Is there more life in 19C India after The Far Pavilions? discussion

I love The Far Pavilions, as well as Kaye's Shadow of the Moon. A couple of awesome finds that but for the fact I was browsing Listmanias on Amazon UK I'd never have come across are Zemindar and Olivia and Jai.

Zemindar and Shadow of the Moon are great companion pieces. SotM tells the story of the Sepoy rebellion from outside the Lucknow residency, while Zemindar's tale is from within.

Misfit I know nothing of this period but you've always steered me in the right direction.

Can you elaborate on this period for me?

Argh, you're going to make me think :)

I'm off to the store and the gym but I'll find some info for you later. Fascinating stuff when the British held India.

Raj The Making and Unmaking of British India
The Last Mughal The Fall of a Dynasty Delhi, 1857
City of Djinns A Year in Delhi
The Age of Kali Indian Travels and Encounters
A Passage to India

Okay - A passage to India is not 19C but it's a damn fine read!

Thanks you're a gem Misfit!

I had Passage out from the library once thinking it was 19C but for some reason it wasn't the book for me at that time. Another day.

Susan, I think a quick read at Wik might be easier than me trying to explain it, especially so I don't put my foot in my mouth. Try this entry for starters,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Raj

It's such a diverse mix of cultures and history that I find it quite fascinating. MM Kaye is tops with me, her father was in the Civil Service and spent a lot of time in India and the far East, and I believe Kaye's husband did as well. Her love for the country shows through in her books, as well as her understanding of the cultures. I always come away from reading her being reminded how completely opposite Eastern and Western cultures are - just as important to remember in today's world.

Ryman's Olivia and Jai and Veil of Illusion really bring home the problems of the Eurasean (sp?) children from the results of the British taking on mistresses - they weren't welcomed by either the British or their own people.

Thanks I will check out Wiki, I love books that take me to a different time and place. For example, A Thousand Splendid Suns is doing that for me now, taking me to Afghanistan.

I think I will enjoy reading some of your suggestions. Please write me a top 5 list if you can!
And any one else out there recommendations are always appreciated, especially on an unfamiliar topic.

Susan, the only one I will add to my list above is Trade Wind by MM Kaye. While it is set in Zanzibar and not India it is still an interesting look at another culture.

TW is my next book to read on this subject, followed by the second volume of The Raj quartet

I really enjoyed A Passage to India. I thought it was a wonderful book. Kim was also quite good and entertaining I thought. Though I am interested in India, I cannot think of many works of ficition I have acutally read on the subject, but I would love to read more.

Oh! - I didn't think farther than the end of my nose, and I know that that is a long thing but I didn't realise that this would be only fiction, so scrap my lame choices thus far.

:O)

(though I do have Bindi Babes on audio to listen to)

Bettie wrote: "Oh! - I didn't think farther than the end of my nose, and I know that that is a long thing but I didn't realise that this would be only fiction, so scrap my lame choices thus far.

:O)

(though..."

It's OK. I do have a non-fiction thread going here as well. The more the merrier whether it's members or books to talk about :)

Bettie wrote: "Raj The Making and Unmaking of British India
The Last Mughal The Fall of a Dynasty Delhi, 1857
City of Djinns A Year in Delhi
[book:The Age of Kali ..."

My list would be pretty much identical to Bettie's, except that I'd like to add White Mughals, also by Darylmple. It's a fascinating historical account of the melding of native Indian and British culture.

Have anyone read The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G Farrell?

sounds interesting Sandy, thanks for the recommendation...

I've had Sege of Krishnapur on my wish list forever. I keep getting side tracked by other books. I've heard mention of White Mughals as well.

Sandybanks wrote: "Bettie wrote: "Raj The Making and Unmaking of British India
The Last Mughal The Fall of a Dynasty Delhi, 1857
City of Djinns A Year in Delhi
[book:The..."

Laura, Misfit, I've never read it too. But I've been curious about it for a long time. A candidate for group read? :)

Could be a nice trial but we need some time in order to get it. I will give a look at BM...

not a chance at BM and in my bookshop it will take 5 weeks. What about you Misfit?

I'll check in the bookstores here, but I'm not optimistic. If it's not available, I'll have to order it from Amazon --- which will take at least a month.

Unless this book becomes a passport-book...

Laura wrote: "Unless this book becomes a passport-book..."

I have just ordered from amazon uk for one penny - should be with me next week and I will be home from oslo then. Shall I post it on to you Laura when I have done with it?

sure!! then I will send to Sandybanks who will send to Misfit and so on. Thanks Bettie!!

Laura wrote: "sure!! then I will send to Sandybanks who will send to Misfit and so on. Thanks Bettie!!"

Dear Laura - yes indeedy - share the book love.

xx

I can't believe it. For once the library doesn't have it. I can always try for an ILL.

don´t worry Misfit since this book is going to travel from Sweden-Brazil-Indonesia-USA unless you or Sandy prefers another travel order.

Sounds like it will travel well. I can always put in an ILL request when we first start and see if I get it. There's no charge to me so somewhere we can save on shipping.

Interesting I was looking briefly at the reviews on Amazon. This one certainly looks controversial = lively discussions.

I have read The Siege of Krishnapur and I remembered really, really liking it although it is not at all like M.M. Kaye's writings on India :D An oldie but a goodie is, of course, Rudyard Kipling (although there is quite a lot of racism that you have to overlook - although I find this is also present but more subtly in many other works about India in this period!) Kim is still one of my favorites, despite all that! Also, lthough they are technically set at the turn of the 18th/19th c., I very much enjoy Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe books set in India, particularly Sharpe's Tiger, which is set in Srirangpattna (Seringapatam if you're British :D) and particularly appeals to me since I've been there.

Nice to see lots of William Dalrymple fans here - I met him when he was doing a book tour for White Mughals and he's just exceptionally nice (not to mention very talented and passionate about his subject matter!)

I wanted to also mention John Keay's (nonfiction) books: I've read his history of the East India Company (which is fascinating stuff!) as well as The Great Arc both of which I really enjoyed.

great recommendations Bibliophile!!!

Bibliophile wrote: "I have read The Siege of Krishnapur and I remembered really, really liking it although it is not at all like M.M. Kaye's writings on India :D An oldie but a goodie is, of course, Rudyard Kipling (..."

You met Dalrymple!? - whee/hugs/dances - so have I! I have four books signed by him at Cheltenham Book Festival in the versions where his missus did the water colour painitngs that formed the original covers. He later changed the covers under pressure drom his publisher and forgot to inform the wife - she was understandably well pissed at him lol

Life is good

Bettie, I have those original watercolor editions too! They're so nice. I wonder why they had to be changed :( (I have copies of the other versions as well, because I'm always afraid to loan out City of Djinns and not get it back!!)

Hannahr asked over in the intro thread: "Do you have any recommendations you could give me of Indian poets/writers I could read that would give me a good reference to mainly historical India?"

I figured this thread was a better fit, so I moved my answer over here: You know, that's actually a really tough one! I wanted to recommend a whole bunch of South Asian writers but I realize that most of their works are not set in 19th c. India but in post-1948 India or Pakistan (or in the South Asian diasporas of England, Canada or the United States.) This is not 19th Century, but it is historical - Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy is absolutely wonderful (though longer than War & Peace, I'm just warning you!) I love it because it is all about Indian characters, not about British people living in India and bemoaning the benighted states of the natives :P (My great-grandfather was imprisoned for his participation in the 1931 Salt March organized by Gandhi, so I am not so fond of books that are exclusively devoted to how awesome the British were :P) However, I do think "The Raj Quartet" by Paul Scott is fantastic, and it is focused primarily on the British characters! But I think he does a really good job of showing the corrupting influence of power as well as providing a panoramic view of British rule in the waning days of the Raj.

If you want more ancient history ... I have a friend who really liked Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni's latest book (based on the ancient Indian epic of the Mahabharata) I haven't read it myself and I haven't loved her other work, so take that recommendation as you will :D

A lot of the Indian historical stuff was/is written in vernacular (and some of it is more what I would call a sort of nebulous propaganda than of great literary worth) but you will almost certainly find at least some translated works by the great Indian writer Rabindranath Tagore who was the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Many of his works were subsequently adapted to film by Satyajit Ray as well. You might also check out Mulk Raj Anand and for something completely different, there's always R. K. Narayan who created an entire fictional South Indian town called Malgudi and peopled it with gently comic figures.

Olivia Fraser is married to Wee Willie Dalrymple:

I'm thinking Biliophile is going to be a dangerous addition here. I see the pile increasing as I type....

me too, me too....

Laura wrote: "me too, me too...."

.....me three...........
:o

Bibliophile wrote: "Hannahr asked over in the intro thread: "Do you have any recommendations you could give me of Indian poets/writers I could read that would give me a good reference to mainly historical India?"

I f..."

Welcome to the club, Bibliophile! It's great to have a person who is from India here. Do you live there?

I love contemporary Indian writers, especially Vikram Seth and Amitav Ghosh. I have also read most of what Darylmple wrote about India. It must be so exciting to meet him! He came to a writers' festival in Indonesia a couple of years ago --- I wish I could have gone there.

What do you think of White Tiger by Aravind Adiga? Is it an accurate potrait of India now?

Very cool discovery! Reminds me of Zemindar!

http://www.hindustantimes.com/News/eu...

Hannahr wrote: "Very cool discovery! Reminds me of Zemindar!

http://www.hindustantimes.com/News/eu..."

this link seems to be broken...

It worked for me.

Hannahr wrote: "Very cool discovery! Reminds me of Zemindar!

http://www.hindustantimes.com/News/eu..."

That's a fab snippet, Hannahr

it works now

I have read great books taking place in India,but they are not always about XIXth century India, can I just mention them ?
As I said when I introduced myself to the group :
"The Rains came" Louis Bromfield
"Taj" Timeri Murari
"Death in Kashmir" MM.Kaye
"Death in the Andamans" MM.Kaye
"Pour l"amour de l'Inde" Catherine Clément
"Le roman du Taj Mahal" C.Clément
"Edwina Mountbatten, scandaleuse, libre et vice -reine des Indes"B Meyer-Stabley
"Passion Indienne" Javier Moro
"La Femme sacrée" Michel de Grèce (I loved this one so much !!!)
"La vingtième épouse"Indu Sundaresan
"Un festin de roses"I.Sundaresan
"Du côté de Pondichery" Dominique Marny
"Darjeeling"D.Marny

I have to read "the Far Pavillions"yet, I remember watching the series on TV when I was a teen, I loved it.

Oh I just love MM Kaye. Not set in India but her Tradewinds is just awesome.

I just read it is set in Zanzibar, and that appeals to me very much!! I think I am going to order "Tradewinds" and "Shadow of the Moon" right away !!!
When I read "Death in Kashmir" some time ago (in the 90's) I wanted so much to rent a house boat in Kashmir!!! It made me dream ......

Misfit wrote: "Oh I just love MM Kaye. Not set in India but her Tradewinds is just awesome."

I do agrre with you!! great recommendations Virginie, I am planing to read Shadow in April during my trip to Fernando de Noronha

Laura, gorgeous shot.

Virginie, I'd also recommend Zemindar by Valerie Fitzgerald if you can get your hands on it. A great companion book to Shadow of the Moon. Same period, but Zem. is set inside the Lucknow Residency and SOTM outside.

Virginie wrote: "I have read great books taking place in India,but they are not always about XIXth century India, can I just mention them ?
As I said when I introduced myself to the group :
"The Rains came" Louis ..."

You mention any period you want. We want to know them all :)

Lucky you, Laura what a gorgeous place !!!! It 's funny I plan ahead my reads as well when I set off for a holiday.I always take several books in case I cannot get into one, my holidays are perfect when I bring good reads along.
I think Shadow will be a perfect trip read, it sounds good !

Misfit wrote: "Laura, gorgeous shot.

Virginie, I'd also recommend Zemindar by Valerie Fitzgerald if you can get your hands on it. A great companion book to Shadow of the Moon. Same period, but Zem. is set insi..."

this island is like a paradise lost since they control how many tourists go there in order to preserve/keep the nature as it is.

One thing I like about MM Kaye is that she always sends home the message through her stories is that East and West are inherently different cultures and will never see eye to eye. We should stop trying to change what cannot be changed - you'll really see that in Tradewinds when the heroine learns that lesson.

Shadow of the Moon takes a while to get moving but those last 100 or so pages. Yowza!