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The Mutiny by Rathbone, Julian published by Little, Brown Book Group (2008) [Paperback]
For its British population, the India that swelters in the late spring of 1857 is a place of amateur theatricals, horseracing, and flirtations under the aegis of the omnipotent East India company. But a brutal awakening lies in store for the complacent one May night, after 30 years of abuse, the East India Company's native soldiers rise up against their British officers. Caught up in the violence is pretty Sophie Hardcastle, a young wife and mother newly arrived from England. As she searches for her infant son, missing in the chaos, Sophie finds herself bearing witness to atrocities on both sides. Moving, somber, and thrilling, Rathbone's tale is told on a grand scale, ranging from the Cannings in Government House to the heroism of the humblest soldiers and peasants. It is as exhilarating as any Victorian adventure story, and yet, with its unflinching examination of religious fanaticism and the horrors of war, The Mutiny also carries a powerful message for the modern world.
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First published January 18, 2007
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About the author
Julian Rathbone
68 books24 followersJulian Christopher Rathbone was born in 1935 in Blackheath, southeast London. His great-uncle was the actor and great Sherlock Holmes interpreter Basil Rathbone, although they never met.
The prolific author Julian Rathbone was a writer of crime stories, mysteries and thrillers who also turned his hand to the historical novel, science fiction and even horror — and much of his writing had strong political and social dimensions.
He was difficult to pigeonhole because his scope was so broad. Arguably, his experiment with different genres and thus his refusal to be typecast cost him a wider audience than he enjoyed. Just as his subject matter changed markedly over the years, so too did his readers and his publishers.
Among his more than 40 books two were shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction. Both were historical novels: first King Fisher Lives, a taut adventure revolving around a guru figure, in 1976, and, secondly, Joseph, set during the Peninsular War and written in an 18th-century prose style, in 1979. But Rathbone never quite made it into the wider public consciousness.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_R...
The prolific author Julian Rathbone was a writer of crime stories, mysteries and thrillers who also turned his hand to the historical novel, science fiction and even horror — and much of his writing had strong political and social dimensions.
He was difficult to pigeonhole because his scope was so broad. Arguably, his experiment with different genres and thus his refusal to be typecast cost him a wider audience than he enjoyed. Just as his subject matter changed markedly over the years, so too did his readers and his publishers.
Among his more than 40 books two were shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction. Both were historical novels: first King Fisher Lives, a taut adventure revolving around a guru figure, in 1976, and, secondly, Joseph, set during the Peninsular War and written in an 18th-century prose style, in 1979. But Rathbone never quite made it into the wider public consciousness.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_R...
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 29, 2012
This is, let's get it straight right at the start, an interesting read - but it has a flaw. It starts off as a work of fiction; the Indian Mutiny as experienced by a group of English women living on the Army base at Meerut. We experience life as they saw it, hot, dusty, petty, and interfacing with a culture that is seen as dirty and contemptible. We see the hatred grow, often fanned by ambitious, powerless former rulers who simply want either a very comfortable lifestyle provided by the British, or change. Religious hatred and intolerance go hand in hand with contempt for those of another race, white or brown. The Mutiny, when it comes, is bloody as scores are settled and betrayal runs hand in hand with murder. A reaction and brutal revenge is on the cards.
The latter half of the book seems to lose its direction and, rather than continuing to be a tale about struggle and survival, becomes an historical account of how the British regained India. It's interesting if not a little episodic in parts. Rathbone links in one or two references to his heroines of earlier but they play a very incidental role. The book, in short, loses its sense of direction - it metamorphoses from one kind of creature into another... and not necessarily for the best!
As a byword, I liked Rathbone's brief summary where he reminds us that the India before the coming of the Europeans was a mixture of petty kingdoms each locked in petty wars and in suppressing their peoples. After the Mutiny, when the British take over properly (rather than leaving it to the Company to sort things out), things actually get a lot better and the seeds for a free and independent democracy are sown. These nasty Imperialists weren't as nasty as we're told. Virtually all the taxes raised in India went back to building a better country... interesting.
The latter half of the book seems to lose its direction and, rather than continuing to be a tale about struggle and survival, becomes an historical account of how the British regained India. It's interesting if not a little episodic in parts. Rathbone links in one or two references to his heroines of earlier but they play a very incidental role. The book, in short, loses its sense of direction - it metamorphoses from one kind of creature into another... and not necessarily for the best!
As a byword, I liked Rathbone's brief summary where he reminds us that the India before the coming of the Europeans was a mixture of petty kingdoms each locked in petty wars and in suppressing their peoples. After the Mutiny, when the British take over properly (rather than leaving it to the Company to sort things out), things actually get a lot better and the seeds for a free and independent democracy are sown. These nasty Imperialists weren't as nasty as we're told. Virtually all the taxes raised in India went back to building a better country... interesting.
March 20, 2012
The Mutiny by Julian Rathbone is about 460 pages and the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Both of those things make me happy. For me chubby books are cheesecake level temptation and stories set in India are always to be scooped up.
The British Army enlisted thousands of Indians as soldiers or “sepoys” as the Europeans called them and was reliant on these soldiers to help govern the huge country. If the civilian colonists thought about the natives at all it was as master and servant and not in a pretty Masterpiece Theater way. By 1857 this dynamic had been business as usual for decades. Add to this: oppression, unfair taxes on Indians, the attitudes of the authorities concerning the religions of India, racism and the British owned East India Company’s habit of annexing land from independent Rajas when the company wanted it.
From the moment his recreation of the Rebellion begins Rathbone makes the most of the historical, political, racial, religious and cultural elements available to him to construct an epic. He doesn’t populate the story with the usual historical walk-ons nor does he stray from the actual timeline of the major events of the Rebellion but within these parameters Rathbone has plenty of room to develop plotlines and characters that are good, bad and human. As the stories expand and intertwine Rathbone successfully balances our sympathy and outrage within this ambitious novel.
The Mutiny is old fashioned storytelling but that doesn’t mean that the story is old fashioned. In this novel the view is broad, the action is intimate and the writing is elegant.
The British Army enlisted thousands of Indians as soldiers or “sepoys” as the Europeans called them and was reliant on these soldiers to help govern the huge country. If the civilian colonists thought about the natives at all it was as master and servant and not in a pretty Masterpiece Theater way. By 1857 this dynamic had been business as usual for decades. Add to this: oppression, unfair taxes on Indians, the attitudes of the authorities concerning the religions of India, racism and the British owned East India Company’s habit of annexing land from independent Rajas when the company wanted it.
From the moment his recreation of the Rebellion begins Rathbone makes the most of the historical, political, racial, religious and cultural elements available to him to construct an epic. He doesn’t populate the story with the usual historical walk-ons nor does he stray from the actual timeline of the major events of the Rebellion but within these parameters Rathbone has plenty of room to develop plotlines and characters that are good, bad and human. As the stories expand and intertwine Rathbone successfully balances our sympathy and outrage within this ambitious novel.
The Mutiny is old fashioned storytelling but that doesn’t mean that the story is old fashioned. In this novel the view is broad, the action is intimate and the writing is elegant.
March 27, 2019
This one was tough to stomach at points.
November 26, 2014
to much historical, not enough novel....
August 30, 2020
3.5 stars for me. It was an easy read about a subject i wasn’t really aware of, and i came away knowing more about the mutiny in India in the 1800’s. I felt that although the the writing style was easy to follow, some characters were always on the periphery and just when you thought you’d find out more the story took a different turn and so you never had a real thread to follow with all the characters. The one character that i felt i had a connection with or felt the most was made of was lavanya she had been with the British family from the beginning and when the mutiny started to saw her journey to the end, and felt for her and realised this may have been what it had been like for many living in that time and circumstance. The writing descriptively was also beautiful of the landscapes and maybe not so with the battle scenes etc but that being said although not for the fainthearted really made you feel the sights, sounds and smells. It did sometimes feel that you were being a history lesson and this then felt as if the author had lost his way with the telling of the fictional element and wanted to put in the historical parts but knowing how and this then read like a factual book, not that this wasn’t done well but made for me the thread of the book a bit stop start. I would pick up another book by this author as it wasn’t are difficult read stylistically and think his handling of history is an easy one to read.
June 29, 2020
The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 - 1858 has become the stuff of movies, romance novels, historical fiction, and history. Most of the accounts are from the English point of view and emphasize the massacre of women and children, the betrayal at Cawnpore, the heroic resistance of the English in Locknow, and the eventual put down of the rebellion (glossing over the extreme elements)
This novel is unique in that attempts to tell the story from both sides using dozens of real or imaginary characters. This gives the novel an epic appeal. It is also one of the novel's weaknesses. There are so many characters that you practically need to keep a notebook at hand to keep track of them all.
On the other hand, having read many different accounts of the Muntiny, I was somewhat familiar the the main events, so I could keep track of the progression. There were some delicious ironies throughout the novel that made me laugh in spite of myself. I recommend this novel.
This novel is unique in that attempts to tell the story from both sides using dozens of real or imaginary characters. This gives the novel an epic appeal. It is also one of the novel's weaknesses. There are so many characters that you practically need to keep a notebook at hand to keep track of them all.
On the other hand, having read many different accounts of the Muntiny, I was somewhat familiar the the main events, so I could keep track of the progression. There were some delicious ironies throughout the novel that made me laugh in spite of myself. I recommend this novel.
January 27, 2018
Dozens of characters, both Indian and European, are followed through the period from 1854 culminating in the critical years of 1857-58 during the Indian Mutiny. If anyone is central it is Sophie Hardcastle, a young Army Officer’s wife, but the landscape, military figures and the savage fighting and atrocities of both sides, up to the climactic siege of Delhi, are the real core. The even-handed authorial voice often provides the historical context, in a riveting and moving read managing to personalise the brutal conflict.
June 21, 2023
I enjoyed this book. Fairly balanced poke about the Indian Mutiny from the British POV. I see the Mutiny as similar to the ongoing Hindu/Muslim rub except with slightly different protagonists.
Follows the course of the Mutiny from several view points, real and imagined, painted against the cultural backdrop, with well drawn characters.
Follows the course of the Mutiny from several view points, real and imagined, painted against the cultural backdrop, with well drawn characters.
June 28, 2016
The 1857 rebellion a.k.a the first Indian war of Independence is a point of interest to me and it is fascinating to read about the different people with a different agendas were able to come together for a cause albeit their selfish motives.
So it was with a lot of interest that I picked up this one to read of the rebellion from the perspective of the British people who lived through it. However, I should say the book for all its promises delivered very little.
For some odd reason, the author insists in the prologue and in the Epilogue that the British did a lot of good things (like they sent only about 1% of the tax revenues back to UK) in India and also insisting that it was not a war of Independence. I was not sure how that related to the story other than showing a glimpse of the author's political leanings.
The answer, as some one from the country where the British did so much good is that, the last famine in India was in 1942 in Bengal and since 1947, after independence, the country never had a famine. And I think while the railways and telegraph were good, it was only developed as a means of moving military transport and any civilian comfort from that was just accidental and I do not want to start on the number of native industries that paid the price to keep Manchester and Birmingham in the middle of the industrial world.. While I don't want to be spoiler of the 'good imperialist' philosophy, I cannot let it go unanswered as well.
Now, back to the book, while it documents the historical incidents more accurately, the story just limps along the unfolding of the events. Sophie, Lavanya, Bruce and almost every fictional character wanders all along the Gangetic plains without any purpose other than be at the next battle or siege. That is sad as the initial chapters of the book on the Meerut barracks were well written.
However, the author in his zeal towards the history keeps losing his characters and by extension us, the readers as well. It could've been an excellent spy story with Bruce in the middle or a tragic love story with Sophie and Bruce as the drivers or it could've been a historical rendering of events. It ends up us nothing. That is a pity.
It is still an interesting book overall if you can forgive the plot holes and focus on the history.
So it was with a lot of interest that I picked up this one to read of the rebellion from the perspective of the British people who lived through it. However, I should say the book for all its promises delivered very little.
For some odd reason, the author insists in the prologue and in the Epilogue that the British did a lot of good things (like they sent only about 1% of the tax revenues back to UK) in India and also insisting that it was not a war of Independence. I was not sure how that related to the story other than showing a glimpse of the author's political leanings.
The answer, as some one from the country where the British did so much good is that, the last famine in India was in 1942 in Bengal and since 1947, after independence, the country never had a famine. And I think while the railways and telegraph were good, it was only developed as a means of moving military transport and any civilian comfort from that was just accidental and I do not want to start on the number of native industries that paid the price to keep Manchester and Birmingham in the middle of the industrial world.. While I don't want to be spoiler of the 'good imperialist' philosophy, I cannot let it go unanswered as well.
Now, back to the book, while it documents the historical incidents more accurately, the story just limps along the unfolding of the events. Sophie, Lavanya, Bruce and almost every fictional character wanders all along the Gangetic plains without any purpose other than be at the next battle or siege. That is sad as the initial chapters of the book on the Meerut barracks were well written.
However, the author in his zeal towards the history keeps losing his characters and by extension us, the readers as well. It could've been an excellent spy story with Bruce in the middle or a tragic love story with Sophie and Bruce as the drivers or it could've been a historical rendering of events. It ends up us nothing. That is a pity.
It is still an interesting book overall if you can forgive the plot holes and focus on the history.
September 10, 2012
Found this disappointingly dull after enjoying Kings of Albion.
Want to read
January 6, 2015Recommended by Wiki. A Rathbone fan certainly wrote his Wiki, but it's interesting.
October 17, 2013
A good drama, although it could have done with more character development on the Indian side, and without the odd attempt to rehabilitate the British empire in just two paragraphs in the postscript.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews