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White Rajah: A dynastic intrigue
235 pages of excellent text, with some great photos. A nicely done bio of the three white rulers of Sarawak that will appeal to those who enjoy biographies and history. The book tells the story of the Brooke dynasty, James, Charles, Vyner, who, between them, ruled as rajahs for over 100 years. First Edition.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
About the author
Cassandra Pybus
27 books21 followersCassandra Pybus is ARC Professorial Fellow in the School of History and Classics at the University of Tasmania. She is the author of many books including Community of Thieves and The Devil and James McAuley, winner of the 2000 Adelaide Festival Award for non-fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 16, 2008
With all the ingredients of a fascinating book at hand, the author succeeded in writing merely a very dull one. The emphasis throughout the book is very much on the "dynastic intrigue" mentioned in the subtitle more than on the White Rajahs themselves. In particular, a substantial chunk is devoted to a "lost heir" -- a son born to a Malay wife and the Rajah prior to his marrying an English heiress who later produced three "proper" heirs (e.g., not of mixed blood).
There's a lot to sort through in terms of who was who, not to mention all the comings and goings between continents of the major players. At times the book reads like straight-up adventure (albeit a little woodenly told), as Charles Brooke, later the second Rajah of Sarawak, leads marauding parties of dyak warriors to battle or visits remote outposts of what later became his kingdom. At other times White Rajah reads rather like the plot summary of a soap opera, detailing who did what when where. Little of it seems to come to life despite the author's penchant for inserting sometimes sensational details through the text. There's a sense of disconnectedness to it all.
The central episode of the book is this: the second rajah, Charles Brooke, marries a English heiress for her money and, presumably, to produce an heir. It's clear he doesn't care for her, and he especially doesn't care for the English and European society she's so fond of. The one thing the book does make quite clear (and the reason for two stars here rather than one) is why the Rajah preferred to be out in the forest with his headhunting Iban chieftans rather than lolling about in an English drawing room.
The wife, Margaret, is at first presented as a rather pathetic, forlorn character, but later in the book she emerges as a full-blown harridan, or at least an implacable foe of her husband. Their quarrels concern money (mostly) as well as the wife's social pretensions. She raises their three sons in England, against his wishes. Why the presumably iron-willed rajah couldn't have prevailed over her is something of a mystery that is never resolved.
By far the weakest section of the book concerns the upbringing of Esca Brooke Daykin, the half-breed son who was shunted off to be raised by a completely unlikeable (and rather unstable) clergyman who emigrated later to Canada. The author expends considerable effort on details that seem at best peripheral to the tale. Especially irritating are her speculations about why Esca was given over to the care of this clergyman, when he found out who his real father was, how he felt about it, and so on. This portion of the book relies a great deal on what the author "felt" or "imagined," as the following sprinkling of quotes (with my italics) illustrates:
"I don't imagine that she wanted to set eyes on this cuckoo in her nest."
"...I have a niggling suspicion that there is something else about Daykin and his relationship with James Brooke. I cannot put my finger on what it is."
"It could be that Mary Daykin provided capital for Esca's move into mercantile business in 1895."
"Still I remain puzzled why Esca should have stayed with the Daykins for so long.... It is important not to read a great deal into a single photograph, but I have to say Archdeacon Daykin looks a very unstable character."
"I can not imagine what Hope Brooke's motivation was..."
"It may be utterly fanciful, but I am inclined to read a concern for his own treatment of Dayan Mastiah and her son in the old Rajah's glistening eyes."
For my part, I wished wholeheartedly that the author would have made up her mind about what she wanted to write: either her romantic interpretation of the facts, or just a straight-up recounting of the historical events. As it is, the book doesn't really succeed on either count.
I gave it two stars, however, for making the eccentric second rajah's habits and character clearer, and particularly for this wonderfully juicy tidbit concerning the rajah's later years:
"...the local [English] gentry looked somewhat askance at the way Charles Brooke threw himself into the hunt with his unruly horses - at his age. When he was eighty-two his horse stumbled into a ditch and threw him, and a branch pierced his eye. He endured an operation and many weeks in the hospital, growing more bitter every day. The eye was lost. When it was suggested he get a glass eye for his empty socket, he marched into the nearest taxidermist and purchased a variety of eyes: tiger, leopard, albatross. In Sarawak and in England, his ferocious, unblinking animal eye had a wonderfully unnerving effect."
As for the forgotten heir, whom the author spends so much time painstakingly building a case for? Well, much like the Rajah Charles Brooke, I really didn't have much use for him.
There's a lot to sort through in terms of who was who, not to mention all the comings and goings between continents of the major players. At times the book reads like straight-up adventure (albeit a little woodenly told), as Charles Brooke, later the second Rajah of Sarawak, leads marauding parties of dyak warriors to battle or visits remote outposts of what later became his kingdom. At other times White Rajah reads rather like the plot summary of a soap opera, detailing who did what when where. Little of it seems to come to life despite the author's penchant for inserting sometimes sensational details through the text. There's a sense of disconnectedness to it all.
The central episode of the book is this: the second rajah, Charles Brooke, marries a English heiress for her money and, presumably, to produce an heir. It's clear he doesn't care for her, and he especially doesn't care for the English and European society she's so fond of. The one thing the book does make quite clear (and the reason for two stars here rather than one) is why the Rajah preferred to be out in the forest with his headhunting Iban chieftans rather than lolling about in an English drawing room.
The wife, Margaret, is at first presented as a rather pathetic, forlorn character, but later in the book she emerges as a full-blown harridan, or at least an implacable foe of her husband. Their quarrels concern money (mostly) as well as the wife's social pretensions. She raises their three sons in England, against his wishes. Why the presumably iron-willed rajah couldn't have prevailed over her is something of a mystery that is never resolved.
By far the weakest section of the book concerns the upbringing of Esca Brooke Daykin, the half-breed son who was shunted off to be raised by a completely unlikeable (and rather unstable) clergyman who emigrated later to Canada. The author expends considerable effort on details that seem at best peripheral to the tale. Especially irritating are her speculations about why Esca was given over to the care of this clergyman, when he found out who his real father was, how he felt about it, and so on. This portion of the book relies a great deal on what the author "felt" or "imagined," as the following sprinkling of quotes (with my italics) illustrates:
"I don't imagine that she wanted to set eyes on this cuckoo in her nest."
"...I have a niggling suspicion that there is something else about Daykin and his relationship with James Brooke. I cannot put my finger on what it is."
"It could be that Mary Daykin provided capital for Esca's move into mercantile business in 1895."
"Still I remain puzzled why Esca should have stayed with the Daykins for so long.... It is important not to read a great deal into a single photograph, but I have to say Archdeacon Daykin looks a very unstable character."
"I can not imagine what Hope Brooke's motivation was..."
"It may be utterly fanciful, but I am inclined to read a concern for his own treatment of Dayan Mastiah and her son in the old Rajah's glistening eyes."
For my part, I wished wholeheartedly that the author would have made up her mind about what she wanted to write: either her romantic interpretation of the facts, or just a straight-up recounting of the historical events. As it is, the book doesn't really succeed on either count.
I gave it two stars, however, for making the eccentric second rajah's habits and character clearer, and particularly for this wonderfully juicy tidbit concerning the rajah's later years:
"...the local [English] gentry looked somewhat askance at the way Charles Brooke threw himself into the hunt with his unruly horses - at his age. When he was eighty-two his horse stumbled into a ditch and threw him, and a branch pierced his eye. He endured an operation and many weeks in the hospital, growing more bitter every day. The eye was lost. When it was suggested he get a glass eye for his empty socket, he marched into the nearest taxidermist and purchased a variety of eyes: tiger, leopard, albatross. In Sarawak and in England, his ferocious, unblinking animal eye had a wonderfully unnerving effect."
As for the forgotten heir, whom the author spends so much time painstakingly building a case for? Well, much like the Rajah Charles Brooke, I really didn't have much use for him.
December 31, 2021
Pybus skillfully organizes her book so that in the first section we are introduced to the White Rajahs of Sarawak, and in particular the nephew of the first Rajah, Charles Johnson, who takes the family name of Brooke as he inherits his uncle’s title. He’s an interesting character because he’s far more empathetic to the indigenous peoples of Borneo than to the English aristocracy. But we lose sympathy for him in part two, as we meet the English girl he marries, brings to Borneo and then completely neglects. However in part three, we discover how manipulative she is as she ensures that his possibly legitimate oldest son, by a high-class Malay women, is dumped with a neurotic clergyman in England who eventually takes up positions in the wilds of Ontario. An extremely well-researched and fascinating story.
I actually read the Canadian edition, with a slightly different title and no cover image on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...
I actually read the Canadian edition, with a slightly different title and no cover image on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews