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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 launches a full scale cavalry charge to keep the British from forming squares again?

2. Who is with Sharpe when he joins the Prince of Orange at Quatre Bras?

3. Where is Napoleon Bonaparte as the Dragoons cross into Belgium?

4. Who accompanies Sharpe to Quatre Bras?

5. Who are the Cuirassiers?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did the actions in Chapter 7 show about the Prince of Orange and some of the other British officers?

2. What does Sharpe do when he and Doggett see a battalion of French while scouting the crossroad area?

3. To whom does Sharpe send a note when he encounters men from the German Legion and what is the response? Why does he respond that way?

4. What does the Duke of Wellington read at the ball that interrupts his participation? What does he do after he reads the dispatch?

5. Who does Sharpe encounter while escaping the crossroad area and what happens?

6. What is used on the field of battle besides weapons and men and why?

7. Why are the French able to cross into Belgium and what type of resistance is there?

8. Why is the Duchess of Richmond apprehensive about John Rossendale?

9. Who does Sharpe see as he leaves Wellington to return to the crossroads? What does he do?

10. How does Sharpe mitigate a complete disaster with the battalions under French cavalry attack?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Though this novel is probably more action driven rather than character driven, obviously there are several characters who make the novel what it is. Discuss one of the following:

1. Compare/contrast the characters of Sharpe and Rossendale. Include their goals, sense of honor, abilities and social skills.

2. Compare/contrast the characters of the Duke of Wellington and Napoleon.

3. Thoroughly analyze the character of Richard Sharpe discussing both his strong and weak points and how both affect the outcome of the plot.

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 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 John Rossendale, The Prince of Orange, The Duke of Wellington, and Simon Doggett. 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

D'Alembord's premonition that he will be killed and his developing fear of tomorrow's events exemplifies the true nature of courage, which includes coming to terms with fear and overcoming it.

1. Discuss in detail whether courage is the absence of fear or doing a task in spite of it. Use examples to support your answer.

2. If a person runs from a battle due to fear, do you think that means he will always run from a battle? Why or why not? Use examples to support your answer.

3. If a person goes into combat with no fear and kills a significant number of the enemy and perhaps rescues other soldiers, is that person courageous? In other words, if a person acts like a hero/ine, yet truly has no fear, does that person still qualify as having courage? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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