December 9, 2003. ק The Seventh Day of Christmas-- Cornwell's Sharpe War Novels.

It has long been my custom to send out lists of good things of the year with my Christmas cards. I thought it might be nice to set this out one by one in my weblog. They are not in any particular order. Here is the seventh.

Cornwell's Sharpe war novels vary in quality, but the best are Waterloo, $9.60 2001, and Sharpe's Tiger: Richard Sharpe & the Siege of Seringapatam, 1799, (1999) $10.40.

Perhaps these are the books that Professor Berube should teach in his class. I really do suspect (I can't say confidently without having read the novels he used) that (a) they would be better for teaching history than the fantastical novels he chose, (b) they have greater chance of being read in the year 2050 than those novels, and (c) reading them will better teach students how to improve their own writing, except for the rare student who pursues a career in artsy writing.

[ permalink, http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/03.12.09a.htm ]

To return to Eric Rasmusen's weblog, click http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/0.rasmusen.htm.