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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 the French negotiator think Sharpe is trying to do?

2. By what title does Major Warren Dunnet address the lieutenant in Chapter 1?

3. Who is killed when the French assault the farmhouse?

4. What does Murray believe when he offers Sharpe advice?

5. For what does Vivar thank Harper?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Vivar tell Sharpe about Vivar's troops?

2. What does Vivar ask Sharpe to recount and what does Vivar explain to Sharpe? Where does he ask Sharpe to go?

3. Why does Sharpe withdraw his small force of riflemen he left in the woods?

4. Who does Sharpe meet when a monk wakes him and asks Sharpe to come with him and what does this person say to Sharpe?

5. What does Sharpe have his riflemen do when the French ambush them?

6. What does Sharpe order the Parkers to do and what does Sharpe do when Mrs. Parker refuses?

7. What does de l'Eclin accuse Sharpe of and what is Sharpe's response? What does Vivar's brother say?

8. What does Dunnet order the riflemen to do when the French are charging them and what is Sharpe's response?

9. What do the British and Spanish find when they enter a village, what do they do and how do the troops feel?

10. What does Sharp worry about with Louisa, what does she tell him and what is her response when he tells her about the strongbox?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Choose two of the following and compare and contrast the two people. Include in the discussion their type of leadership, their personality, their morals and whether you would like to serve under them.

1. Sharpe and Vivar.

2. Harper and Willams.

3. Vivar and de l'Eclin.

Essay Topic 2

Major Warren Dunnett is wealthy, educated, and titled, yet he is also militarily ignorant and is so haughty that he fails to recognize his own limitations. Sharpe is not wealthy, not educated, and not titled, though he knows the ins and outs of combat and knows how to lead soldiers. Major Warren Dunnett makes several mistakes, some catastrophic, while Sharpe works behind the scenes to keep the attack together.

1. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of having a system of nobility in a country, especially how it applies to the military. Use examples from the text to support your answer.

2. The class separations in the era of Sharpe's Rifles are very distinct and the upper class is basically impenetrable to the lower class. Discuss the implications of Sharpe, the son of a prostitute being able to obtain the rank of lieutenant and the possible ramifications he might have to deal with when interacting with officers who come from a much higher class.

3. Often in this series of novels the upper class officers are presented as incompetent, at best, and dangerous and uncaring at worse. What might that portrayal suggest about how the author might feel about wealthy people and the positions they hold in society, whether qualified or not? Use examples from the text to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Cornwell is masterful in his description of battles and life in general for a soldier during the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s. 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 Don Blas Vivar, Major Warren Dunnett, Colonel Pierre de l'Eclin, and the Count of Mouromorto. 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 do 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)

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