Customer Reviews:
Raj Quartet.......2007-04-15
Paul Scott's following is small, but Loyal. He is a fantastic writer. The Raj Quartet by far, is my favourite favourite series of books by him because of its complexity and such extraordinary characters. His charactres are so indepth, so well played out that the reader feels that he or she knows them thouroughly. Its a historical epic, very well written, and its absolutely a must read.
Masterpiece Literature.......2006-12-01
About 25 years ago I got a list of the best 100 books of all time, and found "The Raj Quartet" by Paul Scott listed. I started at the beginning with "The Jewel in the Crown" and got bogged down. Coincidentally, PBS started its Masterpiece Theatre version. I watched a few of the episodes (actually all of them, eventually) and got back to reading. What I discovered was the best set of novels I've ever read, and each one an individual "jewel" as well. A pebble thrown, the towers of silence, and many other images stay with me, as well as the memory of Scott's beautiful writing and well-developed, complex characters, and the scope and importance of the story. If there wasn't so much else to read, I'd reread the whole set--sounds like a good retirement project some day.
An unquestionable masterpiece........2006-02-19
It has been too long since I read this book [probably 15 years ago] for me to offer an erudite and detailed analysis. But I do remember vividly that when I read it that the word "masterpiece" came repeatedly to my mind. In a league with Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" and Naipaul's "A House for Mr. Biswas". Find the time to read it; you won't regret it.
The Art of the Novel.......2003-01-16
The Raj Quartet (comprised of four novels) is in my ultimate top ten of great novels and my favourite work of fiction for the twentieth century. Paul Scott is up there up with Tolstoy and Jane Austen. The Raj Quartet is exquisite to read, every word and every sentence appears to have the perfection that Jane Austen bestowed on her works but on the majestic scale of Tolstoy's War and Peace.
The Raj Quartet is multi-layered, complex, beyond the apparent. Is it about a country? Or is it about two countries? Paul Scott deals with the years of the "great divorce" as it were, but now at the beginning of a new century the continuing implications of the historic British occupation are as fresh as ever, both in India and the UK, one example being the the unforseen post war immigration and lifting of racial barriers between two peoples (I myself am a product of a post war marriage between an Indian father and British mother).
The question of identity is explored. What makes an Indian? (still a relevant question in a subcontinent of such diverse cultures, religions, languages, outlooks, etc). What happens to a group (the Raj British) who are no longer needed in either India or Britain? (I recommend Staying On by Paul Scott which deals with a minor character who does stay on in India.)
Beyond the themes of history, colonialism and imperialism, there is the theme of the universal human experience. Who are we all really? Should we let our nationality and culture define who we are? Or as one character, Sarah Layton, finally have the courage to break free and define our own identity. Sarah at first is apart from "the other", then in one revealing scene (the ride with Ahmed) she subconsciously turns to face "the other" though unsuccessfully and finally in the beautifully written and incredibly sensual scene where she decides to dive into the forbidden (the seduction by Clark, who I see myself as Eros or the Hindu God of Love, Kama) she breaks through into her individuality, her "grace".
a millennial work.......2002-08-17
An outstanding piece of writing and a masterpiece, the Quartet compresses in four novels the essence of individual lives caught in the matrix of history. What is karma and dharma? The novels examine these as best Scott can in trying to articulate his artistic vision of the tragedy of history and of individual lives. History is impersonal and is from a God's-eye view, our own lives are subjective and given differing perspectives and are all that we have to imperfectly cling to. In that personal vantage point is salvation and hell all in one. Check out Scott's "Staying On" as well which is his farewell to the Indian scene and the characters we've come to know. A sliding farewell into oblivion, just as Scott himself fell into his twilight years.
Average customer rating:
- If you love India, you will love this book
- Thoroughly enjoyed
- Read well while travelling in INdia
- The Best Novel I ever read by an Indian...
- Love in the time of Colonial Rule
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Raj: A Novel
Gita Mehta
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0671432486 |
Book Description
NOVEL SET IN INDIAN STATE, ON CULTURE AND NATIONALISM, INDEPENDENCE.
Customer Reviews:
If you love India, you will love this book.......2006-07-26
I have been fortunate enough to travel in India. This book really describes the customes of such fascinating country within a period in which India looks forward to reach its independence. If you have been in India this book will bring to your mind aspects of such country and people that you probably have forgotten and it is deligthfull to remember!!. On the other hand, if you have not been in India, this book will transport you to the exotic places, foods, palaces, customes, saris, women, climate and even the wonderful spice and incence sticks aromas and exotic food flavours that you may experience while visiting such country. If India is indeed an exotic country, this book is exotic enough to make you wish been there.
Thoroughly enjoyed.......2006-03-06
A very enjoyable and enlightening read. A historical novel with a wealth of detail, capturing the flavour of life during a pivotal time in India's history. Key moments are woven into the story, with careful attention given to the impact on the people and the feelings each event generated. This novel stays well away from the common pitfall of historical novels, that of applying modern morals and ethics to history, this story has an authentic ring throughout. A wonderful introduction to the impact of the British rule and Independence on the Indian life at all levels. It is a novel, not a detailed historical treatise, but it does an excellent job of highlighting areas that might be interesting for further research.
Read well while travelling in INdia.......2006-02-24
I read this while traveling in India. Being in the country truly brought the book alive as I felt it helped me to not only understand what I was seeing in this vast country of such an extraordinary culture but to "feel" as if I was transported to that time.
The Best Novel I ever read by an Indian..........2005-09-13
Raj is simply the best novel I have ever read by an Indian writer. Gita is very successful in portraying her intellectual, historical, emotional and fansitical abilities. I love Gita for this novel.
Love in the time of Colonial Rule.......2005-04-05
An immature attempt at weaving a historical saga with the backdrop of british rule and the indian royal families. The prose is very average , at times worse than the average romance paperbacks. Jaya Devi the heroine is completely uni dimensional, who suffers, sacrifices and succeeds. This book is clearly targetted at the western readers, its descriptions of the zenana, indian customs reminds one of the "cultural inculcation" provided by 5 star hotels in India to the western tourists. Clearly a let down from the author of Karma Cola
Book Description
In a rousing follow-up to the critically acclaimed
A Close Run Thing, Captain Matthew Hervey makes the hazardous sea voyage to India for what the Duke of Wellington has called “deuced tricky work.”
As Wellington’s new aide-de-camp, Matthew’s covert mission will embroil him in the jostling of native potentates and England’s encroaching East India Company — both threatened by lawless bands of horsemen bent on plunder and massacre.
When Matthew’s journeying leads him to the small key state of Chintal, he thinks himself close to his objective. But at the rajah’s sumptuous court, he discovers that war in India is waged as often with money and spies as with the clear-cut tactics of the battlefield — with battles won through devious conversations and murderous perfidy. And Matthew, torn between his honor and his destiny, is drawn deeper into the court’s serpentine coils than he ever dreamed....
Customer Reviews:
A good read.......2004-03-13
I don't understand some of the poor ratings. This is an entertaining piece of historical military fiction, with good characterization and lots of interesting detail. It is clearly going to be continued; so much for the concern about leaving the fiancee on the dock.
Facts and fiction.......2003-01-06
I was impressed with the Mallinson's bibliography , it provides excellent material for exploration. There is one major gaffe, the Indian Mutiny did not start in 1856, but in the following year 1857, at Meerut on a Sunday, May 10th.
My other problem with this book was that the hero was always triumphant with whatever he undertook, which was not very realistic for India, and what happened to his poor fiancee? Is she still on the pier in France?
Hervey in India.......2002-08-09
I found this book a bit less interesting than the first in the series. Perhaps the pace was a lot slower. Hervey is now off to India where he finds much adventure, an a lot of Byzantine politics. The political world of India in the early 19th century is well portrayed. One can see where the Empire played such a vital role in protecting the country from brigends. The story developes slowly in this volume, as Malinson writes more in the style of Patrick O'Brien. Here we get lots of tips on how to maintain cavalry horses and the like. Perhaps a bit tedious at times, but character building nonetheless.
The action is smaller scaled here, no more big slug-fests like Waterloo. In India Hervey finds the seductiveness of the landscape intoxicating at times. He learns to think on his feet and becomes adept at masterering the "petit guerre" of warfare in the East. This series shows promise, even if Hervey is no Sharpe, and Malinson no Cornwell.
A long slog.......2002-04-20
I finished this book but it was a trial. Mallinson is no O'Brian, that's for sure. Rather improbable plot with very little action that engage the characters.
Smooth writing, great setting, improbable plot.......2001-11-20
Mallinson's writing has improved since his first novel, A Close Run Thing. Honorable Company is written much more smoothly and with better descriptive detail. It continues the story of Hervey, now post-Waterloo, who is sent to India to complete certain rather sensitive tasks for the Duke of Wellington.
I found the setting here well described and rich, though I cannot speak to its accuracy. The fly in the ghee is the plot. Essentially, it's a series of spikes. Everything's going along well, and then some random event -- a French prisoners' revolt, a fire onboard a ship -- calls on Hervey to behave heroically. Even the later events, which are better tied in with an overall plot arc, have this "problem suddenly arises; Hervey solves problem; problem goes away" quality. There is the promise of subtlety and undercover activities here, but Mallison doesn't really exploit it.
Overall, characters are well done, with Locke being appealing and Johnson continuing to be vividly drawn. Hervey's sudden loyalty to the Chintal rajah doesn't seem sufficently supported in characterization or plot, and it's annoying that he succeeds in every single thing he does; perhaps in the third volume he'll face more meaningful challenges.
Book Description
Their names are legend: Snake Eyes. Kamakura. The Silent Ninja Master and his Apprentice, both valued members of the G.I. Joe team. But it wasn't always that way... Only a few years ago, the G.I. Joe team had been disbanded, leaving Snake-Eyes with a chance to find peace with his fiancee, Scarlett. Sean Collins was a bright young career soldier, chosen to serve in an elite unit called Hammer Team. But a bitter twist of fate would bring them together. In one terrible night, both men see all they hold dear shattered at the hands of the terrorist known as Firefly. Neither sees any hope for the future - until Sean seeks the discipline of Ninja teachings. Bound by fate, the two men embark on a quest for justice as Master & Apprentice.
Customer Reviews:
THE MASTER TAKES AN APPRENTICE...TWICE!.......2005-06-10
This trade paperback takes place in the time that the G.I. Joe team had been disbanded and Snake Eyes was living a quiet life with Scarlett and the two are soon to be wed. Snake Eyes has taken on an apprentice, who will be the last pupil to be trained in the Arashikage clan. Ophelia is a young woman and quite capable and after going through her training with T'jbang and Nunchuck, she is ready to undergo her final trial with Snake Eyes.
Meanwhile, Sean Collins, the Son of Wade Collins, a former...and reformed...member of Cobra's Crimson Guard has joined an elite special-ops unit called the Hammer Team. They are given the assignment of capturing the former Cobra Terrorist and mercenary code named Firefly, who is recruiting operatives for a mysterious third party. The Hammer Team sets the trap for Firefly and are joined by Snake Eyes and Ophelia. But the operation is botched badly and Firelfy kills Ophelia and escapes.
Both Collins and Snake Eyes are guilt-ridden, blaming themselves for the tragedy. Snake Eyes calls off his wedding to Scarlett and escapes to his retreat in the wilderness. Collins soon shows up and offers to become Snake Eyes' newest apprentice. Collins takes on the name of Kamakura and learns the way of the Arashikage Ninja. Eventually Firefly is tracked to Tokyo as Snake Eyes, Kamakura, and Other Joe members again go after the Merc only this time another surprise awaits Snake Eyes...a foe from his past!
One of the great things that Devil's Due has done since taking over the G.I. Joe comic license is to personalize the various characters and give them some depth that they never had under Marvel's guidance. Previously they were one-dimensional characters distinguished mainly by their code names but writer Brandon Jerwa has fleshed out these characters, and made them real by giving them a human side. The silent Snake Eyes can speak volumes with his eyes and expressions and there is true heartbreak when he cancels his wedding to Scarlett. The Sean Collins character is an interesting one as he is seeking double redemption for the death of Ophelia as well as for his father's past with Cobra. He literally gives himself to Snake Eyes in a move of ultimate honor.
"Master and Apprentice" is well paced and balances action and drama as well as any Joe tale I've ever read. The art by Sunder Raj and Stefano Castelli is darker and grittier than many other Joe tales and complements the story perfectly. The book also features bio pages on the major players in this story which serve to give it even more depth. This is one of Devil's Due's best G.I. Joe stories yet.
Reviewed by Tim Janson
Book Description
The beginning of a new era for America's finest is collected in one volume! The sky burns, cities fall, and terror reigns. In the midst of this chaos, the best of the best in America's armed forces step forward to protect the innocent and destroy the ruthless! A bold new direction of action, drama and intrigue.
Customer Reviews:
ISBN Mix-up.......2006-05-25
Devil's Due Publishing has misprinted the ISBN-10 for this book in the barcode of the Snake-Eyes: Declassified trade paperbacks (great quality control, guys). Therefore, Amazon may ship Snake-Eyes Declassified in place of this book. I sent back 2 copies and, finally, realizing there was a bigger problem to sort out, Amazon refunded my money.
Amazon.com
The Blue Bedspread has earned Raj Kamal Jha endless comparisons to Raymond Carver. And his first novel does tell a Carver-esque tale, in which poverty-stricken family members love and torment one another in the privacy of their home. Father drinks; mother is an absence; sister and brother find solace in each other. In addition, his voice is that unsettling combination--affectless and passionate--that characterizes the best of Carver's writing. These are writers who state plainly the difficult things people do to one another.
But while Carver gave us the dead reaches of the American West, Jha's novel is set in Calcutta. And it's thrilling to read about India in this new voice that is cool, concise, and beautifully observed, as opposed to the florid, expressive writing that has come to typify this nation. Jha has chosen a neat narrative device for his tale. An unnamed man receives a call in the night. His beloved but estranged sister has died in childbirth. The baby's adoptive parents are due the next day to take the infant away. All night long, this lonely man stays up writing the history of his family, the history of the dead baby's mother.
The revelations--abuse, incest--would be shocking if they weren't written with such careful tenderness. The man writes about how his sister finally left their childhood home: "In a way, it was essential that one of us should leave never to return. It saved both of us the discomfort and the pain of sitting together as adults and talking about everything except those nights on the blue bedspread, that July night on the blue bedspread, moments that were key to our survival and yet better left untouched and unsaid." Jha even throws in a little redemption for these sad characters, and we're all grateful for the relief. --Claire Dederer
Book Description
In the middle of a steamy Calcutta night the phone rings. An unnamed man in a city of millions answers to a voice telling him that his long-lost sister is dead. He must go to the hospital to identify the body and claim his sister's orphaned newborn daughter until she can be adopted the next day.
During the long hot night, the baby sleeps on a bedspread that used to be indigo blue, but has faded to almost white. As the child lies where the man and his sister used to sleep as children, he quietly writes stories for her, telling of his own childhood full of intensity, anguish, and poetry. He doesn't know his place in the world, but with the help of these stories, the baby someday might.
Raj Kamal Jha's ethereal, poetic prose echoes the loneliness of the human condition.
Customer Reviews:
Met This Amazing Author.......2006-10-17
I was so moved by this novel that I decided to meet Raj Kamal Jha in Delhi, India myself. The novel is beautifully but intentionally crafted and is challenging not through the overuse of fancy language or complex themes, but through its use of deep symbolism and emotional intensity. You can see this story occurring in any country and at any period of time. Mr. Jha was a very generous and kind person when I met him: quiet in manner but passionate and full of loving kindness. I was truly lucky to have had the opportunity to discuss his work. [...]. I highly recommend this book!
Odd goings on in Bengal.......2006-09-19
In Calcutta, a man's sister dies leaving her baby (via the police) in the care of her brother. This unexpected turn of events causes the brother to explain the family's past and his own life history to the baby.
This is a distinctly odd little novel, written in epic-like prose which seemed to me to be oddly out of sympathy with the rather gloomy and grim family history. There are frequent digressions and it's very much a stop-start kind of affair. You don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to guess the ending from quite a long way out.
A very curious effort.
G Rodgers
Bizarre Tale.......2004-12-08
This story definitely qualifies for the term "bizarre tale". From beginning to end; it's unique & mysterious. These qualities keep you reading up until the most suspenseful page of all- the last. However, the last page leaves something to be desired.
At times this tale that is woven for a baby of a sister, is hard to grasp. Other times things seem to come into focus. Through out all of the stories of sisters, brothers, mothers & fathers, the ending is looming and is what the reader anxiously awaits- in order to get some clarification on events. Unfortunately, I felt that clarification never did come.
I enjoyed the book, but was extremely dissapointed with the ending. I felt like I was left hanging, waiting for answers that never came. I don't think I would recommend this book to anyone. The only reason I gave it three stars was because I did enjoy the stories so much and the suspense. But overall whatever the author was trying to pull off did not work for this reader.
haunting, depressing yet magical.......2003-04-20
true - this book is not for everyone. the content clearly is shocking, outrageous and depressing, yet somehow quaintly uplifting - atleast i found it to be so.
i have to admit that i have been a huge fan of raj kamal jha from my school days when i used to eagerly await his sunday column that would appear every second week. i would get up gleefully every sunday morning looking forward to jha's beuatifully written columns. while clearly the blue bedspread does not have the same kind of vivid magic about them, the stunning control over a twisted narrative speaks volumes for his talent.
the blue bedspread is a touching tale about how sometimes the unthinkable happens to be the solution and the solution is clearly unspeakable. as enormously satisfying as the solution can be, it brings about dark tidings, the guilt associated with which is purged by the recounting of the blue bedspread tales to the day old baby by our protagonist, whose name does not matter in a city of twelve million, whose looks does not matter except that the stomach droops over the belt of his trousers.
depressing, disgusting and yet delightful. raj kamal jha is a true magician with words and images.
A sad and disturbing little book..........2002-02-05
Having read "The God of Small Things", "A Fine Balance", and "Interpreter of Maladies", I felt the urge to continue on the road to better understanding the genre of Indian authors. This small novel is both disturbing and sad, but is also written in a beautiful manner - almost compelling the reader to continue even though the air of pending shock hovers between the lines.
One evening, a middle-aged man gets a phone call from a hospital saying that his sister has dies in childbirth, the child had been arranged for adoption but the adoptive family cannot take the child (a baby girl) until the following day. The man agrees to take the child for the night and during the course of the night (sleepless for the man) he proceeds to write non-stop to the child, weaving the stories of the family from whom she comes. As she sleeps and occasionally wakes and cries - lying on a blue bedspread, the stories he scribbles out furiously fall into patterns by person: mother, father, sister, and brother. And they are not particularly lovely tales - in fact, they are full of the painful things that families sometimes do to one another under the guise of "love".
It can be tiring, sometimes, to read book after book in which families and supposed loved ones abuse others, usually the women, of the household. Although I realize that this is the way of the world - there is a certain exhaustion that comes from reading book in which you spend emotional time wishing that people wouldn't be so damn mean to other people - including their own children. Unlike some other reviewers, I did not find much redemption in the characters, only pain, and a good deal of sadness.
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant finish to a well-crafted series.......2004-06-16
The Raj Quartet comes to its spectacular conclusion with "A Division of the Spoils." Of the four books, I perhaps enjoyed this one the most. The main character (Guy Perron) is observant, funny, and human, so he's easy to like. He is a complete opposite of the story's antagonist, Ronald Merrick. The scenes in which they must work together (Perron is a sergeant and Merrick his officer) are some of the best. I could hardly put this book down and finished it in just a few days.
Please do not let the length of this series dissuade you from reading it! The books are all very compelling and well-written. If you like historical fiction, they are very much worth your time. I would recommend you watch the mini-series (I rented it from Netflix), read the 4 books, and then watch the mini again. You'll get quite a bit out of it that way.
Enjoy!
Last book in series the best.......2003-10-01
Anyone reading the reviews for the previous 3 books, knows I have struggled to read these series. However, Scott absolutely redeemed himself with this final book.
The first book focused on the British occupation of India during WWII and introduced us to the "Manners" case - the only interesting bit in a book that had long waffly passages describing India. Who needs to read a history book? This book would have done it... The 2nd book focused more on the "Layton's" and was much more readable as it was the changing India as seen through the eyes of a few key characters. The 3rd book was a boring repetition of the 2nd book and this last book, about the end of the British occupation and WWII was just brilliant!
Like his much more enjoyable 2nd book, this one is told almost exclusively through the eyes of key characters we met in previous books - and it introduces us to the rakish charm of Guy Perron. I always remember Charles Dance's interpretation of Guy Perron in the BBC series making a strong impression on me, but I found the character in the book even more engaging.
This last book in the series was absolutely stunning and made persevering through the whole series somewhat worth it. I say somewhat, because it has been a real trial getting through the denser parts of Books I and III and I wouldn't push this series on anyone, even though the last book is a literary accomplishment.
I try to think if this book is readable without having read the previous books, and although I suspect it is (Scott continues to go back over vast chunks of history from someone else's point of view), it would be a shallow interpretation without the reader gaining all the knowledge from the first 3 books.
An excellent end.......2003-03-11
"A Division of the Spoils" is the fourth and final part of Paul Scott's "Raj Quartet". World War Two is drawing to a close, as is the British Raj. However, Ronald Merrick's career is still on the rise much to the irritation of most of those who come into contact with him: Merrick's involvement in the events following the incident in the Bibighar gardens in 1942 hover around him like a persistent ghost.
Scott brings the events of the three previous novels to their resolution, and examines the agonising death throes of British rule in India: the distaste of empire, of India and of the Indians felt by those Britons posted to India during the War; the displacement and disorientation of those Britons actually ruling India; the Muslin/Hindu rifts in the Indian independence movement and the emergence of Pakistan; and the unease of those Indians who found a modus vivendi with the Raj.
Mixed in with this, almost as a paradigm of the difficult birth of the new nation is the after-effect of the capture of Indian troops who fought with the Japanese in Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army - how should the British deal with them, now that the Raj is nearly over? How will those troops be treated by their fellow Indians - as traitors, as freedom fighters?
As with the rest of this series of novels, "A Division of the Spoils" is written with great assurance and sensitivity. Scott uses different narrators to move the story along and departs from a linear narrative to give the reader different views of past events. It's a superb finale to an excellent work.
G Rodgers
The Tour de Force.......2002-06-30
The four volumes of the Raj Quartet overlap and complement one another, while at the same time forwarding the main storyline of the slow twilight of the British ascendancy in India, always with the rape of a white girl by Indian men as the central lodestone everpresent in the background, the nightmare which is seldom mentioned but which none can drive from their minds. Events occur, are discussed, witnessed as newspaper reports, court documents, interviews, vague recollections from years later, or perceived directly by the main characters. Then the next volume will take two or three steps back into previous events, and these same events will be perceived from another angle, perhaps only as a vague report heard far away across the Indian plain, or witnessed directly by another character, or discussed in detail long after their occurrence over drinks on a verandah. This may at times seem like rehashing, indeed as one reads the four volumes one will be subjected to the account of the rape in the Bibighar Gardens many times over; but what will also become apparent is that additional details, sometimes minor variations in interpretation and sometimes crucial facts, are being added slowly to the events discussed, as though the window to the past were being progressively wiped cleaner and cleaner with successive strokes of Scott's pen. In this way he draws the picture of the last days of the Raj not in a conventional linear fashion, but recursively, and from multiple angles. One gets the clear impression of life in India during the first half of the 20th century as similar in nature: Fragmented, multifaceted, largely dependent upon perspective and experience and never perceived whole or all at once.
Book 4 is the tour-de-force of the series, the longest and the one that covers the greatest distance, emotionally and chronologically. Into the Laytons' social set come Nigel Rowan, an officer in the political branch whom we have met before in Book 2 interrogating Hari Kumar some years after his imprisonment, and Guy Perron, a sergeant in the intelligence service who is "chosen" against his will by Ronald Merrick to serve in his unit. Merrick seems deliberately to surround himself with people who dislike him: Guy Perron, Sarah Layton, and before them Daphne Manners and Hari Kumar. Rowan and Perron, incidentally, are former schoolmates of Kumar's at the posh Chillingborough Academy in England. And they're not the only ones: The British in India seem constantly reminded that Kumar symbolizes the insoluble problem of India's Britishness. He's too British for the Indians and too Indian for the British. Perron is an excellent guide through the final days of the Raj, stolid and proper yet inwardly seething with intellectual outrage. An explosive yet sombre climax in 1947 details the very end of the British presence in India, the beginnings of the Hindu-Muslim riots throughout the country, and gives an expansive sense of just how far one has come from the small town of Mayapore and the darkly deserted Bibighar Gardens.
Coming full circle............2001-05-06
A DIVISION OF THE SPOILS by Paul Scott is the last book in his series known as the Raj Quartet. The four books are classics, that have been read and will continue to be read centuries from now as readers attempt to understand what happened during the last days of the British Raj in India. I read history but I am also a great fan of well written historical fiction and these books are extremely well written historical fiction. Having read them, I am much more enlightened about the struggles which continue today betweem Hindu and Muslim.
Many of the characters from the earlier books converge in DIVISION, and the book introduces a new character, Guy Perron, who is a Chillingborough-Cambridge educated historian whose "period" and place are mid-19th Century India. Guy's character is used to tie up all the loose ends.
After arriving in India as a British army sergeant (he has elected not become an officer although his education and class clearly warrent it), Guy has the misfortune to be "chosen" by the recently-promoted-to-LtCol. and very wicked Ronald Merrick as his aide-de-camp. Merrick is still riddled with class envy, and sees in Guy an excellent opportunity to abuse someone he despises. Fortunately, Guy is able to escape from Merrick through the graces of his Aunt Charlotte who pulls strings to have him released from the army.
Fortunately for Guy, he doesn't escape Merrick before he meets Sarah Layton. Their story is told in this fourth volume and certain elements of the tale bring to mind the earlier story of Hari Kumar and Daphne Manners. In fact, it is through Guy's meeting of Merrick, Sarah, and another Chillingburrian, Nigel Rowan (who interviewed Hari Kumar in prison) that he becomes interested in the events at Mayapore in 1942 and the subsequent consequences for all involved.
As with other great classics, in DIVISION things do not always evolve as the reader would have wished. This book is very realistic -- sorrow and joy are mixed. In JEWEL IN THE CROWN, the first book in the series, Lady Chatterjee says she does not want to go to a heaven that excludes joy and sorrow because being human requires one to feel joy and sorrow.
Perhaps it is because humans can experience sorrow they are capable of experiencing joy. In the end, the reader discovers Hari Kumar's fate and the identity of Philoctetes as well as the difference between Dharma and Karma. This is a powerful series and a fabulous ending to the tale.
Customer Reviews:
Through the looking glass...........2001-05-09
I went out of my way to track down a copy of "PAUL SCOTT: A Life of the Author of the Raj Quartet" by Hilary Spurling because I have just completed reading the four books Scott called "The Raj Quartet": JEWEL IN THE CROWN, DAY OF THE SCORPIAN, TOWERS OF SILENCE, DIVISION OF THE SPOILS. I have also recently purchased the fabulous BBC production available on DVD and I recommend it. Spurling has written an exquisite biography and I found she answered many answers I had about THE masterpiece of the 20th Century (including what happened to some of the key characters).
Scott was born in 1920 when England ruled 1/4 of the globe. When WWII broke out, and he was in his early twenties, England conscripted him and sent him to fight the Japanese. He served three years in Southeast Asia, much of that time in India. He returned home after the war and began a writing career that did not florish. As he had an accountant's training, he became a writer's agent--handing the financial arrangements of many authors including Murial Spark who wrote THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE and M.M. Kaye who wrote THE FAR PAVILLIONS (long after he wrote his first book in the Raj Quartet).
Scott continued to write in the evenings, but after several mediocre novels, he realized he would never be a first class author unless he took the giant step and quit his job and began writing full time. His novels during this second phase of his career were modestly successful, enough to pay the rent, but not enough to keep the wolf completely away from the door. After writing several less-then-successful books set in India, he decided he needed to travel to India again.
He wasn't sure what he would find on his second trip, but once in India he met many individuals, English and Indian, who shared stories of their lives during the last days of the Raj. Inspired by these stories, he returned to England and began to compose the four novels that became the Raj Quartet.
Spurling's description of Scott's creative process--how the frustrations of his life, his perseverance in the belief he was supposed to write even after nine failed novels, and his of love of India finally coalesced into a masterpiece--is well-written. I recommend it to anyone who aspires to write.
The first book JEWEL IN THE CROWN was published in the mid-60s and set off a storm of controversy. Many of the English were not ready to "visit" the reality of their colonial past. The loss of India was not unlike the "permanently open, stinking, supporating, unhealed wound" of Philoctetes, the Greek archer who killed Paris in the taking of Troy--whose name became Hari Kumar's pseudonym. Scott died in 1978 before the Raj Quartet became an international hit. In the early 1980s the BBC dramatized the stories and the rest is history.
This is a fine book. Spurling does not pull any punches and she's done her homework. She used letters, diaries, jounals, personal interviews and many historical documents to compile an excellent story. She apparently admired her subject, but she seems to have written about him honestly. It may surprise anyone familiar with these stories to know that Scott acknowledged he could be found in all his characters, and like Wilde's Dorian Grey who had a public and a hidden side, Scott was a divided man who discoverd he was both Hari Kumar and Ronald Merrick.
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After the Raj: British Novels of India Since 1947
David Rubin
Manufacturer: UPNE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
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ASIN: 0874513839 |
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