Richard Sharpe is one of the great heroes of historical fiction: a London gutter child who joins the army to escape the hangman and rises from the ranks to become an officer in Wellington’s army. Across 24 novels and three short stories, Bernard Cornwell follows him from the siege of Seringapatam in 1799 to the Chilean wars of independence in 1821, taking in almost every major campaign of the Napoleonic Wars along the way.
The series is famous for its battle scenes, the friendship between Sharpe and the Irish giant Patrick Harper, and the ITV adaptation that made Sean Bean a star. It is also famous for a reading order that confuses almost everyone. Cornwell wrote the books out of sequence over more than forty years, going back again and again to fill gaps in Sharpe’s career. This guide sets out both orders, explains which one to choose, and tells you where each book sits in the story.
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Quick Series Facts
- Author: Bernard Cornwell
- Number of books: 24 novels and 3 short stories
- First published: Sharpe’s Eagle (1981)
- First in the story: Sharpe’s Tiger (1997)
- Latest book: Sharpe’s Storm (UK October 2025, US December 2025)
- Setting: 1799 to 1821, India, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, England and Chile
- Genre: Military historical fiction, adventure
- Series status: Cornwell has said Sharpe’s Storm may well be the last Sharpe adventure, though he has never ruled out another
- Adaptation: ITV television films (1993 to 2008) starring Sean Bean
Sharpe Books in Chronological Order (Recommended)
Chronological order follows Sharpe’s life from private soldier to lieutenant colonel and beyond. It is the order we recommend for most readers, and the one most Sharpe reading guides follow. Numbers below are story order, with the year of first publication in brackets.
India, 1799 to 1805
1. Sharpe’s Tiger (1997)
Setting: Seringapatam, India, 1799
Private Richard Sharpe of the 33rd Foot is bored, flogged and thinking about deserting when the army besieges Tipu Sultan’s great fortress city of Seringapatam. Instead he is chosen for a dangerous job: slip into the city posing as a deserter and find a captured British intelligence officer. The book introduces Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill, the twitching, vindictive bully who will haunt Sharpe for years, and shows the young Arthur Wellesley at the start of his own rise.
2. Sharpe’s Triumph (1998)
Setting: Assaye, India, 1803
Now a sergeant, Sharpe survives a massacre at a remote East India Company fort and joins Colonel McCandless in pursuit of the man responsible, a British officer who has defected to the Maratha armies. The hunt leads to the Battle of Assaye, one of the hardest fought battles of Wellesley’s career, and Cornwell’s account of it is among the best in the series.
3. Sharpe’s Fortress (1999)
Setting: Gawilghur, India, 1803
Sharpe has been commissioned for bravery, but the officers’ mess has no time for a man from the ranks, and he is soon shunted into the baggage train. The campaign ends at Gawilghur, a fortress on a clifftop plateau that everyone agrees cannot be taken. The novel is a sharp study of class inside the army and closes the India trilogy with a spectacular assault.
4. Sharpe’s Trafalgar (2000)
Setting: At sea, 1805
Sailing home from India aboard an East Indiaman, Sharpe expects a quiet voyage. He gets a French warship, a dangerous love affair and, in the end, the greatest naval battle of the age. Sharpe meets Captain Joel Chase of HMS Pucelle, a friendship that pays off twenty years later in Sharpe’s Storm. A good choice for readers of naval fiction.
The early Peninsular War, 1807 to 1809
5. Sharpe’s Prey (2001)
Setting: Copenhagen, Denmark, 1807
Back in England, broke and adrift, Sharpe is drawn into a secret mission to Denmark just as Britain prepares to seize the Danish fleet before Napoleon can. Spies, double dealing and the bombardment of Copenhagen follow. It is one of the more unusual books in the series, a spy story as much as a war story.
6. Sharpe’s Rifles (1988)
Setting: Galicia, Spain, January 1809
During the winter retreat to Corunna, Lieutenant Sharpe is cut off from the army with a handful of riflemen who resent him, among them a huge Irishman called Patrick Harper. To get home they must join a proud Spanish officer, Major Blas Vivar, on a strange mission to Santiago de Compostela. This is where the Sharpe and Harper partnership begins, and it is many readers’ favourite starting point.
7. Sharpe’s Havoc (2002)
Setting: Oporto, Portugal, 1809
Stranded north of the Douro as the French take Oporto, Sharpe and his riflemen are sent to find a missing English girl who has vanished in the city. The search puts them behind enemy lines and in the middle of Wellesley’s bold crossing of the Douro. A fast, tightly plotted adventure.
8. Sharpe’s Eagle (1981)
Setting: Talavera, Spain, 1809
The first Sharpe novel Cornwell wrote. Sharpe and his riflemen are attached to the South Essex, a raw regiment commanded by the pompous and cowardly Sir Henry Simmerson. After a disastrous skirmish costs the regiment a colour, Sharpe makes a vow: he will capture a French Eagle. The campaign builds to the Battle of Talavera.
The middle Peninsular War, 1810 to 1812
9. Sharpe’s Gold (1981)
Setting: Almeida and the Spanish border, 1810
Wellington needs money, and he knows where to find it: a fortune in Spanish gold hidden behind French lines. Sharpe is sent to bring it back, but the gold is guarded by the guerrilla leader El Católico, who has his own plans for it. A tense, morally murky book about the uneasy alliance between the British and the Spanish partisans.
10. Sharpe’s Escape (2004)
Setting: Bussaco, Coimbra and the Lines of Torres Vedras, Portugal, 1810
As Marshal Masséna’s army invades Portugal, Sharpe fights at Bussaco and makes a dangerous enemy in Ferragus, a Portuguese crime lord with a grudge. The book shows Wellington’s great defensive gamble, the Lines of Torres Vedras, from the point of view of the men retreating behind them.
11. Sharpe’s Fury (2006)
Setting: Cádiz and Barrosa, Spain, 1811
Sharpe finds himself in besieged Cádiz, a city full of spies, politicians and Spaniards who would rather make peace with France than fight beside Britain. Blackmail and diplomacy give way to the Battle of Barrosa, one of the bloodiest small battles of the war.
12. Sharpe’s Battle (1995)
Setting: Fuentes de Oñoro, Spain, 1811
Sharpe is given the thankless job of training the Real Compañía Irlandesa, a company of Irish guards with doubtful loyalties. He also makes a deadly enemy of the French brigadier Guy Loup after a brutal encounter in the hills. Everything comes together at Fuentes de Oñoro, where the fighting in the village streets is among the most vivid Cornwell has written.
13. Sharpe’s Company (1982)
Setting: Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, Spain, 1812
Sharpe’s captaincy has not been confirmed, and he loses his company to another officer. Worse, Obadiah Hakeswill arrives in the regiment. With the army preparing to storm Badajoz, where Sharpe’s lover Teresa and their baby daughter are trapped, he sees only one way to win back what he has lost: the Forlorn Hope. Often called the best Sharpe novel, and the Badajoz chapters are unforgettable.
14. Sharpe’s Command (2023)
Setting: Almaraz, Spain, 1812
Two French armies are separated by the river Tagus, and the bridge at Almaraz is what joins them. Wellington wants to know if it can be destroyed, and Sharpe is sent to find out. Written more than forty years after Sharpe’s Eagle, it shows Cornwell still at ease with his hero, and it slots neatly between Badajoz and Salamanca.
15. Sharpe’s Sword (1983)
Setting: Salamanca, Spain, 1812
Sharpe hunts Colonel Leroux, a French officer and spymaster who threatens Wellington’s network of agents in Spain. The hunt runs through the forts of Salamanca and the city’s streets and culminates in the Battle of Salamanca, Wellington’s great victory of 1812.
15.5 Sharpe’s Skirmish (1999, short story)
Setting: Spain, August 1812
A short, self-contained adventure set in the weeks after Salamanca. Optional, but a pleasant hour for fans.
16. Sharpe’s Enemy (1984)
Setting: Adrados, Spanish and Portuguese border, winter 1812
A band of deserters from several armies has taken a mountain village and is holding hostages, among them the wife of a British officer. Their leaders include a French sergeant known as Pot-au-Feu and a face Sharpe knows too well. The book introduces Captain William Frederickson, “Sweet William”, one of the best supporting characters in the series.
The last year in Spain, 1813
17. Sharpe’s Honour (1985)
Setting: Vitoria, Spain, 1813
The French spymaster Pierre Ducos sets a trap that leaves Sharpe accused of murder, and Sharpe must go into hiding to clear his name. The plot twists through Spanish politics and French intrigue before the Battle of Vitoria, where Wellington finally breaks the French hold on Spain.
18. Sharpe’s Regiment (1986)
Setting: England, 1813
The South Essex is short of men, and the replacements promised from home never arrive. Sharpe and Harper travel to England to find out why and uncover a fraud reaching into high society. One of the few books set on home soil, it shows the rotten recruiting system behind the army, and the Prince Regent makes an appearance.
19. Sharpe’s Storm (2025)
Setting: South-western France, from November 1813
Wellington has crossed into France, and Marshal Soult is dug in around Bayonne. Major Sharpe hopes for command of his understrength regiment, the Prince of Wales’s Own Volunteers, but instead finds himself working alongside an old friend from Sharpe’s Trafalgar, Joel Chase, now a rear admiral with a daring plan of his own. The newest Sharpe novel, and Cornwell has suggested it could be the last.
19.5 Sharpe’s Christmas (2003, two short stories)
Setting: The Pyrenees, December 1813, and Normandy after the wars
A slim book with two stories. “Sharpe’s Christmas” takes place in the mountains on the French frontier in December 1813. “Sharpe’s Ransom” is set years later in Normandy, where Sharpe’s peaceful Christmas is interrupted by unwelcome visitors. Optional, but charming.
France, Waterloo and after, 1814 to 1821
20. Sharpe’s Siege (1987)
Setting: The coast near Bordeaux, France, 1814
A British force lands on the French coast to take a fort and encourage a royalist rising in Bordeaux. Sharpe goes with it, and so does his old enemy Pierre Ducos. A winter siege with the odds against Sharpe from the first page.
21. Sharpe’s Revenge (1989)
Setting: Toulouse and France, 1814
With the war apparently over, Sharpe is accused of stealing part of Napoleon’s treasure. Facing a court martial, he goes after the men who framed him, a hunt that takes him across a France adjusting to peace.
22. Sharpe’s Waterloo (1990)
Setting: Belgium, June 1815
Napoleon is back from Elba, and Lieutenant Colonel Sharpe is serving on the staff of the young and hopelessly inexperienced Prince of Orange. The book covers the whole Waterloo campaign, from Quatre Bras to the great battle, and is widely regarded as one of the best fictional accounts of Waterloo ever written.
23. Sharpe’s Assassin (2021)
Setting: Paris, 1815
In the days after Waterloo, Sharpe is ordered into Paris to track down a secret society of fanatical Bonapartists planning to kill Wellington. Street fighting and espionage replace the battlefield. It marked Cornwell’s return to Sharpe after more than a decade away.
24. Sharpe’s Devil (1992)
Setting: Chile, 1820 to 1821
Years after Waterloo, Sharpe and Harper are drawn into the Chilean war of independence while searching for a missing old comrade. Along the way they meet Lord Cochrane, the real naval hero of South America, and even pass by St Helena, where Napoleon lives in exile. A fitting epilogue for the series.
Sharpe Books in Publication Order
If you would rather read the books as they came out, this is the order. Publication order shows Cornwell developing as a writer, and it is how the first generation of fans met Sharpe: in the middle of the Peninsular War, with the India books and gap fillers arriving much later.
- Sharpe’s Eagle (1981)
- Sharpe’s Gold (1981)
- Sharpe’s Company (1982)
- Sharpe’s Sword (1983)
- Sharpe’s Enemy (1984)
- Sharpe’s Honour (1985)
- Sharpe’s Regiment (1986)
- Sharpe’s Siege (1987)
- Sharpe’s Rifles (1988)
- Sharpe’s Revenge (1989)
- Sharpe’s Waterloo (1990)
- Sharpe’s Devil (1992)
- Sharpe’s Battle (1995)
- Sharpe’s Tiger (1997)
- Sharpe’s Triumph (1998)
- Sharpe’s Fortress (1999)
- Sharpe’s Trafalgar (2000)
- Sharpe’s Prey (2001)
- Sharpe’s Havoc (2002)
- Sharpe’s Escape (2004)
- Sharpe’s Fury (2006)
- Sharpe’s Assassin (2021)
- Sharpe’s Command (2023)
- Sharpe’s Storm (2025)
Short stories: Sharpe’s Skirmish (1999) and Sharpe’s Christmas (2003), which contains “Sharpe’s Christmas” and “Sharpe’s Ransom”.
Chronological or Publication Order?
Read in chronological order if you are new to Sharpe and want one continuous story. You meet Sharpe as a private in India, watch him earn his commission, and follow the Napoleonic Wars in sequence from Seringapatam to Waterloo. Friendships and feuds build naturally, and you never have to wonder how Sharpe got to where he is.
Read in publication order if you want to see the series grow as Cornwell did. The 1980s books are leaner and rougher. The later prequels are more polished and more historically detailed. Publication order also keeps a few surprises intact, because the early books were written without knowing what the prequels would add.
There are small drawbacks to the chronological route. Sharpe’s appearance shifts a little between books, partly because Cornwell was influenced by Sean Bean’s performance after 1993. A few details from the prequels do not quite match the earlier novels. None of this spoils the story.
Our recommendation: chronological order for a first read, publication order for a reread. If the India books do not grab you straight away, skip ahead to Sharpe’s Rifles and come back to them later. Nothing essential is lost.
The Sharpe Short Stories
There are three short stories, published in two books.
- Sharpe’s Skirmish (1999) is set in August 1812, between Sharpe’s Sword and Sharpe’s Enemy. It was first written for the Sharpe Appreciation Society and is the hardest of the three to find.
- Sharpe’s Christmas (2003) collects two festive stories. The title story is set in the Pyrenees in December 1813. “Sharpe’s Ransom” is set in Normandy after the wars and gives a rare look at Sharpe in peacetime.
None of them are essential to the main story, but they are short and fun, and completists will want them.
Where to Start
Start with Sharpe’s Rifles if you want the classic entry point. It introduces Harper and the riflemen who become Sharpe’s “chosen men”, it was the first of the TV films, and it shows the series at full strength. You can go back for the India and Copenhagen books whenever you like.
Start with Sharpe’s Tiger if you want to read strictly in story order. It is a strong siege novel in its own right and introduces Hakeswill, Sharpe’s first great enemy.
Start with Sharpe’s Eagle if you want the book that started it all, the way the first readers met Sharpe in 1981.
Try Sharpe’s Trafalgar if you mainly read naval fiction. It works well on its own and shows what Cornwell does with a sea battle.
Save Sharpe’s Waterloo for when you have built up to it. It is the climax of Sharpe’s military career and hits hardest after the Peninsular books.
About the Sharpe Series
Richard Sharpe
Sharpe was born in a London slum, raised in a foundling home, and joined the army to escape a charge of murder. He cannot read when we first meet him. What he has is courage, instinct, a talent for violence and a stubborn refusal to be beaten. Commissioned from the ranks for saving Wellesley’s life, he spends the rest of the series proving himself to officers who think a man from the gutter can never be a gentleman.
That tension is the engine of the series. Sharpe fights the French on the battlefield and the British class system everywhere else: in the officers’ mess, at Horse Guards, and in the drawing rooms of London. His promotions are earned in an army where most officers bought their rank, and every promotion makes him new enemies.
Harper and the Chosen Men
Sergeant Patrick Harper, a Donegal man who joined the army because he was hungry, begins as a sullen, dangerous rifleman in Sharpe’s Rifles and becomes Sharpe’s closest friend. Their partnership is the heart of the series. Around them are the chosen men, riflemen like Dan Hagman, the old poacher and best shot in the company, and the educated Harris. Readers who come for the battles often stay for these friendships.
Bernard Cornwell’s Approach
Cornwell builds each novel around a real campaign and ends each with a historical note explaining what really happened and where he changed it. His battle scenes are clear enough to follow on a map and brutal enough to make you flinch. He writes in short, direct sentences and keeps the plot moving, which is why the books are so easy to binge.
Cornwell’s inspiration was C.S. Forester’s Hornblower novels. He wanted to write the land equivalent, a hero who fights through the Peninsular War the way Hornblower fights at sea. After Sean Bean took the role on television, Cornwell said he could no longer picture Sharpe any other way, and his descriptions of Sharpe changed with it. For more on how novelists balance fact and invention, see our guide to what makes historical fiction accurate.
Is Sharpe’s Storm the Last Sharpe Book?
Sharpe’s Storm was published in the UK in October 2025 and in the US in December 2025. Writing it was not easy. Cornwell has described a chronology problem with the existing books that forced him to rework the ending, and a difficult year during which his longtime editor died.
On his own website, Cornwell has said he suspects Sharpe’s Storm might be Sharpe’s very last adventure, and that he has other books in mind for his next projects. He has not said “never,” though, and fans remember that Sharpe’s Assassin arrived after more than a decade, when many assumed the series was finished. No new Sharpe novel has been announced.
The Sharpe TV Series
ITV adapted the novels as a series of feature-length films starring Sean Bean as Sharpe and Daragh O’Malley as Harper. Fourteen films aired between 1993 and 1997, followed by two later films set in India, Sharpe’s Challenge (2006) and Sharpe’s Peril (2008). The original films were shot mostly in Ukraine, including Crimea, and later in Portugal.
Bean was not the first choice. Paul McGann was cast as Sharpe but was injured early in production, and Bean stepped in. The cast also included Hugh Fraser as Wellington and Pete Postlethwaite as a memorably horrible Hakeswill. Some films follow the novels closely; others adapt or alter them; and two of the original films, Sharpe’s Mission and Sharpe’s Justice, are original stories.
Sharpe TV films in broadcast order:
- Sharpe’s Rifles (1993)
- Sharpe’s Eagle (1993)
- Sharpe’s Company (1994)
- Sharpe’s Enemy (1994)
- Sharpe’s Honour (1994)
- Sharpe’s Gold (1995)
- Sharpe’s Battle (1995)
- Sharpe’s Sword (1995)
- Sharpe’s Regiment (1996)
- Sharpe’s Siege (1996)
- Sharpe’s Mission (1996)
- Sharpe’s Revenge (1997)
- Sharpe’s Justice (1997)
- Sharpe’s Waterloo (1997)
- Sharpe’s Challenge (2006)
- Sharpe’s Peril (2008)
The films are available on DVD and Blu-ray, and streaming availability varies by country.
Similar Series You Will Love
Aubrey-Maturin Series by Patrick O’Brian
The same wars at sea. Captain Jack Aubrey and the surgeon and spy Stephen Maturin form a friendship as rich as Sharpe and Harper’s, and O’Brian’s prose is some of the finest in the genre. Slower and more literary than Sharpe, and deeply rewarding.
The Flashman Papers by George MacDonald Fraser
A British soldier a generation after Sharpe, and his opposite in every way: Harry Flashman is a coward, a cad and a bully who somehow ends up a decorated hero. Very funny, meticulously researched, and a natural next step for readers who love British military history.
Hornblower Series by C.S. Forester
The series that inspired Sharpe. Horatio Hornblower rises through the Royal Navy during the same wars, battling the French and his own self-doubt. Classic naval adventure and the ancestor of the whole genre.
Kydd Series by Julian Stockwin
Thomas Kydd is press-ganged into the navy in 1793 and rises from the lower deck to the quarterdeck. The rise from the ranks and the class friction will feel very familiar to Sharpe fans.
Matthew Hervey Series by Allan Mallinson
A cavalry officer’s view of Waterloo and the years after it, written by a former army officer. Detailed, authentic, and particularly strong on the realities of army life after 1815.
Eagles of the Empire by Simon Scarrow
Roman legionaries instead of riflemen. The friendship between the veteran centurion Macro and the young, bookish Cato gives the series the same double-act energy as Sharpe and Harper, and the battle scenes are relentless.
The Raven Series by Giles Kristian
Viking-age adventure with the same mix of brutal combat, loyal companions, and an outsider hero fighting his way up.
For more long-running sagas, see our best historical fiction series.
More from Bernard Cornwell
If Sharpe has hooked you, Cornwell has plenty more. The Last Kingdom follows Uhtred of Bebbanburg through the birth of England. The Warlord Chronicles retells the Arthur legend as gritty Dark Age history, and The Grail Quest follows an English archer through the Hundred Years’ War. See our Bernard Cornwell guide for his complete bibliography.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Sharpe books are there?
There are 24 Sharpe novels and 3 short stories. The short stories are published in two books: Sharpe’s Skirmish and Sharpe’s Christmas, which contain two stories. The most recent novel is Sharpe’s Storm, published in October 2025.
What order should I read the Sharpe books in?
We recommend chronological order for a first read, starting with Sharpe’s Tiger and ending with Sharpe’s Devil. This follows Sharpe’s life from 1799 to 1821. Publication order, starting with Sharpe’s Eagle, is a good choice for a reread or for readers who want to see how Cornwell’s writing developed.
Where does Sharpe’s Storm fit in the reading order?
Sharpe’s Storm is set in south-western France in November 1813. In chronological order, it comes after Sharpe’s Regiment and before Sharpe’s Christmas short stories and Sharpe’s Siege, making it book 19 in the story.
Where does Sharpe’s Command fit in the reading order?
Sharpe’s Command is set in May 1812 around the bridge at Almaraz. It comes after Sharpe’s Company (Badajoz) and before Sharpe’s Sword (Salamanca), making it the 14th book in the series.
Which Sharpe book should I read first?
Sharpe’s Rifles is the most popular starting point because it introduces Patrick Harper and the chosen men and was the first TV film. Sharpe’s Tiger is the first book in story order, and Sharpe’s Eagle was the first one published.
Will there be more Sharpe books?
No new Sharpe novel has been announced. Bernard Cornwell has said he suspects Sharpe’s Storm might be Sharpe’s last adventure and that he has other books planned, but he has not ruled out a return.
Is the Sharpe series historically accurate?
Sharpe and his men are fictional, but the campaigns, battles and many of the characters, including Wellington, are real. Cornwell researches each campaign closely and ends every novel with a historical note explaining what really happened and where he changed history for the story.
Do you need to read the Sharpe short stories?
No. Sharpe’s Skirmish and the two stories in Sharpe’s Christmas are optional extras that do not affect the main story. They are short and enjoyable for fans who want more time with Sharpe and Harper.
What order should I watch the Sharpe TV series in?
Watch the films in broadcast order, starting with Sharpe’s Rifles (1993) and ending with Sharpe’s Waterloo (1997), then the two later India films, Sharpe’s Challenge (2006) and Sharpe’s Peril (2008). The TV order differs from both the book orders.
Start Your Sharpe Campaign
Few historical series have lasted as long or stayed as good as Sharpe. Over twenty-four novels, Bernard Cornwell turns the Napoleonic Wars into a single long adventure, told from the ground up by a soldier who never forgets where he came from. The battles are superb, but it is Sharpe’s anger, Harper’s loyalty, and the bond between the chosen men that keep readers coming back.
Start with Sharpe’s Tiger if you want the whole story from the beginning, or with Sharpe’s Rifles if you want to meet Sharpe and Harper at their best. Either way, there are more than twenty books of war, friendship, and rivalry ahead of you, and the road runs all the way to Waterloo.