"Sharpe's Ransom" is a short story written by

historical fiction Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the Setting (narrative), setting of particular real past events, historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literatur ...

author

Bernard Cornwell Bernard Cornwell (born 23 February 1944) is an English author of historical novels and a history of the Waterloo Campaign. He is best known for his long-running series of novels about Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe. He has also writ ...

. It features Cornwell's fictional hero Richard Sharpe. It was originally written for the British newspaper the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

'', which serialised it during the 1995 Christmas season. In 2003 the Sharpe Appreciation Society combined it with another short story, " Sharpe's Christmas", in the collection '' Sharpe's Christmas''.

Plot summary

"Sharpe's Ransom", which takes place after '' Sharpe's Waterloo'', is set in peacetime, providing a glimpse of Sharpe's life in Normandy with Lucille. Old comrades of Sharpe's enemy, Major Ducos, invade the chateau, believing he possesses some of the emperor's gold he helped General Calvet retrieve ('' Sharpe's Revenge''). Knowing he cannot convince them otherwise, he agrees to take them to where the gold is supposedly hidden. After overpowering his escort with the help of subterfuge, he rallies support from his neighbours, despite their dislike of him, and has them sing a choir in front of his chateau to distract the thieves, enabling him to sneak in through a secret entrance and capture them.

References

External links

Section from Bernard Cornwell's website on ''Sharpe's Christmas''
1995 short stories

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

Historical short stories War short stories Short stories by Bernard Cornwell Christmas short stories Works originally published in the Daily Mail Short stories set in the 1810s Short stories set in France {{1990s-story-stub