Customer Reviews

Sharpe's tiger :

5 star:		(82)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Chronologically, this is the first adventure of the war-loving soldier, Richard Sharpe. I am new to the series, but if the first three books are any indication (The India Trilogy), I will read them all.

The author, Cornwell, is a perfect blend of great storyteller and excellent writer. Cornwell's discription of the siege of Seringapatum is beautifully rendered. The reader can feel the heat and exaustion, hear the swish of saber and whine of bullets. Often, in books that deal with military history, the reader may find himself slightly confused as to troops movements and tactics, but not here. Cornell is such a fantastic action writer, that it is all crystal clear. The reader can sense the flow of action, picture the battlefield perfectly, and understand the reasons behind the decisions; and all without hampering the surge of action.

The characters in the novel are particularily well drawn. This is a story with great villians and enemies. Especially enjoyable is Sharpe's nemisis in the novel, the horrid Obadiah Hakewill, Sharpe's sadistic sargent. I also like the author's portrait of The Tippoo Sultan. while it would be hard to call it a sympathetic portrait, Cornwell takes pains to write this enemy in truthful, fascinating strokes.

Just a great piece of work and one of the few books I have read lately that have kept me up all night reading. Onward, Mister Sharpe!

Whether you're a longtime fan of Sharpe, or a newcomer, this s excellent story is as good as any in the long-running series. Longtime fans will love to finally get the details on some of the longstanding background material (Sharpe's infamous lashing, the Sultan Tippoo's jewels, Lt. Lawford's teaching him to read, etc.), while newcomers will find themselves at the chronological start of the series. Set in 1799, the book finds Sharpe a lowly private serving in Mysore in Southern India, as the 33rd Rifles are part of a large force seeking to destroy the Muslim ruler of Mysore. Cornwell does his usual masterful job of showing the unpleasant life of a common soldier on the march in a scorching distant land. It is a life so unpleasant, and rife with injustice (most of it at the hands of Sharpe's longtime psychopathic nemesis, Sgt. Hakeswill and the pliant and corrupt drunk Captain Morris), that Sharpe is weighing the pros and cons of deserting.

The first half of the book establishes all this, as well as Sharpe's romantic relationship with a half-caste woman (one of the main points of contention between he and Hakeswill), and as well as the larger background. The Sultan's army is melting backward to hole up in the island fortress of Seringpetang, where they hope to hold out until the monsoon season forces the British to retire from the field. However, there is intrigue afoot, as a French advisor to the Sultan whispers encouraging words from Napoleon (then in Egypt), while a top Hindu advisor is the subject of the advances of a British spy. The British spy learns news of vital importance, if the fortress is to be conquered, but is thrown in jail before he can get the news out.

Meanwhile, Sharpe has been suckered into an act of insubordination which seems certain to doom him. Fortunately, his fair-minded superior Lt. Lawford insists on Sharpe accompanying him on a suicide mission to rescue the spy. The second half of the book is this James Bondish mission, as the duo make their way to Seringpetang in the guise of deserters, and join the Sultan's unit of European mercenaries. From there, there's lots of tension, as Sharpe and Lawford try and maintain their disguise while proving themselves and trying to locate and free the spy. The book climaxes with the British assault on the fortress, as Sharpe and Lawford try and get the critical information out the the British in time.

It's all great stuff, and Cornwell has such command of his material and characters that it just flows smoothly. That's perhaps part of the advantage of writing the books out of chronological sequence, he knows the characters so well that everything feels pitch-perfect. Sharpe is, well... Sharpe. Gritty, angry, crafty, and brutal. Hakeswill is menacing and madly violent. Col. Wellesley (later Duke Wellington of Waterloo fame) is priggish, snippy, and cold. The Sultan is cruel, and yet brave. Based on historical events, the book is packed with intrigue, action, a vivid setting, and is a great adventure.

Just finished the Kindle edition. I was saddened to see a good author's craft ruined by truly horrible editing. The publisher screwed this one up so bad it was painful to read. The book is full of errors that should have been caught in the most superficial edit. I suppose that PerfectBound and Harper Collins simply scanned a printed copy of the book, pushed the electronic result through a spell checker, and published it. There are fifteen places where the scanner obviously misread "the" and got "die". Because of the lack of an edit, that's how it was published. And that's only one example.

Publishers have a duty to their authors and readers to faithfully reproduce the author's work. When they fail the author loses fans and, presumably, money. To have to pay ten dollars for a book that looks like it cost almost nothing to publish reflects on the greed of the publisher.

This is the first Sharpe novel I've read and what a mistake it was to wait so long. My general avoidance of fiction, especially of the serial nature, caused me to foolishly ignore this series. Sharpe's Tiger was a mixed blessing: Yes, I loved the book, but as another reviewer warned, I am now addicted. Thankfully, I picked the right book to start with, this being the first chronologically in Sharpe's military career.

Now, rather than go into detail about the plot and characters (which have been adequately covered in other reviews) I wanted to underscore how impressed I am with the historical accuracy. Cornwell has been first rate in his attention to detail and in describing the conditions of military life in the British Army of the period, even in drawing distinctions between regular army regiments and those of the British East India Company.

But even more impressive is the amount of research that must have gone into writing such a novel. With historical fiction you always have people such as myself looking for errors and making pedantic statements like, "But the 52nd Regiment of Foot was never involved in the attack on Java". But Sharpe's Tiger, and presumably the rest of the series, is meticulously researched. Probably not one person in 10,000 has heard of the battle of Mallavelly (the only reference I have found is in Vol.4 of Fortescue's History of the British Army which is, sadly, long ago out-of-print) yet Cornwell presents a robust picture of this engagement.

Being particularly interested in the Peninsular War (the setting for many of the other Sharpe adventures), I was elated to finally discovered what so many fans of Cornwell had known for a long time: The Sharpe series, like Hornblower, is sure to be a classic of this genre.

This first series installment introduces us to protagonist Richard Sharpe, an orphan from the gutter whose only shot in life is as a lowly private in the British Army, and whose only real skill is fighting. Sharpe does have related skills and virtues - honesty, wit, courage, initiative and resourcefulness among them - which is why the time spent with him in each book is so enjoyable.

Sharpe reports to the diabolical Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill, who exists primarily to cheat and scheme money out of his subordinates, and secondarily to torment them for sheer enjoyment. Hakeswill lusts for Sharpe's girlfriend and wants to sell her to a brothel owner, and so trumps up a scheme to have him flogged to death.

But Sharpe is saved when he gets tapped to accompany an officer on a dangerous mission: finding a high-ranking British spy who has reconnoitered the defenses of Seringapatam. This is the stronghold of the fabulously wealthy Tippoo Sultan, the main obstacle to British rule of southern India.

Sharpe and Lt. Bill Lawford, good-hearted but naïve, find themselves swapping roles across class lines as they work their way towards the imprisoned Colonel McCandless, impersonating British deserters. Sharpe has more street smarts and finds himself in the unusual position of giving an officer orders.

All Cornwell's distinctive touches are found here - the luxury and misery of India, the fabulous wealth and huge harems of the powerful, the dreary lives of the British rank-and-file, and the exquisite tortures meted out by cruel rulers, who might have prisoners torn apart by sadistic musclemen or fearsome tigers. Cornwell pays meticulous attention to 19th century siege warfare.

In some ways he is even more compelling a character than Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey: Aubrey, from gentry, has some natural allies, but Sharpe's natural state in life is alone, back to the wall, with no allies but the converts he makes as he serves side by side with them. Sharpe's ingenious but totally plausible improvisations allow him to, whatever the day is, seize it. The Sharpe books are delightful.

It never ceases to amaze me how a story so full of historical detail can be so consistently entertaining. 'Sharpe's Tiger' has the series' protaganist, Richard Sharpe, serving as a lowly private in India in 1799 and infiltrating the stronghold of the Tipoo Sultan before the arrival of the British army. Many factors contribute to Cornwell's remarkable novel, but the one that stands out is the character of Obidah Hakeswill, an antagonist so loathsome he is sure to go down as one of the great literary villans of all time.

...because that's the highest the counter allows. If not, I'd give it a 20. My introduction to Richard Sharpe, the character came through the TV movies aired here on PBS. My introduction to Mr. Cornwell's books came through this novel. Last spring, while at Gatwick Airport, I saw the hardcover displayed in a bookstore. Facing an 8 hour flight watching movies I'd already seen and disliked I decided "Sharpe's Tiger" was the better investment of time. It certainly was. Since then, I've read all of the Sharpe novels. I am always impressed, and as a novelist myself, more than a little envious of Mr. Cornwell's gifts. He melds fascinating historical details with blood and thunder adventure featuring a flawed, yet undeniably heroic protagonist. In this particular genre, Mr. Cornwell has no peers. I'm hooked on "Sharpie" for life.

I have read the Warlord Chronicles and the first of the Grail Quest series and found both of them fantastic fast-paced fun. Bernard Cornwell is absolutely brilliant at writing historical fiction that has both gripping story lines and breathtaking action. He is a master at changing tone at a moment's notice, giving plenty of time for the odd piece of romance or comedy whilst never getting bogged down and deviating too much from the important bits.

In Sharpe's Tiger, chronologically the first of the score of Sharpe novels, Cornwell has our hero a dashing, raw recruit of the 33rd regiment in India. At the island fortress of Seringapatam, the Tippoo, enemy of the British, is holed up plotting an alliance with the French to remove the British from his lands forever. When a senior British officer is captured, Sharpe is given the task of saving him, as a way out of the huge number of lashes he has just been given as punishment for striking an officer. The sentence is the result of the utterly odious Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill's incessant victimisation of the soldiers beneath him - Sharpe being his least favourite.

And there the fun begins. Firstly the infiltration of the fort, then the discovery of the captured officer and then the escape. Except Sharpe cannot do anything the easy way. In fact the beauty is that he seems to go out of his way to find the trickiest route, causing as much mayhem as he does it. It is a credit to Cornwell that Sharpe never suspends belief for the sake of more amazing thrills. Everything he allows Sharpe to do is possible and in some instances, probably rather close to a re-enactment of some courageous derring-do of a real-life British soldier 200 years ago or so. It is the adroitness of Cornwell's writing that he manages to carry this off with such aplomb. If you like this sort of thing, then I think it safe to say there is no better than Mr. Bernard Cornwell.

And now onto Sharpe's Triumph (I am doing them in chronological order, you see, I believe that to be the best way.)

After having read the Starbuck serie (Civil War) fromB. Cornwell, i had great expectations. To my great delight, the samefeeling of plunging in the middle of an historical battlefield seized me after a few pages, making me forget about (every bloody thing I had to do in) my new house for a few hours.

SHARPE'S TIGER is the first in the serie (of about 12) in chronological order. Even though Mr. Cornwell does'nt write them this way, if you want to appreciate the historical flavor and Sharpe's career in Her Majesty's army, you want to read them chronologically.

The reader looking for nice fancy figures of speech will be left unsatisfied. Political correctness is also left in the closet. It is blunt, direct cannon-fodder daily life we are looking at and it is written that way

One thing is sure, we will all finish that book with the smell of gunpowder floating around us and a smile in the historical note about general Wellington

I haven't read all of the Sharpe books and since I've been getting them at the library I haven't been reading them in order either. But I have to say it hasn't diminished my enjoyment of them one bit. Great fun and a great antagonist! Sharpe's Tiger is my favourite at this point- I love the dynamics between Lawford and Sharpe! I also loved how Sharpe faced the tiger and the jettis- maybe unrealistic as some other reviewers have claimed but not overtly so and great fun anyway. Oh and the part where he "shoots" McCandless and later admits he would have shot him for real if he had too? Just a hint of the ruthlessness that Sharpe is capable of and which sets him apart from many "heroes". Anyway, I'd recommend this book to anyone who enjoys adventures and hard bitten heroes!