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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Harper do?

2. Why does a crowd gather at the end of the play?

3. Who does Maggie Joyce send after Sharpe?

4. How does Jane react?

5. What is the play about that Sharpe and Harper attend?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Sharpe think of the battle that ended immediately proceeding the start of this novel and how did the battle come out for the English?

2. Who travels with Sharpe to England and what do they find at the second battalion depot?

3. Of what units does the South Essex consist and what is the function of each of those units? What seems to be the problem with one of the units?

4. What does Sharpe wonder about as far as Simmerson's involvement with the second battalion? What is Sharpe's relation to Jane Gibbons?

5. What happens when Marriott attempts to escape?

6. What does Anne tell Fenner and why?

7. Where does Sharpe meet Jane Gibbons when at Simmerson and what do they do?

8. How were the recruits trained initially and what other work did they do?

9. What happens that makes Sharpe believe he can straighten out the problem with the second battalion?

10. What does Sharpe give Maggie and why?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

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

Lawford's actions are blatantly self-serving. He tells Sharpe to lay low for a few days and then goes immediately to Fenner. Lawford believes Sharpe will be mollified by a promotion, but the main thrust of Lawford's proposal to Fenner is that Fenner becomes Lawford's political champion and promoter. Lawford apparently believes he is acting in Sharpe's best interest, but even so, his behavior is reprehensible.

1. Compare and contrast the difference between Lawford's behavior and Fenner's behavior. Is one less wrong than the other? Could one conceivably be considered less amoral than Fenner? Use examples from the text and your own experience to support your answer.

2. There is a cliche which says: Good intentions pave the way to hell. Relate this saying to Lawford's rationalization that he is acting in Sharpe's best interest. Use examples from the text and your own experience to support your answer.

3. Lawford obviously believes he needs a political champion and promoter to obtain what he wants in his career. This seems to indicate that hard work and talent is not enough to move ahead in one's career. Discuss whether you believe this to be true and whether it applies to all careers and to people in modern America. Use examples from the text and your own experience to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

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