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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 do the men do when they approach the fort with Harper?

2. What does Sharpe do with the American prisoners?

3. Why is Harper among Sharpe's company?

4. What does Bampfylde say he is going to do with the Americans?

5. What does Colonel Elphinstone say about Sharpe due to the mission he is assigned?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Frederickson feel about the treatment of the Americans and what does he do?

2. What does Sharpe doe when he arrives near the area of the fortress?

3. What does an English frigate do about the Teste de Buch and how does Lassan respond?

4. What does Killick decide to do with the British coming?

5. How does Killick respond to Sharpe's distaste for hanging?

6. How does Sharpe counter Bampfylde's assertion of command and what does Bampfylde decide to do?

7. How is Killick's ambush neutralized?

8. What is Richard Sharpe's role in the coming British action and why is he chosen for this task?

9. What plan does Sharpe use to get into the fortress?

10. What does Lassan do when he flees the fortress?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Although Hogan's fever and eventual death is not focused on in a dominant way, the credibility of the basic plot relies heavily on this intelligence officer's information being withheld due to illness. In other words, Sharpe will go to war believing he is to act a certain way while in point of fact his mission was intended to be something else entirely. Choose one of the following to answer in detail:

1. Explain why the convenience of Hogan's illness is likely a narrative contrivance. Use examples from the text to support your answer.

2. Explain how you believe the plot could have worked without Hogan's illness. Use examples from the text to support your answer.

3. Based on Sharpe's behavior in his decision not to go to Bordeaux because of a "feeling" about de Marquerre, why would the author go to the trouble of inventing Hogan? Use examples from the text to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

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 Captain William Bampfyldem, Comte de Maquerre, General Calvet, and Commandant Henri Lassan. 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 3

Along with treason, another detestable action is spying. Spies are not considered in the same vein as soldiers in uniform and are not protected by the customs and regulations that govern the treatment of soldiers who are in uniform when captured. Comte de Marquerre is a French spy and suffers eventual death at the hands of Sharpe. Discuss one of the following:

1. Why do you think spies are not accorded any rights under many countries' laws and customs?

2. Even though all countries abhor spies, often even their own, they still spy, and men and women are still willing to be spies. Discuss why you think this is so.

3. Research and analyze the history of spying in either England, the United States, or Russa.

(see the answer keys)

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