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Sharpe

Twenty four novels written wildly out of order, and sixteen television films that reorder them again and invent four more.

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Where to start with Sharpe

Read in story order, with one adjustment: do not open with the book that is first in the story. Sharpe's Tiger is numbered book one by the publisher, but the India trilogy was written sixteen years into the series for an audience that already loved the character, and it assumes an affection for a man it never introduces.

  1. 1
    Sharpe's Rifles Sharpe's Rifles

    The cleanest on-ramp. It is where Sharpe joins the 95th Rifles and meets Harper, and it is also the story the television series opened with, so print and screen line up at the start.

  2. 2
    Sharpe's Eagle Sharpe's Eagle

    The purist's alternative. Cornwell's debut novel and the book that established Sharpe and Harper, though it drops you into 1809 with no introduction.

  3. 3
    Then Sharpe's Tiger and the rest in story order Sharpe's Tiger

    Once you know who Sharpe is, go back to 1799 in India and run the chronology straight through. His promotion from private to lieutenant colonel only makes sense in order, and the publisher numbers the spines this way.

  4. 4
    On screen, Sharpe's Rifles from 1993 Sharpe's Rifles (1993)

    Watch the fourteen 1990s films in broadcast order. They are self contained but the personal arc, the promotions and the marriages, is strictly sequential.

Then what? The three short stories are optional and none is needed to follow the novels: Skirmish sits just after Sharpe's Sword, Christmas just after Sharpe's Storm, and Ransom after Waterloo and Assassin and before Sharpe's Devil. Publication order is a legitimate alternative if you want to watch a writer develop, since the early 1980s books are shorter and pulpier and the post-1997 ones are longer and better researched, but it opens in 1810, jumps back to 1799 fifteen books later, and buries the origin story in the middle. Save Sharpe's Challenge and Sharpe's Peril for last; they are set two years after the end of the main run.

A suggested way in, not an official one. The full list is below — tick anything off in either place.

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