Richard Sharpe is a private in the British Army in India in the 1790′s. He is surrounded by incompetent upper class officers and sadistic sergeants, whipped nearly to death for a crime he didn’t commit, ordered to pretend to desert and join the even-more-sadistic enemy in order to rescue a Scottish Colonel, and left to solve the situation on his own. And he does, in typical Sharpe fashion.

Sharpe’s Tiger
by Bernard Cornwell
©1997 Bernard Cornwell
ISBN 0006490352
Hardcover
Reading Level: Adult

Positive Elements
Sharpe is capable, honourable, dedicated and hardworking. He reminds me of a slightly more scoundrelous (is that a word?) Han Solo. The book is so engaging, I didn’t want to put it down. The action and tension just never stops. A very enjoyable book from that point of view. The battles described are also historically accurate. Sharpe’s character and a few minor plot twists are fictional, but the majority of the characters and events are based on history. The details of weapons and dress and behaviour are all historically accurate.
Negative Elements
This book is violent in the extreme. There are graphic descriptions of men being killed by musket balls, cannonballs, swords, having heads crushed, being executed in many graphic and disturbing ways (I can’t stress that enough) by the Tipoo’s strongman boyguards, and being mauled and eaten by the Tipoo’s tigers. Cornwell doesn’t revel in the gore, but is rather matter of fact about how people die in the “wear bright red, stand in a straight line and shoot at each other with horrendous weapons” type of warfare. Sharpe is rather blasé about the theft and deception required to survive in the conditions the Army provides. The soldiers drink and swear (mildly). Army chaplains are all drunkards and fools, which matches the lack of respect for Christianity that Cornwall shows in his books. Sharpe is hunted by his maniacal Sergeant (who is convinced that God has ordained that he can not die) who constantly uses the phrase “It says so in the scriptures…” to justify everything from whipping soldiers to killing senior officers. Sharpe plans to marry his dead sergeant’s wife, and falls in love with her, but leaves her easily and moves on when she falls in love with another man.
Our Take
Our family are members of the Manitoba Living History Society. My boys are fascinated by the military aspects of this period (circa 1800), so I have been looking to find a good novel to read to them in this era. There is a BBC television series of this set of books, so I thought it might be fun to read one and then watch the TV show. That is NOT going to happen. Reading the paragraphs above, there is no way I should have enjoyed this book. However, the violence and behaviour is so fully in context that it’s not as offensive as it sounds. The reaction I had was more horror that conditions were so bad as to force or condone this behaviour. I would ABSOLUTELY NOT READ THIS TO MY FAMILY. I have, however, already read the next novel in the series, and it was just as riveting. I will likely move through the series (they are reasonably quick reads).
Rating
Borrow it or leave it, depending on your stomach.
Learning Opportunities
This could be an interesting way to talk about the horrors of war, or the sugar coating of history. You’ve never seen Napoleonic era war presented this way in a textbook. The discussion of the conditions the soldiers lived in, the effect of a military where the officers purchase their ranks rather than earning them, the methods of the British in India, all could be well advanced by this book.
About the Author
Bernard Cornwell OBE (born February 23, 1944) is a prolific and popular British historical novelist. There are 24 installments in the Sharpe series so far. His other series involve the American Civil War, Arthurian Britain and the 14th century search for the Holy Grail.
Where you Can Buy It:
Amazon

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