's deepest secret.

The period and place detail are excellent. The descriptions of India under the British Raj reminded me of Fraser's "Flashman in the Great Game", although the Flashman black comedies are quite different in tone.

Bernard Cornwell writes Sharpe with some subtlety. His overall detail compares with Patrick O'Brian's, although not his tale's charm. Cornwell's battlefield descriptions of Assaye - not only of the battle itself but of its preliminary maneuvers - are exemplary. Readers of military fiction know how hard it can be for authors to describe multiple units maneuvering over complicated terrain, responding to each other simultaneously and in the smoke of chaos, and for readers to keep it all straight. Cornwell makes it all crystal clear despite the passage's length and the battle's complexity. And Cornwell plausibly fits the fictional Sharpe into a key moment of the historical general's career.

I do have a few problems with Sharpe's character development. In opening chapters he is portrayed as scheming to embezzle part of an ammunition shipment. Petty graft like this may have been common among noncoms in India (and a lot of wars) but it's an odd way to depict someone intended to be developed as the hero of twenty or so historical novels. Perhaps Cornwell does it to dramatize the grim life and outlook of the enlisted ranks,and of someone from Sharpe's low birth, but it didn't work for me.

A flaw, but not enough to compromise an otherwise excellent story.

This is number two in the series and is typical of Bernard Cornwell with detailed accounts of historical events that support the storyline of his work. Action packed throughout. Easy reading but hard to put down.

In this earlier installment of the Richard Sharpe series, we find Sgt. Sharpe performing his duties with the Royal Army in India. He is assigned to commissary duties and likes his CO and likes even more his newly received stripes. When he leads a group on a mission to pick up some ammunition recovered by the local garrison, though, things change. He is the sole survivor when a turncoat British officer conducts a massacre while attempting to retrieve the same ammunition. It is only dumb luck and a need to relieve himself that spares him.

Since he is the only person who has actually seen the officer in question, he is assigned to help the intelligence officer tasked to bring him in. In doing so, the mercenary leader to whom the turncoat defected offers Sharpe a commission and gets him to thinking. He would like to be an officer. He is not, however, willing to betray the trust of those he likes. Still, the seed of the idea is planted.

Those tasked with taking the defector are attached to Wellington's army. It is his first big campaign. Sharpe has come to Wellington's notice before but, in this installment, we finally get to read the story in which he saves Wellington's life during the climactic battle. The result is a commission for Sharpe and the expectation by everyone is that he will fail. You only have to read the original series to know how wrong that expectation is.

This is neither Cornwell's best nor his worst. It does fill in a big piece of the Sharpe story and is well worth reading.

LOVED, LOVED, LOVED IT! Cornwell is extremely descriptive in his writing and his ability to convey characters as real people. Richard Sharpe, a rake, but an honorable rake! I'm already on the next book in the series and loving it, as well.

LOVED, LOVED, LOVED IT! Cornwell is extremely descriptive in his writing and his ability to convey characters as real people. Richard Sharpe, a rake, but an honorable rake! I'm already on the next book in the series and loving it, as well.

This is another entry on the Sharpe series. It is fun, entertaining and very readable. Cornwell's research is as excellent as usual. He takes some licenses for the shake of the story and continuity, but this is OK. Some people are outraged by the portrait of some of the real historical characters, but historical characters are rarely depicted accurately in historical fiction, so I think this can be forgiven. Besides, usually a more serious account of these characters is given at the end of the book on the Historical Note.

Many people insist in compare this series with Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander. I don't think this is fair for any of the series, they are different entities. What they have in common is that once you start you may get hooked and devour one book after another...

And in the literary world today that is a rare and marvelous thing.

After his Richard Sharpe series set in the Napoleonic Wars was an established success, Bernard Cornwall went back to write several prequels, including a trllogy set in 1803 India, of which this is the middle volume. This is the first Sharpe book I've read, although I have seen several of the BBC adaptations.

This is a successful story, with adventures, interesting characters, and what definitely seems to be a thoroughly researched historical setting. A major character is the young Arthur Wellesley, eventually to be known to history as the Duke of Wellington. Several other characters are real historic figures, far less well-known.

The villains in this book are not especially successful. Obadiah Hakeswill, in particular, is completely uninteresting, given little motivation and a series of repetitive conversational tics instead of a personality. He seems like a bad imitation of a Dickens villain.

What is strong, along with the main character, is the adventure and the local color.

The obvious comparison would be to the naval fiction of Patrick O'Brian. O'Brian has, on the whole, more interesting and fully realized characters. But Cornwall is definitely more successful in writing battles. Part of this is that Cornwall actually explains what is going on; he doesn't share O'Brian's infuriating habit of assuming that the reader shares his own encyclopedic knowledge of contemporary naval tactics, construction, and jargon, and therefore wil never need an explanation.

After his Richard Sharpe series set in the Napoleonic Wars was an established success, Bernard Cornwall went back to write several prequels, including a trllogy set in 1803 India, of which this is the middle volume. This is the first Sharpe book I've read, although I have seen several of the BBC adaptations.

This is a successful story, with adventures, interesting characters, and what definitely seems to be a thoroughly researched historical setting. A major character is the young Arthur Wellesley, eventually to be known to history as the Duke of Wellington. Several other characters are real historic figures, far less well-known.

The villains in this book are not especially successful. Obadiah Hakeswill, in particular, is completely uninteresting, given little motivation and a series of repetitive conversational tics instead of a personality. He seems like a bad imitation of a Dickens villain.

What is strong, along with the main character, is the adventure and the local color.

The obvious comparison would be to the naval fiction of Patrick O'Brian. O'Brian has, on the whole, more interesting and fully realized characters. But Cornwall is definitely more successful in writing battles. Part of this is that Cornwall actually explains what is going on; he doesn't share O'Brian's infuriating habit of assuming that the reader shares his own encyclopedic knowledge of contemporary naval tactics, construction, and jargon, and therefore wil never need an explanation.

I read this book out of sequence, after starting my 'Sharpe Experience' with 'Sharpe's Rifles.'I think I might have enjoyed it more if I'd read the chronologically earlier book in the series, 'Sharpe's Tiger'. I found myself trying to adjust to Sharpe with a lower rank and in a different setting. I was so used to Sharpe the officer gaining the confidence of his men, that 'sergeant Sharpe' seemed a very differeent character to me.
In fact, I think 'Sharpe's Triumph' is hurt by its title character playing more of a supporting role. Sharpe is almost overshadowed by his superiors, and even by the story's villain!
Also, the inclusion of a real renegade officer as the 'bad guy' makes for something of anticlimactic ending...though it at least offers a satisfying conclusion to one of the book's subplots, and a hint of the respect Sharpe will gain in the future.
I would caution new readers not to start with this volume. Those who are interested in the 'India trilogy' should read them in the correct order. Personally, I'll go back to the 'Napoleonic War' stories.

Sharpe's triumph tracks the adventures of Richard Sharpe during the Mahratta campaign, which had its climax at the battle of Assaye.

In later years The Iron Duke, Lord Wellington, was to say that this was his favorite battle. And no wonder. In those days he was simply Arthur Wellesley and yet had to make himself a reputation.

He began to do so with the siege of Ahmednuggur, where he ordered a rapid esclalade of the walls with ladders instead of a protracted siege of the city. This was to become a trademark move for Wellington. He has often been criticised for the waste of life of his troops at sieges such as Badajoz and Salamanca. But such critics seem to forget that Wellington did not have the luxury of the time needed for protracted sieges during the peninsular campaign. He needed to strike fast and win fast before the French could concentrate against him.

He may have learned from Ahmednuggur that a brash opportunist can quickly seize a city through sheer surprise, when the enemy expects a cautious siege.

But Ahmednuggur was only the prelude to Assaye, where Wellington faced a combined Mahratta force outnumbering his army many times. With an eye to the lay of the land that was to become another of his trademarks, Wellington realised that he could outflank the Mahratta army if he could cross the river in front of their position. Locals assured him that there was no ford of the river, but Wellesley reasoned that two Indian villages would not be sited just across the river from each other if they could not communicate. He personally led the reconnaissance and found the ford he needed.

However, the Mahratta army, well led by European Officers, performed a smart turning manoeuvre and managed to counter Wellingtons master stroke. But in the process they lost any room for their huge cavalry force to operate.

In narrow confines the superior fighting qualities of the british infantry proved too much for the Indians, who fell back. Wellington also made brilliant use of his own small cavalry force to smash his enemies, to win a battle that immediately catapulted him to the forefront of the military.

Sharpe fans will love how our old friend Richard (now a mere Sergeant) is able to see both sides of the conflict. The senior Mahratta European officer, Anthony Pohlman, offers him a life of wealth and luxury for his services when he visits the enemy camp on a spying mission with Colonel McCandless. But Sharpe resists and finds himself holding spare horses for Wellesley at Assaye.

With a vengeful Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill on his tale Sharpe knows that only a promotion to officer will save his bacon, and the only sure route to promotion is bravery on the field. The rest is history (or at least it seems so at this stage)

A great and exciting read and another wonderful Sharpe adventure.

I read somewhere that SHARPE'S TRIUMPH was the first book written in the series by Bernard Cornwell and then he wrote SHARPE'S TIGER, which, chronologically, is set in 1799, four years before SHARPE'S TRIUMPH. That didn't keep me from beginning the series with this book, which is a rousing adventure story full of derring-do, knick-of-time escapes, and terrific battle scenes. Sgt. Richard Sharpe is a real "man's man" and comes across as being both noble, human, and rough around the edges at the same time. He's neither a saint, nor is he a sinner. Like most of us, he's a combination of both, but knows when it is time to do the right thing simply because that's what he must do...though he does struggle with his conscience now and then wondering if he really should stick his neck out. Fortunately, for all, especially Sir Arthur Wellesley, Sgt. Sharpe is close at hand when desperately needed and more than earns the promotion from ranker to gentleman (Though Sir Arthur, while grateful, does harbor upperclass beliefs about common men rising above their station). That said, I'm looking forward to reading all of the Sharpe books in chronological order. Thank you, Mr. Cornwell, for giving me another fictional hero to follow from adventure to adventure.

I have read all the Sharpe books and this one will not dissapoint, a historical masterpiece, fictional historic, or is it?

Now a Sergeant, Richard Sharpe finds himself feeling something like ambition to rise in the British Army. Despite his excellent fighting abilities, Sharpe is destined to languish in the British ranks. Despite this, he is happy, his job is easy and his hidden fortune makes him able to live better than some officers. However, it is almost impossible for a British soldier to become an officer unless he performes an act of suicidal bravery in front of an influential officer. As an aide to a member of the East India Company military, Sharpe seems unlikely to ever have his chance. But fate intervenes and just as the battle of Assaye begins Sergeant Sharpe finds himself as an aide to Arthur Wellesley, commander of the British forces at Assaye. When Wellesley is unhorsed and surrounded it is up to Sharpe to save him and claim his destiny. Cornwell continues to explore the background of his classic character. Readers of the initial Sharpe series have heard about Assaye, but here it finally is in all its bloody glory. Corwell is among the most realistic of combat novelists and his battle descriptions are as good as any history book. Well done Mr. Cornwell.

The Indian Mahratta Confederation is doing everything it can to drive the British from India, including hiring European officers to train and command its forces on the battlefield. Against them stands General Sir Arthur Wellesley and his forces, a mixture of English Redcoats, Scottish Highlanders and native troops. Richard Sharpe is sent into the storm to hunt down a britter English officer who has joined the forces of the Confederation. Toss in the colorful language, the vivid details of army live, the politics and the twirling chaos of combat and the result is a bloody story of adventure and greed (for gold and rank). Great stuff!

This was my first Sharpe's book, but it sure won't be my last. On the strength of Sharpe's Triumph, I will read all the Sharpe's books in chronological order. I have already begun Sharpe's Tiger, and it is a captivating as Triumph.

Like all the Sharpe books, this one follows the adventures of infantryman, Richard Sharpe, a lowly born Englishman serving and making his way in Her Majesty's Army around the turn of the 19th Century. This puts him in the midst of the great Napoleonic Era of war making. A fascinating time for Military buffs. This particular novel is set in India and revolves around the battle of Assaye.

The strengths of this books are these:

First, this is an excellent historical novel. The firearms used, the methods of combat, the Indian political settings, and the settings are very accurate and transporting. But please don't get the idea the book is a dry history lesson. Cornwall wraps the history within a great, old fashioned tale of revenge and blood.

Secondly, the characters in this book, both real and imagined, are carefully drawn and utterly convincing. My favorite was the author's portrayal of General Arthur Wellesley (before he became the Duke of Wellington). The reader really gets a good sense of what made Wellesley such a great commander of men. The great General and future Duke is completely brought to life.

Finally, the battle writing is superb. Cornwall supplies you with a map of the battleground, and his writing is so clear and concise that you can actually see in your mind's eye the movement of men and the progress of the battle. It all makes sense! Battle during this time period was especially horrific with cannons pounding into the infantry to soften them up and cavalry sweeping down on rows of men the heavy blades. Cornwall has a knack for making the reader smell the spent black powder and feel the splashing of warm blood.

The fascinating aspect of this series is that Richard Sharpe is a war crazed soldier, seeking battle with joy in his heart. He really loves to fight and make war with no apologies and no analysis. This is the characteristic that makes the character so refreshing and exciting.

This book is the follow up to Sharpe's Tiger; it's the second book of the series (in chronological order). Like the book before its building on the Sharpe character by showing how he became to be an officer. We also see the younger version of Sharpe, the Sharpe who has not yet commanded troops, the Sharpe who has only ever received orders opposed to giving them. It's different to the future books in that respect and if your a fan of the Sharpe series you see it gives Sharpe's Character alot more Depth. On top of that we get a great action book and an in-depth history lesson.

The date is 1803, Muslim armies supported by Arab and European mercenaries are planning an invasion of India. McCandless drafts Sharpe from his quiet post, where he has spent the last 4 years, to hunt down a renegade English soldier. During his time behind enemy lines Sharpe is faced with great temptations and its down to him to decide his allegiance. To the British army, or to the Mahratta army. His choice is an obvious one and as the story progresses, by doing what he does best, being a soldier, Sharpe finds himself in a situation where the outcome will change his life forever.

It's a great story and a great lesson in history. A tiny British army is faced by a huge Mahratta army, the British are vastly outnumbered and outgunned but with true British determination they go forward and fight. The rest is history, enjoy the book, I did.

4 Stars

On a Richard Sharpe timeline this is the second volume in the series , but not in the order of publication. This is also the second of the novels to take place in India.

The year is 1803 and Sergeant Richard Sharpe is an assistant in the armory at Seringapatam ; his malevolent mortal enemy Obadiah Hakeswill is plotting his revenge ; Arthur Wellesley's army is preparing to move against the armies of the Mahratta confederation. All of the elements are in place for a great tale from Bernard Cornwell , and the reader is not to be disappointed!

The tale's start has Sergeant Sharpe lying wounded at a East India company outpost which has been treacherously attacked by a renegade officer , Lieutenant Dodd , leading a company of sepoy deserters. Sharpe manages to survive the massacre and reports the events to the kindly Scottish Colonel McCandless , the chief of Wellesley's intelligence service. McCandless , accompanied by Sharpe , sets after Dodd ,now a Major in Colonel Anthony Pohlmann's compoo ( an Indian version of a regiment) , a component of the Mahratta leader Scindia's army. Meanwhile Obadiah Hakeswill has schemed against Sharpe and has obtained an arrest warrant to aid in his plot to destroy and rob our hero of his riches obtained in "Sharpe's Tiger".

All of these elements come together at the obscure Indian village of Assaye--the scene of Arthur Wellesley's greatest military triumph. In the course of the battle , Sharpe is commissioned an Ensign by Wellesley , and the career of Richard Sharpe set in motion. This is one of the very best battles in all of the Sharpe novels I have read so far (I am up to eleven to date); probably the best of the three "Indian Chronicles" .
Highly recommended , and very entertaining. Five stars.