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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 Lawford want from Fenner?

2. What will happen to Jane Gibbons?

3. Who follow Girdwood at Foulness?

4. To where does Sharpe decide to march the men after getting the camp in order?

5. What does the regimental paperwork seem to have?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does Sharpe decide to do after speaking with Anne?

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

4. What does Sharpe do when Girdwood runs?

5. What does Jane tell Sharpe about her personally?

6. Where does Girdwood run and what does he do?

7. What does Anne do about Sharpe being arrested?

8. What does Sharpe do when he reaches London in order to get something done about Simmerson and Fenner?

9. What are the results of the negotiations between Anne and Fenner?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The conclusion of Chapter 19 finds Sharpe at his lowest ebb--he has "solved" the mystery of his missing men but has also fallen into the hands of his enemies, is under official arrest, and is powerless to effect change. At this point, he appears entirely subject to the whims of Fenner, who plans to send him away under official condemnation.

1. There is a saying in writing circles that for good conflict one needs to: "put a character out on a limb then keep making the limb weaker and weaker." Discuss this idea in relationship to the chronological events that puts Sharpe under arrest and powerless.

2. Discuss what you believe are the emotional, psychological and physical reactions to being powerless and how a person might mitigate some of those reactions. Include in your discussion the harm or benefit one might derive from being powerless.

3. Sharpe is powerless. Most people find themselves in situations in life in which they are powerless. Discuss some lessons one could learn from being powerless. Use examples from the text and your own experience to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Usually the women in this series are background to the men and tend to fit a stereotype of women in this era of history. This book has a different type of woman, Dowager Countess Anne Camoynes, who is strong enough to survive her husband, leaving her in debt and intelligent enough to finally outwit Fenner.

1. Present and analyze the treatment of women in Dowager Countess Anne Camoynes.

2. Cornwell is trying to be historically accurate, so is his treatment of women in his book(s) justified?

3. Is there any way Cornwell could have presented women in a more positive light and still stayed historically accurate? 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?

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