Richard Sharpe is a soldier who is the central character of the 'Sharpe' series of novels written by Bernard Cornwell and set around the time of the Napoleonic Wars. In 'Sharpe's Tiger', the first novel chronologically in Sharpe's story, although not the first to be written, Sharpe is a private in the 33rd Regiment of Foot, an infantry regiment stationed in India. Sharpe is later promoted to the rank of sergeant and then receives a commission as an officer after saving the life of Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington and eventually joins the 95th Rifles Regiment.
2. Stephen Wraysford
Answer: Sebastian Faulks
Stephen Wraysford is a main character of the 1993 novel 'Birdsong' written by the English author Sebastian Faulks. The novel centres on Stephen, an officer in the British Army, and his experiences during the First World War and on his granddaughter Elizabeth and her attempts in the 1970s to find out more about her grandfather's war.
The novel interweaves sections set in World War I with sections set in the 1970s.
3. Henry Fleming
Answer: Stephen Crane
Henry Fleming is the central character in 'The Red Badge of Courage' an 1895 novel written by Stephen Crane. Fleming is a private in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The title of the novel refers to being wounded something Henry desires to prove his courage after earlier fleeing a battle.
Although Crane was born in 1871, after the Civil War had finished, the novel is praised for its realism with Crane having conducted research from primary accounts of the Civil War and it is believed he may also have interviewed veterans.
4. Billy Prior
Answer: Pat Barker
The character of Billy Prior is an officer in the British Army and a main character of Pat Barker's 1991 novel 'Regeneration'. The novel examines the pioneering treatments developed for treating shell shock during the First World War. Billy Prior is also a major character in the two following novels that make up the 'Regeneration Trilogy'.
While Prior is a fictional character the novels also feature fictionalised versions of real people, notably the war poet Siegfried Sassoon and the psychiatrist Dr WHR Rivers.
5. Harry Flashman
Answer: George MacDonald Fraser
The character of Harry Flashman was originally created by Thomas Hughes in his 1857 novel 'Tom Brown's School Days' in which Flashman is a bully who is eventually expelled from Rugby School. George MacDonald Fraser later developed the character further, making him an officer in the British Army who, despite his cowardliness and aversion to duty, often nonetheless ends up being regarded as a hero. Fraser wrote twelve 'Flashman' novels starting with 'Flashman' published in 1969 and concluding with 'Flashman on the March' published in 2005.
6. Arthur Hastings
Answer: Agatha Christie
Captain Arthur Hastings was created by Agatha Christie and is a companion of the detective Hercule Poirot. In the first Poirot novel, 'The Mysterious Affair at Styles', Hastings is a Captain in the British Army who is on sick leave from the Western Front in World War I.
He is a friend of the Cavendish family who invite him to visit Styles Court while convalescing. Here he reconnects with his old friend Hercule Poirot who is living near Styles Court as a refugee from Belgium. Hastings features in seven other Poirot novels.
7. Guy Crouchback
Answer: Evelyn Waugh
Guy Crouchback is the main character in the 'Sword of Honour' trilogy by the English author Evelyn Waugh. The trilogy consists of the novels 'Men at Arms', 'Officers and Gentlemen' and 'Unconditional Surrender' (which was called 'End of Battle' in the US and Canada) and were originally published between 1952 and 1961.
In the novels Guy Crouchback, the heir of a minor aristocratic Catholic family joins the Army as an officer at the start of World War II seeing active service in Italy before joining a newly formed Commando brigade and being deployed to Crete and Yugoslavia. The novels are loosely based on Waugh's own wartime experiences.
8. Paul Bäumer
Answer: Erich Maria Remarque
Paul Bäumer is the central character and narrator of Erich Maria Remarque's novel 'All Quiet on the Western Front'. The novel is set during the First World War where Bäumer has joined the German army at 19 after finishing school. Erich Maria Remarque served with the German army during World War I and the novel shows the trauma of war and the difficulties soldiers experience when returning home.
9. Jimmy Cross
Answer: Tim O'Brien
Tim O'Brien is the author of 'The Things They Carried', a semi-autobiographical work set during the Vietnam War. In the book Jimmy Cross is the Lieutenant in charge of a platoon of soldiers from Alpha Company. Cross is obsessively in love with a woman back home called Martha who does not reciprocate his feelings and Cross later blames the distraction of this obsession for the death of one of the soldiers in his platoon.
10. John Yossarian
Answer: Joseph Heller
John Yossarian is a Captain serving as a bombardier in the US Army Air Force during World War II and is the central character of Joseph Heller's 1961 novel 'Catch 22'. Most of the novel is set on the Mediterranean island of Pianosa where the fictional 256th Army Air Squadron, of which Yossarian is a member, are based.
The novel focuses on the absurdity of war and the attempts of men to keep their sanity amongst the madness of conflict.
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor MotherGoose before going online.
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