View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does Girdwood go when he runs?

2. Where does Sharpe believe there must be proof?

3. What calms Fenner?

4. What do the men know about the military?

5. What does Fenner agree to do for Anne?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Simmerson do with the recruiting scheme accounting books and how does Fenner react?

2. What does Lawford with his information?

3. What does Jane tell Sharpe about her involvement with the recruiting scheme?

4. How does Jane's mission to obtain the accounting books turn out and how does she feel?

5. What does Sharpe requests happen to Girdwood and what does Fenner get out of the deal?

6. What does Sharpe do about Sergeant Lynch?

7. What does Anne tell Sharpe and how does Sharpe feel about her information?

8. What does Sharpe do with the men of the second battalion?

9. What does Anne tell Sharpe about him wanting to take Fenner and Simmerson down?

10. What does Anne do about Sharpe being arrested?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Though this novel is probably more action driven rather than character driven, obviously there are several characters who make the novel what it is. Discuss one of the following:

1. Compare/contrast the characters of Sharpe and Girdwood. Include their goals, sense of honor, abilities and social skills.

2. Compare/contrast the characters of Harper and Simmerson.

3. Thoroughly analyze the character of Richard Sharpe, discussing both his strong and weak points and how both affect the outcome of the plot.

Essay Topic 2

Cornwell has tried as much as possible to use historical events and facts around which to weave his work of fiction. Discuss the following:

1. Do you think Sharpe's Regiment qualifies as an historical fiction? Why or why not?

2. If much of the events in the book are historical, what surprises you about the way the events play out?

3. Do you think the culture of that era is more or less advanced than you imagined? Explain.

Essay Topic 3

Cornwell is masterful in his description of battles and life in general in for a soldier during the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1820s. Discuss one of the following:

1. Trace and analyze Cornwells's descriptive passages about life as a soldier. How does he use descriptions of the five senses to make the reader feel s/he is there? Do you find his descriptions compelling? Seemingly accurate? How would the novel be different if Cornwell did not include such descriptive passages?

2. Analyze Cornwells's descriptive passages about the social structure of the times and discuss what you think it would be like to be a person of wealth and/or privilege such as Wellington, Lawford, and Windham. Contrast that to the lives of those who are in a lower social strata such as Sharpe and Harper or one in service to someone of wealth and/or privilege.

3. Describe and analyze Cornwell's descriptive passages about the topographical setting and the physical descriptions of the people. Does Cornwell do an adequate job of actually making the reader "see" the land/sea where the action is taking place? How about getting a visual image of the characters? How does the descriptions of the setting add to the novel? Do you like having an idea of how a character looks? How would the novel be different without such descriptions?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,042 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample