Meet the Tiger
| Industry | Publishing |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | United Kingdom |
Meet the Tiger is an action-adventure novel authored by Leslie Charteris, initially released in the United Kingdom by Ward Lock in September 1928. It appeared in the United States through Doubleday's The Crime Club imprint in March 1929 under the title Meet – the Tiger!. This book marked the beginning of the extensive Simon Templar series, known as "The Saint," which continued well into the 1980s. Over time, the novel was republished under several alternative titles, such as the unofficial Crooked Gold, which did not attribute Charteris, and the more recognized The Saint Meets the Tiger. In 1940, Sun Dial Press issued it as Meet – the Tiger! The Saint in Danger.
The story introduces Simon Templar, a 27-year-old affluent adventurer who lives with his valet Orace. Their home is a former Ministry of Defence pillbox located in Baycombe, a quiet seaside town in North Devon. Templar’s mission is to stop "The Tiger," an enigmatic antagonist involved in smuggling stolen gold. His goal includes settling a personal vendetta against The Tiger and retrieving the gold to claim a reward.
Departing from conventional mystery formats, Meet the Tiger functions as a "whoisit," keeping The Tiger’s true identity hidden until later in the narrative. This approach maintains suspense for both Templar and readers as they consider various suspects among Baycombe’s inhabitants.
During this case, Templar encounters Patricia Holm, who becomes his romantic partner and shares his daring nature. Holm takes on a pivotal role when she believes Templar has died and continues his efforts against The Tiger. She remained a recurring character for about twenty years, although never with equal prominence again. Orace also continued to serve as Templar’s loyal manservant and housekeeper in subsequent stories. In 1934’s The Misfortunes of Mr. Teal, Charteris introduced Hoppy Uniatz, an American gangster ally from Templar’s New York adventures.
Detective Carn appears disguised as a professor in Baycombe while pursuing The Tiger and his group known as the "Tiger Cubs." He forms an uneasy partnership with Templar during this pursuit. Carn acted as a forerunner to Inspector Claud Eustace Teal, who first appeared in Charteris’ 1929 non-Saint novel Daredevil and became a recurring character throughout later Saint tales.
Upon its release, Meet the Tiger achieved commercial success and encouraged Charteris to expand Simon Templar’s story into a series. By 1930, he published three novella-length adventures compiled as Enter the Saint, followed by the novel The Last Hero. Over a span of more than thirty years, Charteris authored over one hundred stories featuring The Saint across novels, novellas, and short stories. The character also starred in radio dramas during the 1940s and 1950s, Hollywood films from the 1930s through the 1950s, and notably in a 1960s television program starring Roger Moore.
In his 1980 introduction to Charter Books’ reissue of Meet the Tiger, Charteris described it as an early effort by an author younger than twenty-one and expressed surprise at its initial publication. He later considered Enter the Saint to be the first official Simon Templar book, effectively relegating Meet the Tiger. Nevertheless, he recognized its importance for launching his enduring series and referenced its events in subsequent works such as the prologue to The Saint in New York.
Film adaptation
In 1943, the novel Meet the Tiger was transformed into the motion picture The Saint Meets the Tiger. Although the film introduces some modifications—such as substituting Carn with Inspector Teal, who is Templar's usual police opponent—the fundamental storyline is preserved.
Hugh Sinclair took on the role of Templar, accompanied by Jean Gillie portraying Patricia Holm, Wylie Watson as Horace (a character renamed from Orace), and Clifford Evans playing the Tiger. This production is unique in that it is the sole cinematic version to include Holm, a character who held a significant presence in the original novels before being gradually removed in the late 1940s; subsequent adaptations opted to replace her with different female figures. Additionally, Holm was depicted in an unaired 2013 pilot for a Saint television series, which was later made available on DVD in 2017.
External links
- Review of Meet the Tiger (notes publishing date error and misspelling)