Adventure Annotation

Title: Sharpe’s Tiger 

Author: Bernard Cornwell

Genre: Adventure, historical fiction, military fiction 

Publication Date: 1997

Number of Pages: 385

Geographical Setting: Seringapatam, Kingdom of Mysore, India

Time Period: 1799 (the Fourth Mysore War)

Series: Sharpe Series (#1 chronologically, #15 by publication date)

Plot Summary: In a prequel to Cornwell’s beloved Sharpe series, started in 1981 with the novel “Sharpe’s Gold,” Richard Sharpe is a young private fighting for the British army in India. His roguish ways and defiant attitude, along with his romantic entanglement with the very pretty and recently widowed Mary Bickerstaff, have placed him in conflict with his nefariously evil superior officer, Sergeant Hakeswill. The detested Hakeswill has hatched a plan with the company’s apathetic commander, Morris, to make a profit by selling Mary off to a brothel, and they need Sharpe out of the way to do it. With a few schemes, they manage to have Sharpe sentenced to two thousand lashes, an effective death punishment. However, Private Sharpe is rescued by the timid but kind Lieutenant Lawford. Lawford requires a man of Sharpe’s talents to help jailbreak a British intelligence officer who was captured by the Sultan’s forces while scouting behind enemy lines. The captured officer is holding vital intel they’ll need for their siege, and time is running out. It’s out of the frying pan and into the fire for Sharpe, as he, Lawford, and Mary pretend to desert the British army and enlist in the opposition’s forces. They’ll have to outwit the clever Tippoo (Tipu) Sultan, known for feeding his enemies to his pet tigers, as well as the Sultan’s greatest ally, French General Gaudin. And, should they survive and get the information back in time to turn the tides of the enormous battle to come, they still have to contend with the snakes in their own army who have plenty of reason to want them dead. 

The historic backdrop of the story is the Siege of Seringapatam, 1799, when Tipu Sultan of the Kingdom of Mysore was defeated by British forces. Many of the characters, including the Sultan, General Harris, Commander Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington), and Major General Baird, are based on real historical figures. 

Subject Headings:

Sharpe. Richard (Fictitious character) Fiction. 

Great Britain - History, Military - 18th century Fiction.

Śrirangapattana (India) - History - Seige, 1799 Fiction

India - History - Mysore War, 1799 Fiction 

Appeal:

• Fast-paced: This book is fast-paced in a manner typical of adventure genre fiction. As mentioned by Wyatt & Saricks (2019), the point of view alternates to keep the focus on the action - if Sharpe, for example, is doing something relatively mundane like spending a day or two in the camp clinic for an injury, the point of view switches to someone else (enemy or ally) doing something more exciting like executing traitors or rendezvousing with spies. The bulk of the plot takes place in a very short timeframe - a matter of a climactic couple of weeks at the end of a long military campaign. 
• Action-packed storyline "The story line focuses on action, usually a mission, and the obstacles and dangers along the way" (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019, p. 12). The mission is to get the intel carried by the captured British intelligence officer to the army before the siege begins, and all of the rest of the occurrences in the novel somehow serve that theme. Despite a decently large cast of characters and detailed description of military life, Sharpe's Tiger never loses focus. 
• Stereotypical characterization: Each character can be boiled down to a distinct trope; "they are quickly drawn, fulfill a checklist of genre attributes, and rarely surprise" (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019, p. 7). Hakeswill is evil, Morris is a drunk, Lawford is untested, Mary is independent. These stereotypes don't make the characters flat, but they do allow the action to move along unimpeded by a lot of introspection. And it doesn't mean there is no room for complexity - Sharpe is a rough-around-the-edges rogue with no qualms about betraying his country. but he's a good man who is loyal to his friends. The Tippoo Sultan, who easily could have been written as a racist caricature, is more than a one-note villain and displays a mixture of cruelty, intelligence, and enlightened mercy that makes him a compelling antagonist. 
• Richly detailed, jargon-filled writing style: Cornwell gives the reader plenty of information to fully situate the story in historic colonial India, and the characters (especially our hero) in believable military roles without losing the action-filled pace. 
• Suspenseful tone: Because of all of the point-of-view shifts, the reader often knows information that Sharpe does not (the nature of the intel he's been sent to gather, for example, or the multitude of plots his superior officers have to kill him). This leads to an effective ramping up of intensity as the stakes get higher and the clock keeps ticking. There is additional, interesting tension built by virtue of it being historical fiction - a big British military history buff might know who lives and dies amongst the "real" characters, but the fates of the truly fictional support is unknown to all, and Cornwell throws some twists in there. 

Terms that best describe this book: Action-packed, suspenseful, war story 

Relevant Fiction Works and Authors:

• The Horatio Hornblower saga by C.S. Forester: What Richard Sharpe is to the land battles of the Napoleonic Wars, Horatio Hornblower seems to be for historical sea stories during the same historic period. Both hero-driven adventure series are "richly detailed" "jargon-filled" military fictions. 
• Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian: Another historical military fiction that takes place during the Napoleonic Wars, this is a commonly cited "adventure book for adults" that is a little more complex (both in style and character relationships) than the Sharpe series. 
• Gods and Generals by Jeff Shaara: Taking place during the Civil War (rather than the Napoleonic or British colonial wars), this novel would appeal to readers who enjoyed the switching point-of-view and large cast of real historical figures from Sharpe's Tiger. 

Relevant Non-Fiction Works and Authors:

• Tiger: The Life of Tipu Sultan by Kate Brittlebank: A look at the life of the real ruler whose army Richard Sharpe infiltrates. If readers find themselves sympathizing more with the freedom-fighting if ruthless Indian sultan than with the colonizing Brits, this book covers his life and achievements prior to the Siege of Seringapatam. 
• Wellington: The Years of the Sword by Lady Elizabeth Longford: Arguably the most famous fictionalized historic figure in Sharpe's Tiger might not be immediately recognizable - but the man called Colonel Arthur Wellesley will later become the Duke of Wellington, the commander who defeats Napoleon at Waterloo. Because the Sharpe series primarily takes place during the Napoleonic Wars, many of the momentous moments of Sharpe's fictional life will be mirrored in Wellington's very real military career. 
• The Era of Darkness by Shashi Tharoor: Despite the action-packed adventures Richard Sharpe has, colonial India under British rule was inarguably a brutal injustice; this account of those atrocities by an Indian author should help contextualize the events of Sharpe's Tiger and what they meant for Indian rulers and citizens. 

Relevant Multimedia tie-ins: 

• Uncharted (video game series): Play as the roguish and charming professional adventurer Nathan Drake as he explores exotic locations, battles enemy armies, and finds himself unwillingly involved in deadly plots way over his pay grade. A Richard Sharpe experience for the modern era. 
• The Age of Napoleon (podcast): If you're interested in the real events of the Napoleonic Wars, this 105 episode (and counting!) podcast delves deeply into the history of France, of the conflict, and of the man himself.
• Sharpe (TV series): Sean Bean plays the titular character, with each of the 16 episodes covering the ground (roughly) of one of the novels. Apparently, Cornwell loved Bean's portrayal so much so that in later Sharpe books, he changes certain descriptions of his main character to better fit with the TV version. 
• RRR (movie): Very loosely based on real Indian revolutionary leaders (Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem), this epic action film by director S.S. Rajamouli tells the story of two radical anti-colonials bound by friendship, and includes an absolutely wild song & dance number (which was just nominatated for a 2023 Oscar for Best Original Song). 
• Risk: Legacy (board game): Risk is a well-known and popular war game, where players mobilize armies to control global territory. The Legacy version of the game encourages the same group of players to play together multiple times in a row - actions taken in earlier games will affect later games by giving players new starting positions, changing the landscape, and altering the global political climate. Fans of military fiction might enjoy creating their own alternate history with friends.