Sharpe's Triumph

William Gaminara does an excellent job in his presentation of this 14th volume of Cornwell's Sharpe series. Triumph covers Sergeant Sharpe's service with the British Army in India, before the Peninsular War and Waterloo. The story begins with a treacherous attack by Maj. William Dodd, a British officer who has defected from the East India Company. Surviving the massacre, Sharpe vows to take revenge, a vow that leads him to serve with Gen. Arthur Wellesley and to take the field when Wellesley leads an impossibly small force of 5000 men against the 50,000 of the Maratha Army quartered at Assaye. Cornwell's (The Winter King, Audio Reviews, LJ 8/97) depiction of the events that occurred before and during the 1803 battle at Assaye is vivid and historically accurate.