Sharpe's Tiger
First edition cover
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| Author | Bernard Cornwell |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Richard Sharpe stories |
| Genre | Historical novels |
| Publisher | Harper Collins |
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Publication date
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2 June 1997 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) and audio-CD |
| Pages | 400 pp (hardcover edition)) 352 pp (paperback edition) |
| ISBN | (hardcover edition) (paperback edition) |
| OCLC | 37750954 |
| 823/.914 21 | |
| LC Class | PR6053.O75 S56 1997 |
| Followed by | Sharpe's Triumph |
Sharpe's Tiger is the first historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell and was first published in 1997. Sharpe is a private in the British army serving in India at Seringapatam.
The first, chronologically, of the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell. This and the succeeding two novels set in India provide the back story to Sharpe's army life, filling in the stories mentioned in the later novels set in the Napoleonic wars in Europe and showing how this private began his climb up the ranks of the British army, a possible but rare event in that era.
It takes place in Mysore, India and tells of Sharpe's adventures and triumphs against the Tipu Sultan during the Siege of Seringapatam in 1799.
Richard Sharpe is a private in the 33rd Regiment of Foot in the British army, currently invading Mysore and advancing on the Tippoo Sultan's capital city of Seringapatam. Sharpe is contemplating desertion with his paramour, widow Mary Bickerstaff. His sadistic company sergeant, Obadiah Hakeswill, and company commander, Captain Morris, wish to use Mary as a prostitute and so engineer a scheme that results in Hakeswill deliberately provoking Sharpe into attacking him. The incident is witnessed by Morris and a junior officer, Ensign Hicks, resulting in Sharpe's court martial and the virtual death sentence of 2,000 lashes for the private. He is saved, however, when the regiment's commander, Arthur Wellesley, the later 1st Duke of Wellington, halts the punishment at 200 lashes. It emerges that Lieutenant William Lawford has requested Sharpe to join him in a special mission, which he agrees to with the guarantee that he will be made a sergeant if successful.
Lawford and Sharpe are ordered to pose as deserters to rescue Colonel Hector McCandless, chief of the British East India Company's intelligence service, Sharpe's flogging inadvertently providing the ideal cover story for them. Although Lawford is nominally in command, Sharpe quickly dominates the lieutenant by force of personality and, without authorization, brings Mary on the mission. Furthermore, Sharpe helps establish Lawford's cover story, having the lieutenant pose as a thieving clerk who is deserting with Sharpe after witnessing the latter's punishment. They are soon captured by scouts from the Tippoo's army and led to Seringapatam where they meet Colonel Gudin, a French military adviser to the Tippoo. During their interrogation, the Tippoo enters and orders them load muskets, which takes Lawford far longer to do so than Sharpe, and then kill a British prisoner. As Sharpe prepares to execute the prisoner, who is actually Colonel McCandless, he is able to covertly tell McCandless that he is a double agent and learns that the Tippoo has set a trap for the British by mining the weakest (and thus most inviting) portion of the city walls and that they can get a message to the British via a spy in the city. Upon his attempt to shoot McCandless the musket misfires so Sharpe beats him instead before being halted by the Tippoo.
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