<![CDATA[The Jewel in the Crown (The Raj Quartet, #1)]]>

false <![CDATA[The Jewel in the Crown (The Raj Quartet, #1)]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172182007m/146746.jpg 146746 13 "Ah no, waste no pity on young Kumar. Whatever he got while in the hands of the police he deserved. And waste no pity on her either. She also got what she deserved." August 1942. World War II is reaching its apex, with the conflict consuming almost all of Asia and Europe. In Southeast Asia, the Japanese have driven the British army out of Burma and are threatening India, where Britain's beleaguered forces find themselves facing an increasingly hostile Indian populace tired of decades of unfulfilled promises of freedom. On a dark monsoonal night in the town of Mayapore, amid an outbreak of anti-British rioting, a gang of Indian men rape a young British woman. Through this rape, we are introduced to a cast of characters engulfed and subsequently carried away by the storm of events. Paul Scott's The Jewel in the Crown is part historical novel, part mystery, part love story, part allegory. But to reduce it to any of these elements is to miss its irony, poignancy, and beauty. Full of complex characters and rich in atmosphere and symbolism, this is a novel that works on many different levels. The events unfold through the eyes of a varied cast of characters--both British and Indian--united by their inability to escape the straightjacket of race and social roles, no matter their class, education, or political views. This is particularly excruciating for the rape victim and the young Indian man accused of the crime. These two are drawn to each other by their alienation from the roles they are expected to play. Englishwoman Daphne Manners finds herself increasingly estranged from her countrymen, while Hari Kumar, an Indian who has lived in Britain for all but two years of his life and is so anglicized that he doesn't even speak Hindi, can't abide his native land. Their struggle with the identities and constraints that society imposes on them and the manifestations of their conflict form the core of the novel, providing the timelessness and richness that make it one of the great novels of the 20th century. The Jewel in the Crown, originally published in 1966, is the first of the Raj Quartet, the sweeping epic that looks at the collapse in the 1940s of British rule in India. It was followed by The Day of the Scorpion, The Towers of Silence, and A Division of Spoils. --Jonathan King 2103139 book 1966 The Jewel in the Crown (The Raj Quartet, #1) total:277|5:113|4:99|3:52|2:10|1:3| 277 1140 488 41 5 5 false false Thu Jul 05 18:11:23 -0700 2007 Sun Aug 19 06:55:54 -0700 2007 more...]]> 0 1 false false Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sat Jan 10 12:38:17 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 10 12:39:01 -0800 2009 The first, I believe, of the Raj quartet. The main and central event in this book, as is explained by the first lines, was the rape of a white woman by a gang of Indian hooligans. The rape took place as a part of a rebellion staged in 1942 by forc...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Mar 30 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Mar 25 10:27:55 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 30 12:29:06 -0700 2008 The book is divided into sections, each one ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Aug 19 19:14:26 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 19 19:28:02 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Sep 10 15:39:32 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 10 15:42:31 -0700 2009
Epics
Paul Scott held a commission in the Indian army during World War II, and when the war was over, he turned to fiction, writing the critically acclaimed and much beloved Raj Quartet. Start with the first, The Jewel in the Crown, which is about a...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jul 22 13:59:27 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 22 14:05:57 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Aug 21 00:00:00 -0700 1994 Fri Aug 21 09:24:47 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 21 09:29:10 -0700 2009
This time, I am struck by how particular the language is, not just to each character, which is so well done, but also to what I...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1988 Fri Dec 26 03:54:23 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 26 04:04:26 -0800 2008
A stunning cycle of novels driven by Kipling's insight, that 'who truly knows of England, who onl...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Jul 18 17:50:25 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 18 17:53:51 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Dec 25 22:42:54 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 01 15:56:48 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jan 30 12:47:13 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 30 12:50:51 -0800 2009
Rea...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Nov 20 02:58:50 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 08 02:53:46 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jun 04 13:50:37 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 04 13:52:15 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jun 08 22:40:13 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 08 22:41:28 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Dec 08 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Oct 26 17:50:51 -0700 2008 Mon Dec 08 17:03:25 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Nov 21 23:23:33 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 21 23:24:51 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Sun Mar 22 01:00:45 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 22 01:02:49 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Nov 06 05:45:40 -0800 2007 Sat Nov 10 11:10:00 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue May 13 10:37:05 -0700 2008 Tue Oct 23 15:21:24 -0700 2007 Tue May 13 10:37:05 -0700 2008
The Jewel In The Crown
Paul Scott
Historical Fictin
470 pages

No set of novels so richly recreates the last days of India under British rule—"two nat...more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon May 11 06:30:58 -0700 2009 Mon May 11 06:32:21 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=146746