Retro Reads discussion

This is the place for useful links and general comments. Please feel free to add anything that might help us understand the book

A very helpful, largely spoiler-free web site with background info and great photos.

http://www.purrlions.net/ash/india_un...

M.M. Kaye's New York Times obituary: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/05/boo...

This is a history of the The Honorable East India Company, colloquially named John Company, with a useful timeline of governors and events:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_...

Here's a link to my India folder with some excellent books, some read, some TBRs: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

This is a link to the Wikipedia article on the Indian Rebellion of 1857 in which Siti and Ash find themselves caught after the cholera kills Professor Hilary in Book 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_R...

A list here, although it's for novels on the British Empire in general and not India specific: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

The Sepoy Rebellion can be found in MM Kaye's Shadow of the Moon and Valerie Fitzgerald's Zemindar. Those two complement each other well, Kaye's characters are outside of the Lucknow Residency and Fitzgerald's are inside.

Misfit wrote: "A list here, although it's for novels on the British Empire in general and not India specific: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

The Sepoy Rebelli..."

Misfit, did you also get the impression that (view spoiler)[Alex Randall is a copy of Ash, especially since both can easily pass off as Pathans and their backgrounds have similarities? (hide spoiler)] And also that (view spoiler)[Oliver from Zemindar feels a bit like Fitzgerald was basing it on Ash? (hide spoiler)]

Interesting thoughts. I think I might have to reread them all to look for the similarities. Alex in Shadow of the Moon was pretty swoon worthy IMO.

Misfit wrote: "Interesting thoughts. I think I might have to reread them all to look for the similarities. Alex in Shadow of the Moon was pretty swoon worthy IMO."

Yes, he was! If only he'd gotten a better companion...

*grumbles*

I go on a four day vacation, and come back and you are all reading machines! I'll get started -- looks like it is good enough to keep reading all day.

Clear your social calendar, Kathy, and forget about all such mundane chores as laundry and bills. I read all day yesterday--I could not put Far Pavilions down! It is interesting to be reading it at the same time as The Day of the Scorpion. Far Pavilions is set some seventy years earlier and the lines between races and religions had only just begun to harden.

I read White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India a few months ago; it's set earlier still, in the eighteen century during British East India company's days when there was much more open social mixing and intermarriage. All three books point to the arrival of the memsahibs (the English ladies) and the resulting segregation of British subjects into cantonments as a factor in widening divisions.

I recently finished The Day of the Scorpion. I thought I would keep pace with Jill in the History Book Club, but could not put that one down. Perfect.

I did the same thing, but I'm now re-reading it and discovering so much more by going a tad more slowly, pacing myself to the HBC threads :)

Kathy wrote: "I go on a four day vacation, and come back and you are all reading machines! I'll get started -- looks like it is good enough to keep reading all day."

That's what you get for going on vacation, Kathy! :D I got a little sidetracked by Wildfire at Midnight for a day or two and now I'm playing catch-up myself.

I love Mary Stewart

Kathy wrote: "I love Mary Stewart"

She's the best.

I just finished watching the mini series on You Tube. I'm pretty sure they swapped some storylines out of sequence. Waiting for the rest of you...

Wait, there's a miniseries? O.o

Tadiana wrote: "Wait, there's a miniseries? O.o"

You young whipper snappers probably weren't born yet :p

Misfit wrote: "You young whipper snappers probably weren't born yet :p"

I always figured I had you beat with the age thing. Since the book was written in '78 and the miniseries was in '84 (I just checked), long after I was born, I'm afraid I'll have to blame my ignorance on obliviousness rather than my youth. :)

Tadiana wrote: "Misfit wrote: "You young whipper snappers probably weren't born yet :p"

I always figured I had you beat with the age thing. Since the book was written in '78 and the miniseries was in '84 (I just ..."

:)

I finished watching last night. Even if you ladies don't take the time to watch the whole thing, but bits in Bithor and the wedding plus ---->>>>huge spoiler (view spoiler)[the suttee (hide spoiler)] are well worth watching.

Interesting how the mini series ended up, they skipped quite a bit and I'm sure the battle at the residency was at the end of the book ((view spoiler)[Oh, Wally! (hide spoiler)]).

I'll be good and save opening your spoilers for later, even though they are VERY tempting!

Tadiana wrote: "I'll be good and save opening your spoilers for later, even though they are VERY tempting!"

Once you get there, you should know exactly what I'm talking about.

@Misfit Your first spoiler I remember being on the edge of my seat as I turned the pages as fast as I could. I can't remember, is it as well done in the mini series? I'll watch it as soon as I finish reading, which will probably be a few more weeks. As to your second spoiler- I agree! (view spoiler)[So is the battle at the residency not in the mini series? Oh Wally. :'( (hide spoiler)] I should add that my remembering how everything turns out is in no way detracting from my enjoyment of this rereading. I think this book holds up well.

Diane Lynn wrote: "@Misfit Your first spoiler I remember being on the edge of my seat as I turned the pages as fast as I could. I can't remember, is it as well done in the mini series? I'll watch it as soon as I fini..."

Spoiler #1, I thought it was just as intense as it was in the book. I was riveted.

Spoiler #2, (view spoiler)[The battle at the residency is in the series, but it came right after Juli's marriage, and then Julie's rescue, where the mini series ended. I could have sworn it happened towards the end of the book, after her rescue and marriage to Ash (hide spoiler)]. I could be wrong though.

Ram ram. (view spoiler)[Ram ram. Ram ram. Ram ram. (hide spoiler)]

That was soooooooooooooo intense.

Misfit wrote: "Diane Lynn wrote: "@Misfit Your first spoiler I remember being on the edge of my seat as I turned the pages as fast as I could. I can't remember, is it as well done in the mini series? I'll watch i..."

You are correct (view spoiler)[The battle is the last bit of the book and IIRC Wally is so brave and rallies his men. I can't wait to see the mini series again, I just hope I can get over Amy Irving (hide spoiler)].

AAAAGGHHH! Stop it with all the spoiler tags! It's killing me. Lol. I'm going to have to stop looking at this thread until I'm done with the book.

Diane Lynn wrote: "Misfit wrote: "Diane Lynn wrote: "@Misfit Your first spoiler I remember being on the edge of my seat as I turned the pages as fast as I could. I can't remember, is it as well done in the mini serie..."

OK, I'm not losing my mind (yet). Just get over Amy Irving and enjoy the rest of it. What they must have gone through to film that. The wedding party alone with all those actors, plus the elephants. Wow.

Tadiana wrote: "AAAAGGHHH! Stop it with all the spoiler tags! It's killing me. Lol. I'm going to have to stop looking at this thread until I'm done with the book."

Sorry, I will stop. What is behind those tags really isn't enough to spoil, more hints than anything.

No, I don't want to ruin your and Diane's fun. I'm just having fun complaining because it's hard for me not to click on spoilers. Carry on!

Tadiana wrote: "No, I don't want to ruin your and Diane's fun. I'm just having fun complaining because it's hard for me not to click on spoilers. Carry on!"

Hurry up and read.

I'm trying. :p

There is a Bollywood movie on Mangal Pandey (Ash's nickname came from him) called The Rising but I'm not able to locate English subtitles.
I've watched part of the movie and enjoyed it, mostly for the sets and music plus the actions kind of speak for themselves, but gosh subtitles would be nice.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0346457/?...

and on youtube this is part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3LsE...

That's so interesting about Ash's nickname. I just checked my Netflix account and they have the Rising in DVD format and it lists English as one of several languages subtitled :) I just added it to the top of my queue.

Just watched part 1--even without subtitles it's pretty terrific. I'm looking forward to getting the DVD.

That's great about Netflix. I watched through part 3 last week, but getting it in English would be wonderful. I liked the song it starts with. There are bits in English which helps. I'll have to look at Amazon for the DVD, I'm not sure how I missed it.

I loved the song and the painted elephant was wonderful!

Do you have any idea why he was pardoned and at the last minute that way?

Hana wrote: "Do you have any idea why he was pardoned and at the last minute that way?"

Pardoned? I don't think he was pardoned.

The guy on the scaffold was Pandey?. Did they just postpone the hanging, then?

Ugh...it would seem so...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangal_P...

Yes, in the movie it was postponed because the hangman ran away and no one else would do it. I'm guessing that the commanding officer didn't want to push it since this is right after the mutiny/rebellion and tensions would be high. Then the movie goes back in time 4 years to show how they got to that point.

I see you read up on Panday and I assume you saw that he was executed. And fairly quickly after the mutiny IIRC.

Thanks for the clarification!

Here's another very helpful resource: a full chronology of the Second Afghan War. You can click through on the links at left to read more. The pictures and maps are wonderful! http://www.garenewing.co.uk/angloafgh...

Most of the major British characters and quite a few of the minor ones have portraits and they are wonderful, but beware of spoilers!

Actual pictures of Wally:

A picture of present-day Kabul:

Love those pix, Tadiana! Kabul really does have a certain grim beauty and Wally is so handsome in that picture.

I'm hoping to start watching the DVD sometime this week.

Enjoy it and I would love to hear your thoughts about the always tricky book-movie transition. I'm no purist: some of the movie transitions seriously improve the books (Bleak House). Yet some are near disasters or at least real disappointments. (I have mixed to negative feelings about the whole Harry Potter film adaptation. I could go on...Sigh. I promise I will spare you the line by line/scene by scene critique :D)

Hello Hana and group!

I been offline pretty much since September. Very busy with the end of fy 2018 and the beginning of fy 2019. I have a terrible backlog of pm’s and notifications.

I don’t want to miss the buddy reread of Far Pavilions. Is it still on?

Andrea (Catsos Person) is a Compulsive eBook Hoarder wrote: "Hello Hana and group!

I been offline pretty much since September. Very busy with the end of fy 2018 and the beginning of fy 2019. I have a terrible backlog of pm’s and notifications.

I don’t want..."

Hi Andrea!

I think it will be, but Hana is sick ATM. :(