h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

SHARPE'S TIGER. Richard Sharpe and the siege of Seringapatam (1799)Where we meet a young, cocky and bored Richard Sharpe for the first time. Sharpe is a private in the 33rd, thinking of deserting the army if Sgt. Hakeswill doesn't manage to kill him first.

The story opens with Hakeswill desperately trying to set Sharpe up with a charge, but failing because of Sharpe's friend Tom Garrard and his supporters among the officers, Lt. Lawson and Ensign Fitzgerald. It is because Lawford looks out for Sharpe that Hakeswill implies that they are 'special friends'1. This is when Sharpe makes the mistake of hitting Hakeswill: sentenced to 1,000 lashes for his crime Sharpe looks set to die. Meanwhile Lt Lawford is refusing to go on a secret mission to spy out the Tippoo Sultan's lands without Sharpe so he is spared after 'only' 202 lashes. This is a sensible move on Lawford's part because the street smart Sharpe manages to keep them alive as the mission stumbles from one disaster to the next as Sharpe and Lawford are caught, tortured, freed, betrayed and captured again. It is while in the Tippoo's dungeon Sharpe meets the irascible old Scot Colonel McCandless and he and Lawford teach Sharpe to read opening the way to promotion for him.

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Sharpe's Tiger: Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Seringapatam, 1799 (1997)
Sharpe still only a private face the Tippoo and the Tippoo's professional strongmen, who had interesting ways of putting prisoners to death, using nothing more than a nail, in India. Sharpe meets Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill who will continue to harass Sharpe all through the later India Campaign novels. This is the first book in the Sharpe stories from the character’s point of view.

It's been a couple of years since I read the book, so my (very bad) memory is hazy, but weren't there tigers in Sharpe's Tiger, and didn't he kill a tiger and two strongmen when he escaped.

Emmily

The Tippoo Sultan had "pet" tigers. Sharpe, Lawford, Major McC and Hawkswill are thrown in the dungeon (the first three in one "cell" Hawkswill on his own) with a Tiger to guard them at night.

Sharpe kills the tiger by shooting it almost at point blank (or did he stab it, I can't quite remember) - but in any case, he was very close, and Hawkeswill was peeing his pants.

This is when McC taught Sharpe to read & write using the bible.

When they escape, Sharpe leaves Hawkeswill in with the tiger in the hope it will kill him. He also kills some of the jettis.

Ok, Sho, long time since I read that one. I'll update the Entry soon.

Emmily