What do you think?
Rate this book
The Mulberry Empire
The breakthrough novel from Britain's most brilliant young 'Prepare to be dazzled...The Mulberry Empire is executed with flair, confidence and great energy - a really terrific read and one hell of an achievement.' Victoria Glendinning, Daily Telegraph 'We are in the 1830s and the Great Game, the elegant but deadly dance between Great Britain and Russia for power and influence in Asia, is under way. Alexander Burnes, a bright young thing with a taste for adventure, flies the flag for London, having bidden a sad farewell to his love, Bella Garraway. From St Petersburg comes the equally enigmatic Vitkevich. Both men are wooing the Amir Dost Mohammed, emperor of the Afghans, on their countries' behalf...The cast of characters is extensive, the grandiloquence of empire wonderfully evoked; The Mulberry Empire will be read with pleasure for years to come.'
Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
36 people are currently reading
744 people want to read
About the author
Philip Hensher
41 books111 followersHensher was born in South London, although he spent the majority of his childhood and adolescence in Sheffield, attending Tapton School.[2] He did his undergraduate degree at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford before attending Cambridge, where he was awarded a PhD for work on 18th century painting and satire. Early in his career he worked as a clerk in the House of Commons, from which he was fired over the content of an interview he gave to a gay magazine.[1] He has published a number of novels, is a regular contributor, columnist and book reviewer for newspapers and weeklies such as The Guardian, The Spectator , The Mail on Sunday and The Independent.
The Bedroom of the Mister’s Wife (1999) brings together 14 of his stories, including ‘Dead Languages’, which A. S. Byatt selected for her Oxford Book of English Short Stories (1998), making Hensher the youngest author included in the anthology.http://literature.britishcouncil.org/...
Since 2005 he has taught creative writing at the University of Exeter. He has edited new editions of numerous classic works of English Literature, such as those by Charles Dickens and Nancy Mitford, and Hensher served as a judge for the Booker Prize. From 2013 he will hold the post of Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.[3]
Since 2000, Philip Hensher has been listed as one of the 100 most influential LGBT people in Britain,[4] and in 2003 as one of Granta's twenty Best of Young British Novelists.[1]
In 2008, Hensher's semi-autobiographical novel The Northern Clemency was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 2012, Hensher won first prize -German Travel Writers Award, and is shortlisted for the Green Carnation Prize. He also won the Stonewall Prize for the Journalist of the Year in 2007 and The Somerset Maugham Award for his novel Kitchen Venom in 1996. He wrote the libretto for Thomas Adès' 1995 opera Powder Her Face. This has been his only musical collaboration to date.
His early writings have been characterized as having an "ironic, knowing distance from their characters" and "icily precise skewerings of pretension and hypocrisy"[1] His historical novel The Mulberry Empire "echos with the rhythm and language of folk tales" while "play[ing] games" with narrative forms.[1]
He is married to Zaved Mahmood, a human rights lawyer at the United Nations.
You can find out more about Philip on his author page at 4th Estate Books: http://www.4thestate.co.uk/author/phi...
The Bedroom of the Mister’s Wife (1999) brings together 14 of his stories, including ‘Dead Languages’, which A. S. Byatt selected for her Oxford Book of English Short Stories (1998), making Hensher the youngest author included in the anthology.http://literature.britishcouncil.org/...
Since 2005 he has taught creative writing at the University of Exeter. He has edited new editions of numerous classic works of English Literature, such as those by Charles Dickens and Nancy Mitford, and Hensher served as a judge for the Booker Prize. From 2013 he will hold the post of Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.[3]
Since 2000, Philip Hensher has been listed as one of the 100 most influential LGBT people in Britain,[4] and in 2003 as one of Granta's twenty Best of Young British Novelists.[1]
In 2008, Hensher's semi-autobiographical novel The Northern Clemency was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 2012, Hensher won first prize -German Travel Writers Award, and is shortlisted for the Green Carnation Prize. He also won the Stonewall Prize for the Journalist of the Year in 2007 and The Somerset Maugham Award for his novel Kitchen Venom in 1996. He wrote the libretto for Thomas Adès' 1995 opera Powder Her Face. This has been his only musical collaboration to date.
His early writings have been characterized as having an "ironic, knowing distance from their characters" and "icily precise skewerings of pretension and hypocrisy"[1] His historical novel The Mulberry Empire "echos with the rhythm and language of folk tales" while "play[ing] games" with narrative forms.[1]
He is married to Zaved Mahmood, a human rights lawyer at the United Nations.
You can find out more about Philip on his author page at 4th Estate Books: http://www.4thestate.co.uk/author/phi...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
January 6, 2011
The Mulberry Empire is a historical novel (Surprise, right?) about "The Great Game" in general and the British invasion of Afghanistan in 1839 in particular. Knowing only that, it pushes all my buttons. The Great Game referrers to the rivalry between Great Britain and Russia for control of Central Asia in the 1800's. Rivalry is a very tepid word for wars that killed thousands of soldiers and civilians and destroyed cultures but that's what happened back in the days when it was expected that powerful countries would take over foreign territories or remake the politics of other countries for their own good.
The novel's protagonist, Sir Alexander Burnes was a real person as are many of the other characters in the book. Burns was the Marco Polo/Nathan Hale of his time. As a soldier stationed in India he was sent into Afghanistan with presents for a local ruler and was then allowed to travel within the country. Very little about Afghan's interior was known to the British at the time and his information and subsequent bestselling book about his adventures filled in a lot of gaps.
I don't know enough about Afghan history to tell you how accurate Hensler's retelling of the major events depicted in the novel may or may not be. However if you like this kind of fiction then you know going in that you are not reading a textbook so do not consider yourself a scholar of the period when you turn the final page. I do know that three years after the British Soldiers entered Kabal, deposed the Amir and installed the ruler that the British government wanted to be in charge that 20,000 British Soldiers, citizens and camp followers were forced out of Afghanastan and that of that group only one person made it back to India alive.
The plot of The Mulberry Empire is global. Hensler takes us into the major governments and societies involved in leading up to this war. His best writing in the book is when he is describing these far away, long ago places and their many diverse enclaves of foreigners, soldiers and politicians within. It is then that you really see Afghanistan and empire building as the main characters. Hensler creates the time and mood of the period on an individual level and with a world view and both are fascinating. As with the very best historical fiction you are enlightened and educated when all you feel like is entertained.
What isn't as successful is the cast of thousands. Aside from a small handful of them it's too much and too under developed. They are from every single level of society and they do and say very interesting things but they are rendered more like cameos than characters. Hensler did excellent work with the large list of characters in The Northern Clemency so I have no doubt that if he had paired down the populace in Empire he would have fared better. You are barely given the opportunity to root for anyone, hiss at anyone or enjoy their company before they are hustled off the page to make room for the rest of the empire. That's disappointing given how amazing the events are in this story.
The Mulberry Empire is not for anyone in the mood for stories about Queens you never knew existed or dressmakers from the slums who rise to great heights. It is for anyone who would like to immerse themselves in a complex political situation and a world and a time that can be unfathomable, dense, horrific and exotic.
And now please excuse me while I go order more of Philip Hensler's books.
The novel's protagonist, Sir Alexander Burnes was a real person as are many of the other characters in the book. Burns was the Marco Polo/Nathan Hale of his time. As a soldier stationed in India he was sent into Afghanistan with presents for a local ruler and was then allowed to travel within the country. Very little about Afghan's interior was known to the British at the time and his information and subsequent bestselling book about his adventures filled in a lot of gaps.
I don't know enough about Afghan history to tell you how accurate Hensler's retelling of the major events depicted in the novel may or may not be. However if you like this kind of fiction then you know going in that you are not reading a textbook so do not consider yourself a scholar of the period when you turn the final page. I do know that three years after the British Soldiers entered Kabal, deposed the Amir and installed the ruler that the British government wanted to be in charge that 20,000 British Soldiers, citizens and camp followers were forced out of Afghanastan and that of that group only one person made it back to India alive.
The plot of The Mulberry Empire is global. Hensler takes us into the major governments and societies involved in leading up to this war. His best writing in the book is when he is describing these far away, long ago places and their many diverse enclaves of foreigners, soldiers and politicians within. It is then that you really see Afghanistan and empire building as the main characters. Hensler creates the time and mood of the period on an individual level and with a world view and both are fascinating. As with the very best historical fiction you are enlightened and educated when all you feel like is entertained.
What isn't as successful is the cast of thousands. Aside from a small handful of them it's too much and too under developed. They are from every single level of society and they do and say very interesting things but they are rendered more like cameos than characters. Hensler did excellent work with the large list of characters in The Northern Clemency so I have no doubt that if he had paired down the populace in Empire he would have fared better. You are barely given the opportunity to root for anyone, hiss at anyone or enjoy their company before they are hustled off the page to make room for the rest of the empire. That's disappointing given how amazing the events are in this story.
The Mulberry Empire is not for anyone in the mood for stories about Queens you never knew existed or dressmakers from the slums who rise to great heights. It is for anyone who would like to immerse themselves in a complex political situation and a world and a time that can be unfathomable, dense, horrific and exotic.
And now please excuse me while I go order more of Philip Hensler's books.
July 26, 2009
This is an historical novel about Afghanistan (though not a traditional historical novel since, among other departures from tradition, what seems like a romantic thread comes to a climax, produces an illegal child, but doesn't end happily or even decisively). Another departure is that the writer is British but his title character is not Alexander Burnes, the Englishman, but Dost Mohammed Khan, the Afghan.
Most of the characters are real, including both Burnes and Dost Mohammed, and there's a list of books he consulted in writing it, including Peter Hopkirk's The Great Game, one of my favorite nonfiction reads of the last 10 years.
The sympathy is not with the British in the First Afghan War--where the British were soundly defeated and mostly all killed--but with the Afghans who were extraordinarily violent. It's a very 21st century view of a 19th century war, though at the time there were participants who recognized British treachery in driving out Dost Mohammed Khan in favor of a decadent ex-emperor whom the Indian Governor thought might protect Britain from a Russian invasion of India. In the beginning of the novel, we see Alexander Burnes as the toast of London for having been the first Englishman received in Kabul, but the social events at which he's feted read very much like social events in later Dickens novels--the focus is on the hollowness of both the characters involved and the events and the social amenities they practice. Amazing that's done without detracting from the complexity and humanity of the main characters who attend the events.
While the novel is more or less chronological, it doesn't feel like it while reading since Hensher jumps from one character and locale to another and seems to focus on parochial and local events rather than on a step in the historical timeline. You may not even recognize at first that the novel is historical, especially if you do not know about the first Afghan war. On the other hand, you'll not miss Hensher's re- imagining of the British Empire. An author who can both make local characters and events real AND convey an overarching evaluation--and criticism--of a past era is an author to take seriously.
This is a serious novelist, imitating familiar novelistic techniques in a new context, engaging ideas both historical and artistic. He warns us in the Afterward not to expect historical exactness, that even the characters of some historical figures are changed. I found it impressive as a novel and thought provoking as a view of history.
I should say that I found this novel in AS Byatt's answer to an interviewer's question about who she reading among younger writers. And there's a sentence in the "Errors and Obligations" section at the end acknowledging her advice. The book also has a glossary, though most of the terms used are clear in the context or actually defined in the text--and a cast of characters. One imagines an editor suggesting the latter for a book which involves so very many characters, but this cast is at the end--where you may not see it until you're nearly finished. And the characters are only named, not described or put in any context.
I rate this one a 9/10
Most of the characters are real, including both Burnes and Dost Mohammed, and there's a list of books he consulted in writing it, including Peter Hopkirk's The Great Game, one of my favorite nonfiction reads of the last 10 years.
The sympathy is not with the British in the First Afghan War--where the British were soundly defeated and mostly all killed--but with the Afghans who were extraordinarily violent. It's a very 21st century view of a 19th century war, though at the time there were participants who recognized British treachery in driving out Dost Mohammed Khan in favor of a decadent ex-emperor whom the Indian Governor thought might protect Britain from a Russian invasion of India. In the beginning of the novel, we see Alexander Burnes as the toast of London for having been the first Englishman received in Kabul, but the social events at which he's feted read very much like social events in later Dickens novels--the focus is on the hollowness of both the characters involved and the events and the social amenities they practice. Amazing that's done without detracting from the complexity and humanity of the main characters who attend the events.
While the novel is more or less chronological, it doesn't feel like it while reading since Hensher jumps from one character and locale to another and seems to focus on parochial and local events rather than on a step in the historical timeline. You may not even recognize at first that the novel is historical, especially if you do not know about the first Afghan war. On the other hand, you'll not miss Hensher's re- imagining of the British Empire. An author who can both make local characters and events real AND convey an overarching evaluation--and criticism--of a past era is an author to take seriously.
This is a serious novelist, imitating familiar novelistic techniques in a new context, engaging ideas both historical and artistic. He warns us in the Afterward not to expect historical exactness, that even the characters of some historical figures are changed. I found it impressive as a novel and thought provoking as a view of history.
I should say that I found this novel in AS Byatt's answer to an interviewer's question about who she reading among younger writers. And there's a sentence in the "Errors and Obligations" section at the end acknowledging her advice. The book also has a glossary, though most of the terms used are clear in the context or actually defined in the text--and a cast of characters. One imagines an editor suggesting the latter for a book which involves so very many characters, but this cast is at the end--where you may not see it until you're nearly finished. And the characters are only named, not described or put in any context.
I rate this one a 9/10
May 10, 2013
-Como contar unos hechos que desembocan en gran violencia, pero sin apenas retratarla-.
Género. Novela histórica.
Lo que nos cuenta. Relato novelado, que mezcla personajes reales y de ficción, de los acontecimientos y circunstancias que llevaron a la Primera Guerra Afgana, más que de la propia guerra.
¿Quiere saber más del libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
Género. Novela histórica.
Lo que nos cuenta. Relato novelado, que mezcla personajes reales y de ficción, de los acontecimientos y circunstancias que llevaron a la Primera Guerra Afgana, más que de la propia guerra.
¿Quiere saber más del libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
May 1, 2012
I live for books like these, authors who can go back effortlessly in history
and make a novel of factual events. Philip has gone further in this one, not
only does a masterfully explanation of the era both in the then of Britain and
Afghanistan, but he also provides a context of the personal lives of the main
characters of his story, Burns, Bella and Dost Mohammed. It is a fantastic read
for anyone interested in the first Afghan war in which an army of 16000 was
slaughtered by the vengeful Afghans. I thoroughly enjoyed this rich mishmash of
historical fiction with faction. One aspect was very surprising in the
narrative. The abundance of male-male relationships on both sides, British and
the Afghans. Very surprising.
and make a novel of factual events. Philip has gone further in this one, not
only does a masterfully explanation of the era both in the then of Britain and
Afghanistan, but he also provides a context of the personal lives of the main
characters of his story, Burns, Bella and Dost Mohammed. It is a fantastic read
for anyone interested in the first Afghan war in which an army of 16000 was
slaughtered by the vengeful Afghans. I thoroughly enjoyed this rich mishmash of
historical fiction with faction. One aspect was very surprising in the
narrative. The abundance of male-male relationships on both sides, British and
the Afghans. Very surprising.
August 16, 2014
As soon as I picked this up from the library today, I suspected that I'd read it before - and I had, back in 2002. This is what I wrote about it in my journal:
This book began well, but it became lost in its own complexities. It doesn't purport to be much grounded in history except for the bare facts of the First Afghan War between the Afghans and the British but it certainly implies some odd events.
The love interest just isn't convincing. Bella meets Burnes the adventurer, falls for him, he leaves, she's pregnant and so she withdraws from London society. All well-and-good but Hensher won't let her go long after she's become irrelevant - if she ever was important to the story.
Burnes, and another Englishman called Masson are advance parties in Kabul, but I couldn't work out their role nor their treacheries. There's an odd episode where the Afghan Dost sends his beautiful son to be seduced by Massson, but again, it seems to be of no relevance.
A Russian called Vitoric turns up, things go wrong and the Brits move in while the Russians abandon any plans they had. The Afghans then rout the Brits, partly with treachery and partly because of the complacent arrogance of the Brits.
Readers whose opinions I value thought much better of this book than I did, so it's one to make up your own mind about.
This book began well, but it became lost in its own complexities. It doesn't purport to be much grounded in history except for the bare facts of the First Afghan War between the Afghans and the British but it certainly implies some odd events.
The love interest just isn't convincing. Bella meets Burnes the adventurer, falls for him, he leaves, she's pregnant and so she withdraws from London society. All well-and-good but Hensher won't let her go long after she's become irrelevant - if she ever was important to the story.
Burnes, and another Englishman called Masson are advance parties in Kabul, but I couldn't work out their role nor their treacheries. There's an odd episode where the Afghan Dost sends his beautiful son to be seduced by Massson, but again, it seems to be of no relevance.
A Russian called Vitoric turns up, things go wrong and the Brits move in while the Russians abandon any plans they had. The Afghans then rout the Brits, partly with treachery and partly because of the complacent arrogance of the Brits.
Readers whose opinions I value thought much better of this book than I did, so it's one to make up your own mind about.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 28, 2012
Tiresome, endless, and by turns precious and sophomoric, this rambling set of barely connected story-lines around the 19th C. English venture into Afghanistan fails most where I really hoped it would succeed, in providing real insight into historical and contemporary events in that corner of the world. The many petty characters are painted with such excruciating and fanciful detail, that even though based in some cases on historical figures, the depictions are so absurd that I ended up dismissing them as Hensher's odd fantasy, rather than historic representation.
The writing reminded me in many cases of how a fashion- and romance-obsessed teenage girl might describe her vision of 19th C. England and South Asia, although that is probably unfair to teenage girls.
I considered the possibility that the book was an elaborate satire, and that most reviewers had simply missed the joke. Unfortunately, the actual joke (on us, the poor reader) is that the book is just a parody of itself.
I only finished it because I was curious what the reviewers had seen in it. That question remains unanswered, and the effort a waste.
The writing reminded me in many cases of how a fashion- and romance-obsessed teenage girl might describe her vision of 19th C. England and South Asia, although that is probably unfair to teenage girls.
I considered the possibility that the book was an elaborate satire, and that most reviewers had simply missed the joke. Unfortunately, the actual joke (on us, the poor reader) is that the book is just a parody of itself.
I only finished it because I was curious what the reviewers had seen in it. That question remains unanswered, and the effort a waste.
February 25, 2008
This book is a hard one to rate, because it is at turns fantastic and boorish. The characters are pretty one dimensional (especially the women) and a lot of the plot is brutish. However, there are moments of sparklingly beautiful description and some really insightful interactions (despite badly turned characters to start with) as well as multi-threaded narratives. I love books (and movies for that matter) that use multi-threaded narratives. I think it really allows the reader to more fully explore the story/universe. Still overall, I would say that the positives just barely compensate for the negatives, though I'm having a hard time saying who exactly would like this book. If you're looking for a book that isn't total fluff, like historical fiction, but don't want anything too over the top intellectually, then this would be a good one to pick up.
***WARNING: This book is NOT for you if you are squicked out by sodomy (particularly between men)**
***WARNING: This book is NOT for you if you are squicked out by sodomy (particularly between men)**
May 14, 2011
Enthralling historical novel based on true accounts. Brilliant language, its cascading sentences remind one of Lawrence Durrell.
July 29, 2013
Some well-written vignettes only loosely held together. Some parts were fun to read, and the story could be compelling, but it ends up being difficult to follow.
January 31, 2018
SPOILERS
I don’t want to write lengthy reviews but I feel this book is provoking one! On the plus side, Hensher’s always vivacious prose, wit, and soaring imagination carry one through this lengthy read and overall I did enjoy this. However, I questioned some of his narrative choices and some of the important characters are dreary and flat.
The Bella Garraway/ Alexander Burnes romance was entirely unconvincing and pedestrian - think sub sub sub Georgette Heyer (with no narrative surprises). Annoyingly, the totally flat Bella is trotted out again and again (the novel ends with an epilogue focussing on her - is the character perhaps a misguided attempt to appeal to a feminine readership?!), and like a vampire zombie she sucks the life out of Alexander, a historical character who could have been compelling. His scenes with Dost Mohammed, Mohan Lal, Charles Masson, Vitkevitch, and Charles Burnes are all far more alive.
The brief erotic interlude between Charles Masson and Hasan demonstrates what Hensher can achieve - conveyed in mere paragraphs, with Hasan himself a deliberate literary symbol rather than a realistic human, this connection casts a powerful spell over the second half of the novel. By contrast, Bella’s story trudges on over chapter upon chapter to no notable effect.
Barnes’s voyage to India is described at vast length, again with very little payoff I could detect. The brooding thematic references to Napoleon and The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire did not require such an abundant frame. Hensher is also alarmingly vague as to what Burnes actually does day-to-day for the Raj - the result is he seems quite passive, whereas historically he was one of the main players in the drama.
While I did enjoy the Russian chapters and thought Vitkevitch’s story -particularly its ending - effective, it’s not well integrated into the novel as a whole. Episodes here recall War and Peace very strongly - and not flatteringly to Hensher, in my opinion.
I thoroughly enjoyed the meta-narrative elements and the observations on story-telling and literature (there’s a great scene with Queen Victoria reading a fragment of Sappho). The novel tends to flag when it returns to chronological nineteenth-century style realism: a lot could be cut.
The main problem with the characters is that they tend to lack agency. Instead, they are embedded like fragments of debris in a glacier slowly moving to its destination.
I don’t want to write lengthy reviews but I feel this book is provoking one! On the plus side, Hensher’s always vivacious prose, wit, and soaring imagination carry one through this lengthy read and overall I did enjoy this. However, I questioned some of his narrative choices and some of the important characters are dreary and flat.
The Bella Garraway/ Alexander Burnes romance was entirely unconvincing and pedestrian - think sub sub sub Georgette Heyer (with no narrative surprises). Annoyingly, the totally flat Bella is trotted out again and again (the novel ends with an epilogue focussing on her - is the character perhaps a misguided attempt to appeal to a feminine readership?!), and like a vampire zombie she sucks the life out of Alexander, a historical character who could have been compelling. His scenes with Dost Mohammed, Mohan Lal, Charles Masson, Vitkevitch, and Charles Burnes are all far more alive.
The brief erotic interlude between Charles Masson and Hasan demonstrates what Hensher can achieve - conveyed in mere paragraphs, with Hasan himself a deliberate literary symbol rather than a realistic human, this connection casts a powerful spell over the second half of the novel. By contrast, Bella’s story trudges on over chapter upon chapter to no notable effect.
Barnes’s voyage to India is described at vast length, again with very little payoff I could detect. The brooding thematic references to Napoleon and The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire did not require such an abundant frame. Hensher is also alarmingly vague as to what Burnes actually does day-to-day for the Raj - the result is he seems quite passive, whereas historically he was one of the main players in the drama.
While I did enjoy the Russian chapters and thought Vitkevitch’s story -particularly its ending - effective, it’s not well integrated into the novel as a whole. Episodes here recall War and Peace very strongly - and not flatteringly to Hensher, in my opinion.
I thoroughly enjoyed the meta-narrative elements and the observations on story-telling and literature (there’s a great scene with Queen Victoria reading a fragment of Sappho). The novel tends to flag when it returns to chronological nineteenth-century style realism: a lot could be cut.
The main problem with the characters is that they tend to lack agency. Instead, they are embedded like fragments of debris in a glacier slowly moving to its destination.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 13, 2020
Excellent writing, so torn with the rating.
But in the end I've dropped a star in part *because* of the excellent writing. It helps obscure a number of odd choices, from the singsong fairytale style of prose used when writing about the (very few) major Afghan characters - a style that deliberately mimics that of the Thousand and one Nights and so dances dangerously towards an anachronistic Orientalism - to the frankly pointless subplots set back in Blighty and Russia, which read like a bit like Thackeray and Turgenev respectively, but which add little of substance to the main narrative.
In a postscript the author is very keen to emphasise that he's been very, very loose with the history. This is fine, and expected. The thing I don't understand is why, if he was happy to deviate from the path of historical record, he felt the need to introduce characters and settings that serve precisely zero narrative purpose, and add little to our understanding of the wider geopolitical context, which they hint at but don't reveal?
But in the end I've dropped a star in part *because* of the excellent writing. It helps obscure a number of odd choices, from the singsong fairytale style of prose used when writing about the (very few) major Afghan characters - a style that deliberately mimics that of the Thousand and one Nights and so dances dangerously towards an anachronistic Orientalism - to the frankly pointless subplots set back in Blighty and Russia, which read like a bit like Thackeray and Turgenev respectively, but which add little of substance to the main narrative.
In a postscript the author is very keen to emphasise that he's been very, very loose with the history. This is fine, and expected. The thing I don't understand is why, if he was happy to deviate from the path of historical record, he felt the need to introduce characters and settings that serve precisely zero narrative purpose, and add little to our understanding of the wider geopolitical context, which they hint at but don't reveal?
February 16, 2025
A well researched and well written account of British colonial arrogance in Afghanistan in the early nineteenth century, I felt The Mulberry Empire was also overlong and lacked a strong enough structure to carry the weight of its cast of characters and settings. Could see a well-realised Dickens influence in the florid, mocking character sketches of the British colonial set and the high society, chattering classes on the home front in the early stages of the novel but, much as I love Dickens, without his clear championing of one or two moral and likeable characters, the style can quickly degenerate into a cynical, sneering superiority. Once the real drama unfolds, in the final quarter of the book, the strong writing and research comes into its own and the meandering is redeemed. Worth a speed-read.
May 23, 2024
I love historical fiction and this one had a lot going for it. The two adventurers - Burnes and Vitkevitch - an imperial king, his vengeful son, an incompetent general and host of real characters who wouldve lit up any fiction.
The problem with this one is that I found it dfficult to follow any one character in full. The romantic angle between Bella and Burnes was left unsatisfactory in the end (and in the start as well). The social events are describled to cause boredom and some of the characters are left dangling in the end. Charles Masson is supposed to have done something to avenge Burnes but it is not clear what happened and why the hell he was even brought into the cast. Loose ends like these make it difficult to love this.
The problem with this one is that I found it dfficult to follow any one character in full. The romantic angle between Bella and Burnes was left unsatisfactory in the end (and in the start as well). The social events are describled to cause boredom and some of the characters are left dangling in the end. Charles Masson is supposed to have done something to avenge Burnes but it is not clear what happened and why the hell he was even brought into the cast. Loose ends like these make it difficult to love this.
September 8, 2020
I really enjoyed this book although it was a long read but you need an interest in history (especially the British in 19 th. century India and Afghanistan) and enjoy reflective and discursive writing.It’s certainly not exciting but is enthralling.Its subject is the First Afghan War 1839-1841 told from varying angles and countries.I was very disappointed to read his epilogue in which he reiterated that it was not always true to the facts and changed some people’s characters and roles - unfair to me to malign real people with false facts, in particular Masson portrayed as a paedophile when in reality the author said he wasn’t so why?Obviously for the purposes of literature but ...
March 2, 2025
First published in 2002, 'The Mulberry Empire' is a historical novel set against the background of the First Afghan War in 1839-40, with many of the main characters based on actual historical characters. That said, whilst the basic historical background is bound in fact, the details and the personality traits exhibited are fictional. Overall, this tale has a real epic feel about it especially in the descriptive set pieces. On the down side, the tale can be a little random and disconnected in places, as well as containing some minor surreal tracts that a brave editor might have asked to be removed for that sake of pace. Nevertheless, a terrific read.
September 10, 2021
A timely read. This novel underlines the independence, strength, and self belief of the Afghans in its depiction of the Afghan War in the 1840s when the British, whose utterly incorrect assessment of the situation in the area, were vanquished after choosing to depose an Afghan ruler and replace him. Their hubris is horrifying. If only 20th and 21st century invaders had looked to the past to see what happens to their like. My only quibble is that the inclusion of a British woman's story back in /England diminishes the intensity of the narrative.
February 24, 2018
No apto para apurados. Ideal para los que se cansaron de buscar libros.
Creo que funcionaría infinitamente mejor una versión resumida y comentada, pero puede dejarnos un par de consejos a los que escribimos:
Cuando quieras transmitir que el viaje fue largo y tedioso, no escribas un capítulo largo y tedioso.
Cuando la historia esté resuelta, inventa media docena de personajes bien simplones y sueltalos por aquí y por allá. El libro gordo llena más a la vista.
Fuera de eso, no está nada mal.
Creo que funcionaría infinitamente mejor una versión resumida y comentada, pero puede dejarnos un par de consejos a los que escribimos:
Cuando quieras transmitir que el viaje fue largo y tedioso, no escribas un capítulo largo y tedioso.
Cuando la historia esté resuelta, inventa media docena de personajes bien simplones y sueltalos por aquí y por allá. El libro gordo llena más a la vista.
Fuera de eso, no está nada mal.
August 22, 2020
Actually about 2.75 stars. This book had so much potential, with intertwining stories of the explorer Burnes and his female friend Bella. As well as the excitement around Kabul in the 1800s. Unfortunately the author tend to get too drawn on prose and detailed descriptions of minor things. This made the book a lot more drawn out than necessary, with the potential for more detail on the stories around the Kabul siege. It could have provided a lot more!!
August 9, 2017
3.9 An interesting take on an unusual period in history. Written in an unusual way with a number of subtle shifts in style which kept things interesting. I would consider reading more books by this author.
August 25, 2018
I got to about pg 150. I lost patience with the way the author kept returning to the trope of Afghans and Englishmen being drawn to young, beautiful youths. Tedious. We had enough of that in Kite Runner.
May 10, 2022
DNF @ 36%.
The basic story is interesting enough, but the author's writing style is over the top purple prose (a pet peeve of mine) and there are too many boring secondary characters. On to something else!
The basic story is interesting enough, but the author's writing style is over the top purple prose (a pet peeve of mine) and there are too many boring secondary characters. On to something else!
March 15, 2024
DNF at around 48%
I kept going and kept going and realised that I felt like I'd been reading for hours and it was only 15 mins.
I'm kind of interested in the story but it's just too slow and meandering and I'm not really enjoying it so that's that.
I kept going and kept going and realised that I felt like I'd been reading for hours and it was only 15 mins.
I'm kind of interested in the story but it's just too slow and meandering and I'm not really enjoying it so that's that.
November 11, 2020
*2.75*
August 17, 2021
Well-written account of the Anglo-Afghan war. My favorite part was the author's admission that a great deal of his writing was a pack of lies!
January 9, 2022
4 months l8r I did it. Epic novel 🤯
January 29, 2025
One of the most intriguing historical novels I have read
October 12, 2025
Unreadably dull
May 26, 2020
This was a dense read with many different threads and layers. I am glad I read it.
The most surprising aspect by a very considerable margin was the acknowledgement at the end of "Boris Johnson and his unfailing loyalty". Wow. That is not the thing he is known for in 2020.
The most surprising aspect by a very considerable margin was the acknowledgement at the end of "Boris Johnson and his unfailing loyalty". Wow. That is not the thing he is known for in 2020.
Read
October 6, 2009Tells the story of the first Anglo-Afghan war in the 1830s. Everything is seen from the perspective the characters who somehow were involved directly or indirectly.
the main characters are, Alexander Brunes, a British envoy to Afghanistan to woo Dost Mohammad Khan. He is a voice of reason within the colonial force who requests caution and restraints but fails. His lover, Bella, who suffers and lives a sad and lonely life in the absence of Burnes. Her dreams are shattered and lives a reclusive life but brings up her son, who might abandon her just like his father. A continuous melancholy for those affected by wars they never wanted.
Dost and his son Akbar are the Afghan heroes. A father and son relationship often contrasted to the Burnes and his lover relationship that fall apart. Dost and Akbar’s come together to defeat the British. The scenes from Russia actually resemble a lot with Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons; the tension between old-fashioned father and somehow changed son coming back to country with a friend he admires so much. The father’s relationship with the cook and the tension with the friend are almost the same.
There so many characters in the book, Russians, Indians, Afghans and the Brits. Who is the real hero in this book? Ricocheted answer would be whose hero? Two strange worlds encounter one another for the first time. So different and so apart. So mysterious to one another. Resonates Foucault’s doctrine of different “regimes of truth”, just like when the American system got muted and perplexed by the 9/11 attack. If it was an Alien’s attack, one could say that America was readier but not for such an out of the ordinary terrorist attack. The British were left in the same state for months and years after the first Anglo-Afghan war.
the savagery and bloodthirstiness of the Afghans, a shock in the system for the somehow more civilized English is evident in the book. The book ultimately asks the questions what if the British had stayed in Kabul. How things would have turned out for the British and Afghans today?
Pride and glory versus economic well-being? a hypothetical question now of course but an interesting and intriguing question to be asked in Afghanistan. Perhaps the same question again in the 1990s, when the Soviets left. What if their mission was successful?
Too much dweling on the issue of prostitution of young boys in Kabul negatively affected its value as a great work of literature. Digging that issue too persistently and deeply suggested the author was looking for scandal of the tabloid kind.
Also too much rambling at times, over describing people and places, often repeatedly and even bizarrely sometimes going inside the head of a dog and seeing a party from a dog’s point of view suggested author’s lack of focus and confidence in “telling the story”, therefore mainly attempted to just to “show things”.
the 19th century style (just like in War and Peace) of talking about lots of characters and describing everything is too time consuming and distracting for today’s readers. I am not surprised that it was not a best seller and never got any mention from big literary prizes. Best if only stuck with a few key characters. More attempts are made to be historically true to a point where characters are introduced and left out. For instance Charles Masson appears prominently for a while but then disappears without a trace. I don’t know what happened to the actual guy but in a novel you cannot abandon a character with telling the readers why.
the book like the “great game” is like a chess board. It talks about each piece on the board in isolation and relation to one next to them. Unaware of those further from them. But some of them encounter one another, some survives (Dost and Akbar) and others don’t (Burnes and Machnaten). Some become irrelevant (Masson and Lal) and others simply carry on even failingly (Sale and Bella)
I have to say I didn’t enjoy reading the book, even though I was aware of some historical background I found it hard to follow. It is not too intellectually challenging but deliberately left to be too obscure and vague. If focusing only on pieces of chess instead the whole board is a new style, so be it but one should also compliment the characters’ peep holes with the omniscient narrator’s wide eyes. Simply there are too many characters and it is a big ask to demand readers to pieces each story together.
Ultimately it is the British or the west side of the story. A Heart of Darkness type of story, therefore needs a response from the Afghan point of view. How things (ultimately by the end of 19th century) fall apart? Now we need an Afghan Achebe to respond.
the main characters are, Alexander Brunes, a British envoy to Afghanistan to woo Dost Mohammad Khan. He is a voice of reason within the colonial force who requests caution and restraints but fails. His lover, Bella, who suffers and lives a sad and lonely life in the absence of Burnes. Her dreams are shattered and lives a reclusive life but brings up her son, who might abandon her just like his father. A continuous melancholy for those affected by wars they never wanted.
Dost and his son Akbar are the Afghan heroes. A father and son relationship often contrasted to the Burnes and his lover relationship that fall apart. Dost and Akbar’s come together to defeat the British. The scenes from Russia actually resemble a lot with Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons; the tension between old-fashioned father and somehow changed son coming back to country with a friend he admires so much. The father’s relationship with the cook and the tension with the friend are almost the same.
There so many characters in the book, Russians, Indians, Afghans and the Brits. Who is the real hero in this book? Ricocheted answer would be whose hero? Two strange worlds encounter one another for the first time. So different and so apart. So mysterious to one another. Resonates Foucault’s doctrine of different “regimes of truth”, just like when the American system got muted and perplexed by the 9/11 attack. If it was an Alien’s attack, one could say that America was readier but not for such an out of the ordinary terrorist attack. The British were left in the same state for months and years after the first Anglo-Afghan war.
the savagery and bloodthirstiness of the Afghans, a shock in the system for the somehow more civilized English is evident in the book. The book ultimately asks the questions what if the British had stayed in Kabul. How things would have turned out for the British and Afghans today?
Pride and glory versus economic well-being? a hypothetical question now of course but an interesting and intriguing question to be asked in Afghanistan. Perhaps the same question again in the 1990s, when the Soviets left. What if their mission was successful?
Too much dweling on the issue of prostitution of young boys in Kabul negatively affected its value as a great work of literature. Digging that issue too persistently and deeply suggested the author was looking for scandal of the tabloid kind.
Also too much rambling at times, over describing people and places, often repeatedly and even bizarrely sometimes going inside the head of a dog and seeing a party from a dog’s point of view suggested author’s lack of focus and confidence in “telling the story”, therefore mainly attempted to just to “show things”.
the 19th century style (just like in War and Peace) of talking about lots of characters and describing everything is too time consuming and distracting for today’s readers. I am not surprised that it was not a best seller and never got any mention from big literary prizes. Best if only stuck with a few key characters. More attempts are made to be historically true to a point where characters are introduced and left out. For instance Charles Masson appears prominently for a while but then disappears without a trace. I don’t know what happened to the actual guy but in a novel you cannot abandon a character with telling the readers why.
the book like the “great game” is like a chess board. It talks about each piece on the board in isolation and relation to one next to them. Unaware of those further from them. But some of them encounter one another, some survives (Dost and Akbar) and others don’t (Burnes and Machnaten). Some become irrelevant (Masson and Lal) and others simply carry on even failingly (Sale and Bella)
I have to say I didn’t enjoy reading the book, even though I was aware of some historical background I found it hard to follow. It is not too intellectually challenging but deliberately left to be too obscure and vague. If focusing only on pieces of chess instead the whole board is a new style, so be it but one should also compliment the characters’ peep holes with the omniscient narrator’s wide eyes. Simply there are too many characters and it is a big ask to demand readers to pieces each story together.
Ultimately it is the British or the west side of the story. A Heart of Darkness type of story, therefore needs a response from the Afghan point of view. How things (ultimately by the end of 19th century) fall apart? Now we need an Afghan Achebe to respond.
August 31, 2021
I very much enjoyed this novel which is set during the period of the first Afghan War and which therefor covers the same period as :"Alexandria, the quest for the lost city" which I read earlier this year.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews