The Tiger of Mysore. By G. A. Henty. (Blackie and
Son.)— This is a very vigorous picture, which Mr. Henty has drawn for his young readers, of the wars between the East India Company and Tippoo, the Tiger. Dick Holland, the hero, is the son of a sea- captain and a half-caste,—the daughter of an English mother and a Rajah. He goes with his mother to India to seek for traces of Captain Holland, whose ship was wrecked, and whom Tippoo has taken into the interior. Dick and his young friend and servant, Surajah, start from Tripataly, his uncle's principality, and go through various adventures, scouting for the Madras troops, and then, later, penetrating to Seringapatam in disguise. There they save the harem from a tiger, and rise in Tippoo's favour, and inspect his frontier for him, finally running away with a cap- tured English girl. These and more adventures at last reward the two boys with the object of their search, and they return triumphantly to Tripataly. The description of the campaigns against Tippoo, and the prolonged incapacity of the Generals, pre- vious to Sir Eyre-Coote and Cornwallis, are, of course, capital read- ing, and really invaluable to boys. If the adventures of the boys are sometimes too detailed and wordy to have the requisite dash, the air of verisimilitude in their life and wanderings in disguise, coupled with the fascination of Mr. Henty's historical accuracy and grasp of campaigning and all its circumstances, make The Tiger of Mysore an admirable specimen of this kind of historical fiction.
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