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HOUSE IN PONDICHERRY
The third in a series of novels set in India. This novel is set in Pondicherry, a tropical Paris flourishing on the shore of the Coromandel coast. At the centre of the novel is the figure of Oriane, a young French girl who meets a political agitator seeking sanctuary under the French flag.
- GenresIndia
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1995
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102 people want to read
About the author
Lee Langley
27 books15 followersAward-winning novelist and travel-writer, Lee Langley was born in Calcutta in the late 1930s, of Scottish parents, and she spent most of her early childhood there. Her parents separated when she was 4, and she spent the next 6 years travelling through India with her mother, where she got caught up in the Indian independence riots. Her family returned to the UK as feelings rose higher against the British. Lee Langley has since written of a sense of loss and exile from a place that she had loved as a child. She won the Writers’ Guild Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize. Lee Langley has also written film scripts and has adapted novels for TV. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and is also an active committee member of the P.E.N., the writers’ organization that campaigns for freedom of speech internationally. Lee Langley is married to the novelist Theo Richmond, and lives in Richmond in London.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 27, 2021
Reread 1
It was early 2013 when, following a Caravan magazine story about a used-books shop somewhere on Brigade Road, Bangalore, I entered Mr KKS Murthy’s Select Book Shop in one of the side streets. I spent an hour or so there, and bought a faded paperback of Dickens’ Hard Times and a couple of Readers’ Digest Select Editions. Just when I was about to leave, I moved a few books off another shelf, and picked up a paperback that had a picture of what looked like a colonial house on the cover. It was battered, but the cover was intact and none of the pages seemed to be missing.
I blew away the dust on top.
It read: A House in Pondicherry.
On returning home, which at that time was a flat in Madras, I had looked up the author. Wikipedia gave me a few preliminary pieces of information, but I found a brief profile on the British Council’s literature microsite, complete with a photograph. Born in Calcutta, Lee Langley was the author of several acclaimed works of fiction, including an India trilogy, of which A House in Pondicherry was the final instalment. The British writer had written for the television and movie screens as well, and her last novel had arrived as late as 2010.
The photograph of her’s was exactly like I thought it would - understated, thoughtful. Langley has one hand up on her left cheek, with an expression of mild embarrassment, as if she’s thinking why someone would even need a picture of her.
In the critical perspective section, a Dr Nick Turner had written of A House in Pondicherry:
“The novel places at its centre Oriane (whose name derives from Proust, a writer who seems to have inspired the novel), the ferociously cultured owner of le Grand Hotel de France in the town of the book’s title. Living in a Paris abroad, Oriane, who has never visited the mother country, clings determinedly to French culture, the hotel and the past as the twentieth century progresses. As well as being a meticulously researched account of an under-documented part of India and its history (British fiction has concentrated on Northern India, although Yann Martel’s Life of Pi has its opening set there), the novel is a touching account of change.”
In the author statement, Langley herself writes:
“Looking back over my books I see a preoccupation with outsiders - of enclaves of otherness within larger cultures. This sense of otherness, of not belonging, has always been there - sometimes without my realising it at the time - like a shadowy reef lying beneath the surface. The characters are often people who don't fit in.”
The book, I found was out of print, and the only other copies I found online were prohibitively expensive.
I had been very lucky.
I didn’t understand what the writer and the critic were getting at immediately. But after I’d read the whole book on a cooped-up rainy day, I was overwhelmed by these very themes.
In close to 300 pages, it lays out a history of Pondicherry so deeply felt it moved me to tears. Langley’s Oriane is a ruin of the colonial project, a French woman who never saw France; and A House in Pondicherry is mostly her story. It is sad, undoubtedly so, but what it also is meditation oo time, memory, and life’s infinite, never-again choices. It is through her flowering, acceptance and decay that we see the town and what happened to it, and it is through the town that we see her.
The way it lays out the story of the town is remarkable, not just for the language, but the way the important events are chosen, talked about and shelved back; not to gather dust, but to lend weight to the happenings that follow. Oriane’s may be a coming-of-age story, but it’s also not exactly that. Because Oriane never really grows up to make her decisions. Handicapped by history, time, and circumstance, she plods through life never really sure of her place in the scheme of things. Every piece of India’s and the world’s history impacts her, in deeply personal, irredeemable ways, and this is the novel’s strength - the study of time in miniature, on the particular.
From when the French arrive to make a small Paris in the east, their skirmishes with the English in Madras, Napoleon’s dream of an eastern France in the Indian south, the Nazi occupation of France in World War II, Indian independence, and then at last, Pondicherry’s merger with the Indian union, followed by the struggles of life in the 20th century - the novel traces a narrative arc across the century. This is historical fiction at its finest, showing you what you thought you already knew in extraordinary new ways. Even if only for new Indian readers willing to look at the place they are from in a new light, it deserves a reprint.
A House in Pondicherry, in the end, is a fine novel by a very fine writer, a remarkable account of life in Pondicherry across all these decades, in itself an important literary record. But, and importantly to me it is also something more: A House in Pondicherry is perhaps the best personal documentation of the rise of the town’s two greatest spiritual projects, entities which now seem to define my town itself - the Aurobindo Ashram, and its utopian child - Auroville, the city of dawn.
It was early 2013 when, following a Caravan magazine story about a used-books shop somewhere on Brigade Road, Bangalore, I entered Mr KKS Murthy’s Select Book Shop in one of the side streets. I spent an hour or so there, and bought a faded paperback of Dickens’ Hard Times and a couple of Readers’ Digest Select Editions. Just when I was about to leave, I moved a few books off another shelf, and picked up a paperback that had a picture of what looked like a colonial house on the cover. It was battered, but the cover was intact and none of the pages seemed to be missing.
I blew away the dust on top.
It read: A House in Pondicherry.
On returning home, which at that time was a flat in Madras, I had looked up the author. Wikipedia gave me a few preliminary pieces of information, but I found a brief profile on the British Council’s literature microsite, complete with a photograph. Born in Calcutta, Lee Langley was the author of several acclaimed works of fiction, including an India trilogy, of which A House in Pondicherry was the final instalment. The British writer had written for the television and movie screens as well, and her last novel had arrived as late as 2010.
The photograph of her’s was exactly like I thought it would - understated, thoughtful. Langley has one hand up on her left cheek, with an expression of mild embarrassment, as if she’s thinking why someone would even need a picture of her.
In the critical perspective section, a Dr Nick Turner had written of A House in Pondicherry:
“The novel places at its centre Oriane (whose name derives from Proust, a writer who seems to have inspired the novel), the ferociously cultured owner of le Grand Hotel de France in the town of the book’s title. Living in a Paris abroad, Oriane, who has never visited the mother country, clings determinedly to French culture, the hotel and the past as the twentieth century progresses. As well as being a meticulously researched account of an under-documented part of India and its history (British fiction has concentrated on Northern India, although Yann Martel’s Life of Pi has its opening set there), the novel is a touching account of change.”
In the author statement, Langley herself writes:
“Looking back over my books I see a preoccupation with outsiders - of enclaves of otherness within larger cultures. This sense of otherness, of not belonging, has always been there - sometimes without my realising it at the time - like a shadowy reef lying beneath the surface. The characters are often people who don't fit in.”
The book, I found was out of print, and the only other copies I found online were prohibitively expensive.
I had been very lucky.
I didn’t understand what the writer and the critic were getting at immediately. But after I’d read the whole book on a cooped-up rainy day, I was overwhelmed by these very themes.
In close to 300 pages, it lays out a history of Pondicherry so deeply felt it moved me to tears. Langley’s Oriane is a ruin of the colonial project, a French woman who never saw France; and A House in Pondicherry is mostly her story. It is sad, undoubtedly so, but what it also is meditation oo time, memory, and life’s infinite, never-again choices. It is through her flowering, acceptance and decay that we see the town and what happened to it, and it is through the town that we see her.
The way it lays out the story of the town is remarkable, not just for the language, but the way the important events are chosen, talked about and shelved back; not to gather dust, but to lend weight to the happenings that follow. Oriane’s may be a coming-of-age story, but it’s also not exactly that. Because Oriane never really grows up to make her decisions. Handicapped by history, time, and circumstance, she plods through life never really sure of her place in the scheme of things. Every piece of India’s and the world’s history impacts her, in deeply personal, irredeemable ways, and this is the novel’s strength - the study of time in miniature, on the particular.
From when the French arrive to make a small Paris in the east, their skirmishes with the English in Madras, Napoleon’s dream of an eastern France in the Indian south, the Nazi occupation of France in World War II, Indian independence, and then at last, Pondicherry’s merger with the Indian union, followed by the struggles of life in the 20th century - the novel traces a narrative arc across the century. This is historical fiction at its finest, showing you what you thought you already knew in extraordinary new ways. Even if only for new Indian readers willing to look at the place they are from in a new light, it deserves a reprint.
A House in Pondicherry, in the end, is a fine novel by a very fine writer, a remarkable account of life in Pondicherry across all these decades, in itself an important literary record. But, and importantly to me it is also something more: A House in Pondicherry is perhaps the best personal documentation of the rise of the town’s two greatest spiritual projects, entities which now seem to define my town itself - the Aurobindo Ashram, and its utopian child - Auroville, the city of dawn.
October 25, 2022
This novel is set in French India and spans the almost magical life of Oriane, the inheritor of a grand French family (or so they believe) who consider all other cultures far inferior, potentially dangerous, and certainly polluting. Unfortunately, this conflicts - at least initially - with Oriane’s own instincts, visions, and interests. It also puts her into a social group of one. Pondicherry, built to be a tiny Paris in the beautiful state of Tamil Nadu is a powerful character as is the rapidly changing character of India itself. In fact all of the main characters are creations of irony and conflict - the English Public School, Oxbridge educated unrequited love interest who is still completely bound by the rules of his Brahman family - Oriane’s old friend’s grandson who returns from France to help build an utopian city and is just so damn nice to everyone that he is completely unreliable. As one of his daughters says as she returns home after meeting him: “The smile lit up his face, offering warmth, intimacy. But she saw now that the smile, like a trompe-l’oeil doorway painted on a stone wall, led nowhere.”
As the novel progresses and secrets are revealed, people find they aren’t who they thought they were, and the malevolence of prejudice - as always - tightly circumscribes both experience and happiness. Brittle anger handled with loving patience, and gentle care handled with disregard and denigration; i find myself wondering what is culture and what is character?
This is a wonderful historical novel complete with the lights, colors, heat, smells, & flavors of India, as well as unforgettable characters. Lee Langley writes about something sad, just missed, could have been, better perhaps than anyone else, and this is no exception.
Slightly educational addendum:
For those of you (like me) old enough to have traveled when these could still be found, a tip on the care of palm leaf books - "..rubbing the surface gently with citronella oil to preserve it and bring up the Sanscrit writing..” who knew?
As the novel progresses and secrets are revealed, people find they aren’t who they thought they were, and the malevolence of prejudice - as always - tightly circumscribes both experience and happiness. Brittle anger handled with loving patience, and gentle care handled with disregard and denigration; i find myself wondering what is culture and what is character?
This is a wonderful historical novel complete with the lights, colors, heat, smells, & flavors of India, as well as unforgettable characters. Lee Langley writes about something sad, just missed, could have been, better perhaps than anyone else, and this is no exception.
Slightly educational addendum:
For those of you (like me) old enough to have traveled when these could still be found, a tip on the care of palm leaf books - "..rubbing the surface gently with citronella oil to preserve it and bring up the Sanscrit writing..” who knew?
October 11, 2012
Langley, in her more historical novels writes about empire its past and how it affects the present. She was born in India and has often written about India; doing so again in this novel. Here Langley takes a slightly different approach; this is about Pondicherry; the small part of southern India which remained French. There is a good story spanning the lifetime of the main character into which Langley weaves the past and present, the abuses of empire and the birth of modern India.
The main character is Oriane (a name lifted from Proust, whose influence is ever present in the novel).Her parents run the Hotel de France in Pondicherry, where Oriane grows up. She never marries and remains there most of here life, even when her parents return to France. The hotel remains a little piece of France in India, even though Oriane never goes to France.
Running a;ongside Oriane's story is that of Auroville and the Sri Aurobindo Ashram (these actually exist, whereas the hotel does not) and Oriane's uneasy relationship to it and with Raymond, her nephew, who uses his skills as an architect to assist the community. Oriane's decades long friendship with Guruvappa also runs through the book and Langley weaves in some eighteenth century history and some explorations in the Tamil language as part of the package.
The encroachments of the modern, the dying of a way of life, the end of empire (the French left after the British)and the growth of modern India are all described. There is a sense of wistfulness, but no sentimentality. Modernity is looked at neutrally with its gains and its losses. There are also several love stories buried within, sometimes in unexpected places and the death of one particular character, a very minor character, is heartrendingly sad.
On the whole the novel holds together well, reads easily and is rather good. I am amazed it seems to be relatively unknown
The main character is Oriane (a name lifted from Proust, whose influence is ever present in the novel).Her parents run the Hotel de France in Pondicherry, where Oriane grows up. She never marries and remains there most of here life, even when her parents return to France. The hotel remains a little piece of France in India, even though Oriane never goes to France.
Running a;ongside Oriane's story is that of Auroville and the Sri Aurobindo Ashram (these actually exist, whereas the hotel does not) and Oriane's uneasy relationship to it and with Raymond, her nephew, who uses his skills as an architect to assist the community. Oriane's decades long friendship with Guruvappa also runs through the book and Langley weaves in some eighteenth century history and some explorations in the Tamil language as part of the package.
The encroachments of the modern, the dying of a way of life, the end of empire (the French left after the British)and the growth of modern India are all described. There is a sense of wistfulness, but no sentimentality. Modernity is looked at neutrally with its gains and its losses. There are also several love stories buried within, sometimes in unexpected places and the death of one particular character, a very minor character, is heartrendingly sad.
On the whole the novel holds together well, reads easily and is rather good. I am amazed it seems to be relatively unknown
October 11, 2020
All 5 stars for nostalgia! The descriptions of the beach, the streets, the ashram meditation chamber to bougainvillea and cashew fragrance filled auroville lanes are all spot on. The book really captures the essence and idea of what Pondy is in various layers: in direct descrptions, in how the characters think and secondarily using the translations Oriane and Guru work on. The characters: Guru, Oriane, Raymond, Gita and Shetty are all familiar and comfortable people who you would meet in Pondy. The plot is actually hardly substantial. There is a loose historical narrative. It is definitely a book for ectopic pondiyetes who are yearning for the elusive Pondy fragrance. Highly recommended.
February 24, 2024
203📖🇮🇳INDIA: PONDICHERRY🇮🇳 The second of Lee Langley’s India trilogy (spoiler alert, I didn’t read the third), it is a complex story of a girl trying to find her father. There’s a real beauty in this former French colony that makes me want to visit, though the plethora of white yogis and their ashrams are less appealing to me.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews