Home › Forums › Horse and Musket › Napoleonic › Reacquainting myself with Sharpe and Harper
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22/10/2014 at 07:56 #11044ArteisParticipant
In my latest blog posting, I muse on the Sharpe novels, and also look at a few Sharpe and Harper figures in my collection:
Visit my ‘Dressing The Lines’ blog: http://arteis.wordpress.com/
23/10/2014 at 20:12 #11151CerdicParticipantI have to agree about the Sharpe books. I had never heard of them until I chanced on two or three in a bookshop many years ago. I think they were the only ones published at that time!
I thoroughly enjoyed them, although I found the later ones a bit too formulaic. He should have stopped with the Waterloo book, I think.
I never got into the TV series. They changed the stories too much, they didn’t have the budget for battle scenes, and I thought Sean Bean woefully mis-cast! Good job I am not a TV producer because plenty of people seemed to like ’em!
24/10/2014 at 08:37 #11164SparkerParticipantThanks for a great post Roly – as I commented I agree totally that these are damn fine reads for what they are, and served well to popularise the period. I also recommend Bernard Cornwell’s recent Waterloo history. I’ve read a lot of these and this one is a good general work very engagingly written, as you might expect. Also comes with a healthy dose of common sense around some of the myths and issues surrounding this battle!
http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:920/08/2023 at 17:36 #189776SkipParticipantI am ever so slowly getting through the books by used books or ebooks. Saw the series long ago forgotten most of the plots even if they are not close. I long ago did make up a battalion of the 95th in 15mm though no real use to have done so. ( they get into games with my other British and their allies)
You have done a fantastic job with the figures.
20/08/2023 at 20:25 #189780PatriceParticipantSuperb.
I only discovered the Sharpe TV series 6 years ago on internet! as it was never shown on French TV for obvious reasons. I love it, I can see the defaults but there’s quite a good depiction of uniforms, the English accents (Sean Bean’s and others) are superb (at least for me) …and thanks all gods it’s not Christian Clavier playing Napoleon. 😉
I haven’t read the books and probably won’t, I know that after having watched the TV series a few times I would not find immersion in them.
I have some of the character figures (28mm from Brigade Games) but still not played with them, my Peninsular projects had been delayed.
http://www.argad-bzh.fr/argad/en.html
https://www.anargader.net/20/08/2023 at 22:32 #189783OotKustParticipantI love it, I can see the defaults but
I think you simply meant ‘faults’, or errors.
Perhaps, but technocrats are too hard on modern depictions.The books by Cornwall were fabulous, I bought them as they appeared here and thought the scenarios he wove wonderful. I’ve had those paperbacks so long now, I am ready to quit them from my library…
As to the TV mini-series- I also saw that first with friends in London in 1984 – reenactors no less, so they knew of what they spoke!
Yes the abridged combat and battle scenes can be misconstrued- they were adequate for what was represented- the presence of an army, or enemy, mostly inferred rather than deployed all over a table-top.
Without the glitz of Hollyweird, special effects and too many stars, I found the whole very thorough and encouraging as a promotional aid to explain ‘our hobby’ with model soldiers.
Patrice I would recommend reading the books- as always they cover far more than screenplays ever do; conveying instances and emotions that camera effects don’t always get right.
cheers d.
Swinging from left to right no matter where the hobby goes!
20/08/2023 at 23:49 #189787Aethelflaeda was framedParticipantBernard Cornwall tells a fun tale, but I prefer Patrick O’Brien.
That said one of my next tabletop scenarios will have Sharpe and the boys accompanying Aubrey and Maturin to Haiti to counter a voodoo cabal supporting the return of a French naval bourne spy insertion (with a vampire French aristo couple leading the effort) to retake the former colony). Marines, sailors, zombi, Maroons and Riflemen! Watch out for ‘gators…
Mick Hayman
Margate and New Orleans21/08/2023 at 13:13 #189812PatriceParticipantPatrice wrote: I love it, I can see the defaults but
I think you simply meant ‘faults’, or errors.
Yees I was thinking in French (“défauts”) I should have written “flaws”. 🙂
one of my next tabletop scenarios will have Sharpe and the boys accompanying Aubrey and Maturin to Haiti to counter a voodoo cabal supporting the return of a French naval bourne spy insertion (with a vampire French aristo couple leading the effort) to retake the former colony). Marines, sailors, zombi, Maroons and Riflemen!
Fascinating! I’ll wait for an AAR.
http://www.argad-bzh.fr/argad/en.html
https://www.anargader.net/ -
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