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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 a group of the British see a few hours before Sharpe's mission?

2. What did Sharpe as the Americans to swear?

3. In what condition are Bampfylde's Marines?

4. Why is Harper among Sharpe's company?

5. Why does Sharpe ask Harper to pull his infected tooth?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Bampfylde do with the American prisoners and why?

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

3. What does Harper ask Sharpe, how does Sharpe respond and what does Harper say to that response?

4. Who joins Sharpe's mission at the last moment, what kind of problems does he cause and why does Sharpe's superiors allow it?

5. How does Sharpe prepare first for his mission? How does that turn out?

6. What does Killick think the British will do, how much experience does he have with fighting on land and what worries him the most?

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

8. What does Pierre Ducos do when he learns Sharpe is marching inland?

9. What is Sharpe's mission and what does Elphinstone think about it?

10. What kind of shape are Bampfylde and his Marines and how does this affect what they do?

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

The military way of life is in and of itself similar to a distinct culture. Understanding how the military is organized, how it operates, and its basic rules of conduct will make any novel that centers on the military more understandable and enjoyable. Discuss one of the following:

1. Describe and analyze the military structure during the time of Sharpe's Siege. What is rank? What is the difference between officers and enlisted men? How serious is it to disobey an order? What happens if one decides he does not like being in the military and walks away? How are men conscripted? Does the infantry have a similar means of augmenting their ranks as the maritime action called "impressments"?

2. Compare the infantry of Sharpe's Siege to that in modern times in for the United States, England or France. What are the similarities? The differences? Are the changes from those times improvements? Why or why not? (This question will require some research).

3. Discuss why you think the military has the following: Uniforms, a rank structure of Officers and Enlisted, Strict Discipline, Training for New Recruits, Court Martial, and Different types of companies (i.e., rifle, Cavalry, artillery, etc). Discuss why you think men (and nowadays women) choose to become professional soldiers.

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 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?

(see the answer keys)

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