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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. Who is with Sharpe at the table in a tavern?

2. What does the colonel suggest?

3. For what does Sharpe search the city?

4. Where do the riflemen go after they are gathered together?

5. Who are leaving the city after the French come out of the palace?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens when Sharpe enters the palace?

2. What do Harper and Sharpe discuss and what does Harper tell Sharpe?

3. What does Sharpe hear as the riflemen are fighting and who appears? Why are the Cazadores fighting so hard?

4. How long do the troops march and what do the riflemen do to keep their movement a secret?

5. What do Sharpe and Harper decide about the French coming to the town?

6. Why does Sharpe burst into the chapel?

7. What do Sharpe and Louisa talk about and what is Louisa's idea? How does Sharpe feel about her idea?

8. Why is Sharpe going into the palace?

9. Why does Vivar come to Sharpe in the tavern, how does Sharpe act?

10. How does Sharpe feel about Louisa being gone and what does Vivar tell Sharpe about her absence?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Most protagonists are a mixture of admirable traits and character flaws, and Richard Sharpe is no exception. Sharpe's legendary powers of military strategy are juxtaposed with his reputation as a womanzier. Discuss the following:

1. Trace and analyze situations when Sharpe demonstrates his prodigious powers of military strategy. Give specific examples to illustrate your analysis.

2. Trace and analyze Sharpe's character flaws offering specific examples of these flaws in your discussion.

3. Discuss how you think Sharpe's admirable traits helped him obtain a high rank in the military despite his background as a child. Do his flaws impact his career at all? Do any of those under his command seem to notice these flaws? Who? How does the reader know this?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

There are a number of literary elements that occur in many works of fiction. Irony is a means of increasing both the humor and the complexity of a story. Cornwell often includes irony in his Richard Sharpe series. Point of view is the way the story is narrated; all works of fiction have a point of view. Conflict is almost always present in a work of fiction. Discuss the following:

1. Define the literary terms irony, point of view and conflict.

2. Identify two instances of irony in Sharpe's Rifles, offering examples from the text.

3. Identify the point of view of the novel and discuss why you think Cornwell chooses to use that particular point of view. Does the point of view seem to be the best one for Sharpe's Rifles? Why or why not.

4. Identify two major conflicts in Sharpe's Rifles. Are the conflicts completely resolved by the end of Sharpe's Rifles? Why or why not?

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