Tiger of Mysore

Fifteen-year-old Dick Holland has never known his father. Shipwrecked off the coast of India six years ago, the elder Holland was dragged away by the notorious Tippoo Sultan, the ruler known across the continent as the Tiger of Mysore. Now Dick and his mother sail from England into the heart of a war-torn subcontinent, driven by a desperate hope: that somewhere in Tippoo's palace dungeons, a man still lives. What follows is a boy's ruthless education in the brutal mathematics of 18th-century empire: court intrigue, battlefield valor, and the terrible costs paid by those caught between colonial powers and indigenous kingdoms. Dick must become a spy, a soldier, and ultimately something far more dangerous than either: a son who refuses to let go. Henty constructs adventure with Victorian precision, layering the rush of narrow escapes against the uncomfortable realities of British imperialism and the remarkable military genius of Tippoo Sultan. The novel endures not as propaganda but as a fascinating artifact of empire, asking what loyalty means when your country and your father are both prisoners of war.