First editions, first printings. Twenty-one volumes, along with two limited and numbered editions, signed by the author, and Mark Adkin's invaluable Companion to the series. Original cloth with the illustrated dustwrappers. All volumes are very near fine to fine, some with light toning to pages owing to poor quality paper stock. The near fine to fine dustwrappers are unclipped except for 'Sharpe's Devil', which also has an ink mark to the lower edge of the page block. The spine of 'Sharpe's Revenge' is a touch faded. The printed price on the inner flap of 'Sharpe's Eagle' is been crossed through and re-priced in blue ink. The two signed, limited volumes, quarter-bound in burgundy leather over marbled boards, are fine and complete with the publisher's glassine wrappers. The first edition copy of 'The Sharpe Companion' is, likewise, fine in a fine wrapper. A lovely complete set of Cornwell's great sequence, with the addition of two signed, limited editions and a companion volume.
Signed by the author to the limitation page at the front of the deluxe editions of 'Sharpe's Tiger' (no. 16 of 99 copies) and 'Sharpe's Trafalgar' (no. 14 of 99 copies). The limited editions are introduced, respectively, by Lindsay Davis and Terry Pratchett. Bernard Cornwell's series of Sharpe Novels and their charismatic central character very quickly took their place beside the lengthy historical sequences of George Macdonald Fraser, Patrick O'Brian, and C. S. Forester as classics of the genre. It was Forester's 'Hornblower' novels and their titular character's Royal Navy career which inspired Cornwall to create a similar series centred around a member of the British Army. The novels, like Fraser's 'Flashman' books were published out of chronological sequence, but can be reordered to relate Sharpe's progress and adventures during the Napoleonic Wars. Beginning as a private in the 33rd Regiment of Foot, Sharpe rises, across the novels, to the rank of lieutenant colonel, his military career ending with the defeat of Napoleon, but followed by a number of his adventures as a civilian. By the end of the series, he has had two wives and three children. After a hiatus of fourteen years, Cornwell published two more Sharpe novels (2021, 2023), with a third due in October 2025. This set comprises the core sequence, without the post-2007 additions. Cornwell's books were the basis for the popular ITV television series featuring Sean Bean in the title role.
Stock code: 27093
£2,500
London: Collins.
1980