Sharpe’s Tiger and the “s word”

I’m about halfway through Sharpe’s Tiger now, and while it’s a fun book, there’s one thing about the book that’s absolutely driving me up the wall. It’s the word “sir.” Obviously, since Richard Sharpe is in the military, there will be “sir” in the dialogue, but does there really need to be this much? Here’s a line that is a good representation of what I’m talking about:

“What me, sir? No, sir. Not at all, sir. I’ll have the girl, sir, just you watch, and Nasty Naig says you can have all you want of her. Free and gratis, sir, like you ought to.”

That’s one of the more irritating snippets of dialogue. There are plenty of others though, particularly segments where an enlisted man is speaking to an officer. When a dialogue of that nature occurs, the “sirs“ leap to and fro down the page.

I think Cornwell could have gotten the “sir” point across with just a few less instances of the word. One “sir” for every third or fourth exchange between enlisted man and officer would have worked, I think. As it is now, instead of making the dialogue feel like real, all it does (at least for me) is constantly jar me out of the story. Yes, yes, I get it, enlisted men say “sir” a lot to their superiors. Shutup about it and move on with the story, please.