Richard Sharpe & the Expedition to Denmark - 1807 - Sharpe's Prey

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.

Sorry to spoil the party, but this is by some way the weakest of the series. It concerns the British bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807, not to be confused with Nelson's more famous attack in 1801. (For an inoffensive people the Danes came in for a lot of stick: they wouldn't hand over their fleet, you see, even when asked nicely, and the Froggies were up to their old tricks.) There's a doublecrossing upper-class rotter - guess what happens to him - and a beautiful blonde - likewise. Apart from the odd eye-gouging and general mayhem, that's about it.

There's a good description of Copenhagen being knocked flat, if you like that sort of thing. The plot is uninvolving; the dialog verges on the embarrassing. There's no trace of the gallows humor that lifts other Sharpe stories. I persevered because I'm a Sharpe fan from way back. If you haven't read one before, read and enjoy 'Sharpe's Gold', 'Sharpe's Enemy' or the picaresque masterpiece 'Sharpe's Regiment'. But leave this one until (much) later.

Not that this isn't good -- a Richard Sharpe story combines, adventure, history, and social commentary in a most enjoyable way. Cornwell is a natural story-teller, and unlike many modern novelists, he doesn't seem intent on making each book longer than the one before.
In this one, Sharpe is on a spying mission in Denmark. There are some interesting parts to it -- Sharpe's escape up a chimney is riveting. But the sense of danger just isn't there. The villians aren't menacing; just banal. The consequences seem minor. There are many places where Sharpe could just walk away from the situation.
These "early Sharpe" books make you appreciate how important the character of Patrikc Harper is to the series.

This is a desciption I never thought I'd be giving one of Cornwell's Sharpe books, but unfortunately it fits.
We see only little tastes of Sharpe as himself, We see him in at the dog pits, we see him at the orphanage and we see him with Clouter (one of the better supporting characters.), other than that it just seemed dull.
The little tease of Harper and Cooper disapointed me, there was no point of including them if more wasn't going to be done with them.
I had little or no knowledge of this battle so this book informed more than entertained. I can't really say if its because after SO many Sharpe books and movies I'm just tired of the series or if it just wasn't written as well as it could be. I'm inclined to the latter since I loved the books in India.
If you've never read a book in the Sharpe series you may enjoy this book more since the character will be fresh, however if you are a regular, you will expect better as I did.
A Library Book.

All the perfect ingredients for an action-packed and page turning read" as THE TIMES said. This book is for people who like adventures packed with action in the 19th century. This novel is about the time where the battle field was on the sea. Lieutenant Richard Prey an Englishman, is given a mission to stopp war. His adventure is exciting as the plot reaches its climax; Prey has to, protect a women he loves, hunt a traitor and stay alive.

This is a brilliant tale of suspense and intrigue. The author uses the opportunity of this early adventure to provide more detail of Richard Sharpe's background. He pits him against villainous foes in both a military and espionage setting and puts him in some tight corners. All this and a bit of love interest as well.

Bernard Cornwell is probably the best historical novelist alive today and his Sharpe series is superb. The reason for one star is the fact Patrick Tull is probably the worst reader I have ever had the misfortune to have to listen to. His style appears to be to mumble through sentences and then literally shout every name or 10-15th word. I suspect many folk listen to audiobooks while in the car and it's pure hell to try to understand what this guy is reading. If you turn the volume up enough to hear the mumbles then your eardrums are assaulted by the shouts. If you leave it low enough to hear the shouts then you miss everything else. Avoid this reader if at all possible but do enjoy all of Cornwell's works.

Haven't finished reading it. So far very interesting. The beginning touches on Richard Sharpe's past and bridges some developments from the previous book. I'm trying to determine how formulaic this series is.

I know there is something of a "serial soap" to the Richard Sharpe series but I just l love it. This book not quite as enthralling as Trafalfar, but still a rollicking read. Nice to see Sharpe as spy as well as thug. I haven't even seen the Tv series but I keep imagining Sean Bean as Sharpe. Why is that guy so good as the conflicted/imperfect hero?

I've been a Richard Sharpe fan since the first PBS broadcasts. I've collected and greatly enjoyed all the books, but this lastest in the series is the weakest. I got the impression that Cornwell wrote this book "by the numbers". While all the elements that made the previous Sharpe books so enjoyable are present, nothing jells in the story/plotline to involve you to the extent the other books did. That said, if you are a Richard Sharpe, you should still buy the book. Even a weak Richard Sharpe book is better than none at all.

I find it very sad that one of the most disgraceful events i english history is being presented as something heroic.
Being danish I know very well what happened in 1807 aswell as before that fateful year.
In 1801 the english attacked us for the first time eventhough we had done nothing against them.One of the leaders of the mission to Copenhagen was the famous Lord Nelson.His mission was to force the danish government to hand over the strong Danish-Norwegian navy.That resulted in the famous "Battle of Copenhagen", one of Nelsons three major naval confrontations(the others were:Aboukir1798,Trafalgar1805).In spite of the fact that he claimed victory when he came home to his country, the mission had been a faliure.He did NOT manage to confiscate our navy, instead he and the rest of his fleet suffered very heavy losses without being able to force their will upon us.
Infact more british seamen got killed in that battle than at Aboukir and Trafalgar put together.The fighting only stopped when Nelson hinted that he might slaughter the danish prisoners of war if we did'nt agree to a ceasefire.
So Nelson was both a sore looser aswell as a man who used dirty tricks to "win".
In 1807 The english had no Nelson anymore but the cynism was the same.Remembering well that the last time they challenged the danish navy in honest fighting they got a bloody nose, they decided to iniciate the FIRST TERROR BOMBARDMENT IN HISTORY, deliberatery targeting the civilian population of the city, like it was seen many times during WW2 from 1940-45.
Stunned by the brutality of the british, the city capitulated so that the english could finally steal the most advanced navy in the world at the time.
The war continued and rarely have we danish people hated anyone so much as we hated the british during those years... and wo can blame us?

I find it very sad that one of the most disgraceful events i english history is being presented as something heroic.
Being danish I know very well what happened in 1807 aswell as before that fateful year.
In 1801 the english attacked us for the first time eventhough we had done nothing against them.One of the leaders of the mission to Copenhagen was the famous Lord Nelson.His mission was to force the danish government to hand over the strong Danish-Norwegian navy.That resulted in the famous "Battle of Copenhagen", one of Nelsons three major naval confrontations(the others were:Aboukir1798,Trafalgar1805).In spite of the fact that he claimed victory when he came home to his country, the mission had been a faliure.He did NOT manage to confiscate our navy, instead he and the rest of his fleet suffered very heavy losses without being able to force their will upon us.
Infact more british seamen got killed in that battle than at Aboukir and Trafalgar put together.The fighting only stopped when Nelson hinted that he might slaughter the danish prisoners of war if we did'nt agree to a ceasefire.
So Nelson was both a sore looser aswell as a man who used dirty tricks to "win".
In 1807 The english had no Nelson anymore but the cynism was the same.Remembering well that the last time they challenged the danish navy in honest fighting they got a bloody nose, they decided to iniciate the FIRST TERROR BOMBARDMENT IN HISTORY, deliberatery targeting the civilian population of the city, like it was seen many times during WW2 from 1940-45.
Stunned by the brutality of the british, the city capitulated so that the english could finally steal the most advanced navy in the world at the time.
The war continued and rarely have we danish people hated anyone so much as we hated the british during those years... and wo can blame us?