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Cover of Sharpe's Tiger by Bernard Cornwell

Sharpe's Tiger

  • 384 pages · about 6 hours
  • First published 1997
  • 34 editions

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1 About this book

In a battery of events that will make a hero out of an illiterate private, a young Richard Sharpe poses as the enemy to bring down a ruthless Indian dictator backed by fearsome French troops. The year is 1799, and Richard Sharpe is just beginning his military career.

An inexperienced young private in His Majesty's service, Sharpe becomes part of an expedition to India to push the ruthless Tippoo of Mysore from his throne and drive out his French allies. To penetrate the Tippoo's city and make contact with a Scottish spy being held prisoner there, Sharpe has to pose as a deserter.

Success will make him a sergeant, but failure will turn him over to the Tippoo's brutal executioners — or, worse — his man-eating tigers. Picking his way through an exotic and alien world. Sharpe realizes that one slip will mean disaster.

  • Military History
  • Historical fiction
  • Alternative history
  • India
  • Soldiers
  • War & military
  • Sagas

2 About Bernard Cornwell

Born 1944

Bernard Cornwell (born 23 February 1944) is an English author of historical novels and a history of the Waterloo campaign. He is best known for his long-running series of novels about Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe. He has also written The Saxon Stories, a series of thirteen novels about the unification of England.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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