Sharpe's Fortress
First edition cover
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| Author | Bernard Cornwell |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Richard Sharpe |
| Genre | Historical novels |
| Publisher | Harper Collins |
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Publication date
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19 November 1998 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) and audio-CD |
| Pages | 301 pp (hardcover edition)) 368 pp (paperback edition) |
| ISBN | (hardcover edition) ISBN (paperback edition) |
| OCLC | 41156886 |
| Preceded by | Sharpe's Triumph |
| Followed by | Sharpe's Trafalgar |
Sharpe's Fortress is the third historical novel of the Richard Sharpe series, by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 1998. It is the last of the Sharpe India trilogy. It tells the story of Ensign Sharpe, during the battle of Argaum and the following siege of the Fortress of Gawilghur in 1803.
It is 1803 and Sir Arthur Wellesley’s army is closing on the retreating Mahrattas in western India. Marching with the British is Ensign Richard Sharpe, newly made into an officer and wishing he had stayed a sergeant. Spurned by his new regiment, he is sent to the army’s baggage train and there finds corruption, romance, treason and enemies old and new. Sergeant Hakeswill wants Sharpe dead, and Hakeswill has powerful friends while Sharpe has only an orphaned Arab boy as his ally.
And waiting with the cornered Mahrattas is another enemy, the renegade Englishman, William Dodd, who does not envisage defeat, but only a glorious triumph. For the Mahrattas have taken refuge in Gawilghur, the greatest stronghold of India, perched high on its cliffs above the Deccan Plain. Who rules in Gawilghur, it is said, rules India, and Dodd knows that the fortress is impregnable. There, behind its double walls, in the towering twin forts, Sharpe must face his enemies in what will prove to be Wellesley’s last battle on Indian soil.
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