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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Isabella want from Harper?

2. What does Leroy want Sharpe to buy?

3. Topographically, where is the convent located?

4. How does Ducos feel towards Helene?

5. What puts Sharpe in a bad mood in Chapter 3?

Short Essay Questions

1. What sentence does Sharpe receive at the end of his trial and how do the Spanish feel about it?

2. What evidence does Major Vaughn use against Sharpe and what does he say is Sharpe's motivation? How does Sharpe respond to the Major's suppositions?

3. Who is La Marquesa and what is her nationality?

4. How do Sharpe and Angel get past the ambush with La Marquesa?

5. What is the Marques and Father Hacha discussing in Chapter Five? What does the Marques say about his wife?

6. Why is el Matarife at an inn near the Convent of the Heavens and what does he do about Wellington's request?

7. Why is Angel worried about Sharpe's plan in Chapter Eleven and what does Sharpe tell him?

8. Who is assigned to defend Sharpe and what does he tell Sharpe?

9. Why is La Marquesa angry in Chapter Eight and what happens in her encounter with Hacha?

10. What is d'Alembord doing to help Sharpe with his duel, what has he done in secret and how did Sharpe's last duel end?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sharpe accepts the challenge of the duel not only because he is bored, but because he feels he needs to redeem himself somehow. Perhaps by fighting the duel he can erase the mistakes of his past, honor his dead wife, and give himself some peace all at once.

1. Sharpe will participate in a dangerous duel because he feels guilty about his wife. How do you think guilt and reckless behavior are related? Use examples from the book and your own experience to support your answer.

2. Discuss some of the behaviors that teenagers in modern America might have because of feelings of guilt. How efficient do you think these behaviors are in erasing guilt?

3. Discuss constructive actions or behaviors a person might use or do in order to assuage guilt. Would any of these be available to Sharpe? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Cornwell is masterful in his description of battles and life in general in for a soldier during the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s. Discuss one of the following:

1. Trace and analyze Cornwells's descriptive passages about life as a soldier. How does he use descriptions of the five senses to make the reader feel s/he is there? Do you find his descriptions compelling? Seemingly accurate? How would Sharpe's Honor be different if Cornwell did not include such descriptive passages?

2. Analyze Cornwells's descriptive passages about the social structure of the times and discuss what you think it would be like to be a person of wealth and/or privilege such as Wellington, or the Marques. Contrast that to the lives of those who are in a lower social strata such as Sharpe and Harper or one in service to someone of wealth and/or privilege.

3. Describe and analyze Cornwell's descriptive passages about the topographical setting and the physical descriptions of the people. Does Cornwell do an adequate job of actually making the reader "see" the land or sea where the action is taking place? How about getting a visual image of the characters? How does the descriptions of the setting add to the novel? Do you like having an idea of how a character looks? How would the novel be different without such descriptions?

Essay Topic 3

Sharpe's Honour, like many, and perhaps a majority, of novels ends on a happy note. Discuss the following:

1. Why do you think many (most?) people want what they perceive as a happy ending to a novel? Explain your opinion. Do you? Why or why? not?

2. What are three reasons to read fiction? Discuss each one in light of Sharpe's Honour and whether or not it fulfills all three, two or one of the reasons you mention. Give examples as to why Sharpe's Honour is or is not successful in fulfilling the reasons you discuss.

3. State what you think are three characteristics of a successful novel and whether or not Sharpe's Honour in your opinion is a successful novel.

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