Krishna
We have reviewed many series of Bernard Cornwell : The Warlord Chronicles starting with The Winter King, the Saxon Stories starting with The Last Kingdom and the Grail Chronicles starting with Harlequin.
Sharpe’s saga starts with the British siege to Mysore, in India. He is a soldier in the British army. He is secretly planning to desert, not least because the corporal Hakeswill is a bully and a terror. But the Colonel Lawrence seems to like him well enough. We learn Hakeswill deliberately baited him because he was upset that Mary Bickenstaff was favouring him, a lowly soldier instead of being ‘taken by the strongest officer’ by which he meant Hakeswill himself.
Hakeswill and his commander Morris are in collusion and try to frame Sharpe by substituting his flint with a rock and trying to ‘catch him’ at an inspection – this will get flogging in those squalid conditions, Sharpe will die of the wound turning septic. But Sharpe outwits them with a borrowed flint.
They then plan to get rid of Sharpe but are afraid of Lawrence. Colonel Hector McCandless goes to the temple to admire the stonework but his Calvinist background makes him see the idols as repulsive – the artwork as fabulous. General Appah Rao is a spy for the British, though he is in Tippoo’s army. McCandless gets captured on his way back by Tippoo’s army but not before a Havildar escapes carrying the message and the rest of his crew were slaughtered.
Finally Hakeswill and Morris goad Sharpe into attacking Hakeswill and immediately arrest him for court martial for attacking a senior officer in the army. The idea is to remove Sharpe’s protection of Mary so she can be subdued and sold into prostitution.
Sharpe is taken to the arena, tied up and they all get ready to flog him. Two thousand floggings is the punishment, which is surely going to kill him and even Sharpe realizes this.
When Lawson is asked to rescue McCandless and learn his secret, he decides to go as a deserter, with Sharpe as companion (he is impressed with Sharpe) and get into Tippoo’s army. They then plan to reach Ravi Shekar who is a spy and learn the secret of McCandless and rescue him. Pie in the sky? Yes.
Ravi in the meanwhile has been betrayed by a soldier (who was in his pay) when the latter was caught and tortured and the Hindu jetti’s who are bodybuilder vegetarians kill them gruesomely in front of Tippoo. (One by driving a nail into his brain with bare hands and the other by simply crushing the skull – this fate for Ravi).
Before I go on, some narrative points. Though I understand Tippu Sultan being spelt Tippoo (by British custom) and Srirangapatna being named Seringapatam, I did not understand who the ‘Jettis’ are. Is the author referring to Shettys who are prominent in the Mysore region (Karnataka of today)? Maybe. Also, in the Historical Notes, he comes close to spelling the city’s name correctly.
However, these are minor quibbles. The authenticity of the rest is amazing. The origins of Hyder Ali, Tippoo’s father;, the Hindus who are rules who secretly wish Wodeyar, the erstwhile dynasty who is in ‘protective custody’ of Tippoo to be restored to the throne – not to mention the spelling of Hindu itself – and the location of the capital of Tippoo and his tiger symbols everywhere – they are all authentic.
Sharpe manages to take Mary with him and they get captured by Tippoo’s men and there are amazing scenes where Sharpe (Dick as opposed to Bill for Lawson in their disguise) escapes death narrowly many times.
Tippoo asks Sharpe to kill McCandless as a test of loyalty and Sharpe outfoxes him by actually pulling the trigger (the gun was a dud) and also getting the secret from McCandless stealthily. (Do not attack from the West, it is a trap).
Brilliant scenes where Hakeswill and Morris, disturbed at learning that Sharpe may return spread false instructions (in defiance of their superiors) to kill Sharpe on sight in the battle or afterwards.
Also great pieces where they are asked to fire at two soldiers and Sharpe misses and Dick kills one. Using a ‘new’ contraption called the rifle.
When Sharpe tries to escape and join the enemy, Hakeswill stops him but is captured with some of his soldiers. General Gudin is thrilled with the ‘bravery’ of Sharpe and gives him the tiger medal of honour from Tippoo’s hand itself. When the Britishers capture a defensive position with seeming ease, Tippoo offers sacrifices of the soldiers captured to propitiate the powers that be and the last one, Hakeswill, betrays both Lawrence and Sharpe to save his neck. Sharpe hears of it from Gudin, who confronted him. They confess to who they truly are.
They are arrested and they reveal part of the plan (‘I was asked to give Ravi Shekar the message that the west wall is a trap’) and get thrown in the dungeons instead of being killed – but not before Sharpe is tortured to get the information out.
They are thrown in the same cell as McCandless but next to Hakeswill, who swears his innocence.
Mary is now rechristened Aruna and has changed sides, and plans to marry Kunwar Singh, a soldier in love with her. Appah Rao learns of the capture of the two Englishmen and the message and is afraid that Tippoo will know his complicity in the matter. He gently interrogates Aruna and then hands her a pistol ‘to use if Tippoo sends for her’
Sharpe starts learning letters from McCandless in prison, much to the disgust of Hakeswill.
Tigers are everywhere in this book but the one that’s named in the title is the one that guards the prisoners at night in the prison cell.
Towards the end, the story takes on the superhuman aspect of the central character of the other series like Uhtred of the Anglo Saxan Chronicles. For all that, Sharpe’s exploits in escaping from the prison is thrilling. He also rescues McCandless and tries to take revenge for Hakeswill’s evil deeds in a unique way.
The trap set for the British and how Sharpe foils them would have made enough for the story to conclude but Sharpe goes on and also completes a critical task for the victory at the end.
Nicely done. Gripping in the Cornwell style you have come to love and know.
8/10
– – Krishna