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The Siege of Krishnapur

by J.G. Farrell, Pankaj Mishra (Introduction)

3.92 · rating details · 837 ratings · 161 reviews

Winner of The Booker Prize.

India, 1857—the year of the Great Mutiny, when Muslim soldiers turned in bloody rebellion on their British overlords. This time of convulsion is the subject of J. G. Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur, widely considered one of the finest British novels of the last fifty years.

Farrell's story is set in an isolated Victorian outpost on the sub

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Paperback, 344 pages

Published June 23rd 2010 by New York Review Books Classics (first published 1973)

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Community Reviews

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Jul 04, 2011

Shovelmonkey1 rated it

Shelves: 1001-books

This book totally fooled me - I thought it was written ages ago in times gone by, days of yore etc. but nope, JG Farrell rattled it out in the 1970s. Very tricksy in a EM Forster representation of Brits in a colonial setting kind of way.

You might want to keep a cup of tea handy or perhaps a G & T as you will want something to dunk this book in - it can be a little dry . The petty tribulations of life in colonial India are really brought to the fore with delicate lay-dees overcome by he...more

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Mar 08, 2009

Logan rated it

Shelves: 1001-list, fiction, imperialism, india

You know those books that you think you know even before you read them. Those books that seem to strike those happy chords in your heart and call out to be your bosom buddies based on nothing more than an impression of their cover? That's how Krishnapur and I were for those months it sat on my shelf before I got around to it. Yet when I recently got around to actually cracking the spine on this Booker winner, I found that I had no clue what I was in store for.

Rather than a brutal ...moreYou know those books that you think you know even before you read them. Those books that seem to strike those happy chords in your heart and call out to be your bosom buddies based on nothing more than an impression of their cover? That's how Krishnapur and I were for those months it sat on my shelf before I got around to it. Yet when I recently got around to actually cracking the spine on this Booker winner, I found that I had no clue what I was in store for.

Rather than a brutal retelling of colonial history, of the harsh realities of life under the British yoke, this was more of a look at the psychology of imperialism- of the justifications that the Brits (and currently the Americans in Iraq) threw up in order to shield themselves from the guilt of their repression of the indigenous peoples. These excuses range from the glory of spreading Christianity among the dark heathens, to developing a better understanding of the pseudoscience of phrenology, to the bringing of rational science to a people who would rather sacrifice a goat than build their dikes higher and prevent flooding. That Ballard can compose such a story while avoiding having any actual native characters (aside from the faceless masses waiting to storm the building that forms the titular Siege) is a tribute to his skill as a writer. Better than anything, Ballard drives home just how banal this evil was and how unwittingly it was perpetrated upon their Indian subjects in the name of progress.

The time is the early 1860s, the setting is a fictional cantonment in a Hindustan still ruled by the East India Company. The Indian army is in revolt because the new bullets they were issued are greased in animal fat to allow for easier loading. The military can not understand why this is upsetting for their Hindi soldiers, because loading the weapons entails using ones teeth which is a violation of their vegetarian ways. So the sepoys (Indian soldiers) revolt and trap the Brits in the local government headquarters and begin a months-long siege.

Over the next several hundred pages, Farrell unravels the various foibles of these ladies and gentlemen, who have relied for so long on their servants for everything that they can't even fathom a reality where they must do their own work. Things swiftly devolve into a miasma that reminds me of nothing so much as Pride & Prejudice with Lord of the Flies (which is fitting, given the recent popularity of Austen adaptations such as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or Pride & Predator).

Farrell's style is long-winded and occasionally a bit too pedantic to allow me to give it that ever-elusive fifth star, but the stunningly complex characters that he weaves together into an increasingly chaotic rabble all, at one point or another, manage to get you invested in their continued survival. It's odd to see that, no matter how willfully blind they are to the native's complaints or how unconsciously racist these people are, I still care about whether they survive to return to England and feast upon the Queen's crumpets or whatever it is that Brits do in their spare time (I imagine that it has something to do with dog's bollocks).(less)

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Jul 06, 2011

mark monday rated it

Shelves: past-masters

enjoyable overall; in particular, the period details are fascinating. unfortunately something left me cold about this novel. perhaps it was the lack of old-fashioned adventure in what was a tale of, well, a very bloody and very lengthy siege. perhaps it was the constantly ironic and semi-comic portraits of the characters, both english and indian. although a rather unique way to approach an historical adventure steeped in commentary on the nature of humanity, rationalism, religion, etc...it seeme...more

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May 18, 2008

Andrew rated it

I consider myself lucky that I ended up reading this book after the other two in Farrell's empire trilogy, Troubles and The Singapore Grip. Farrell captured me when I picked up Troubles on a free table at my old Job. It was a supremely clever book, and I couldn't wait to find more by the author. The Singapore Grip was compelling as well, but seemed unwieldy. I don't thing Farrell had complete control of the plot and message, and the book suffers from the lack of direction. Perhaps it was the pre...more

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Apr 07, 2008

Cathy rated it

Shelves: india-and-bollywood-related

So, so good. Plotwise, it's kind of Camus' The Plague meets Gunga Din or something -- Brits end up holed up in the administrator's residence in a remote Indian town during the Sepoy mutiny, and you get to see everyone's personality under pressure. It seems to me that I have read a lot of books about groups of people trapped somewhere with the food running out and the pressure on, and what becomes of them -- so, it's not very original on that level, but the people themselves are fascinating, the ...more

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Aug 14, 2008

Teresa rated it

· review of another edition

Great book. So well-written that though you know it's a satire (which comes across without authorial comment), you still end up caring about the characters and their outcome. Also amazing in that much of it is funny (despite the subject matter) with a purpose -- hard to pull off, but he does.

Also well-done are the handling of its themes, such as what is civilization and who gets to decide it, and the notion of superstition within religion. The whole story is a metaphor really; b...more

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Jun 08, 2008

Karlan rated it

Recommends it for: all readers

This extraordinary novel was selected for the short list of novels which won the Booker prize during the past 40 years. I hadn't read all the books, but I had heard of all except this one. The 1973 winner is the middle title of a trilogy but stands alone easily. It concerns a mutiny in 19th c. India where very Victorian characters endured a terrible siege for months before help arrived. The style is unusual for a modern novel and takes one back to 19th c writing styles. It is exciting, ro...more

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Jun 05, 2008

Trevor rated it

So far, this is my favorite of this year's Best of the Booker shortlist (I still have to read Midnight's Children and The Conservationist). It was a great story with a lot of subtle characters and themes. And the writing was excellent. I wish that Sacred Hunger could have been written in language this good and meticulous--it is poetic yet simple and does an excellent job setting the overall feel for a deep historical novel.

The novel itself, as the title says, is about a siege that ha...moreSo far, this is my favorite of this year's Best of the Booker shortlist (I still have to read Midnight's Children and The Conservationist). It was a great story with a lot of subtle characters and themes. And the writing was excellent. I wish that Sacred Hunger could have been written in language this good and meticulous--it is poetic yet simple and does an excellent job setting the overall feel for a deep historical novel.

The novel itself, as the title says, is about a siege that happened in 1857. A British community in Krishnapur is attacked by Muslim soldiers. On that level, it is a great adventure novel. The action is great; Farrell manages to express the excitement and fear at the same time as he relays the strategies of the defense. It was both interesting and entertaining.

The true beauty of this novel, however, lies in its discussions about civilization, colonialism, and "ideas" of progress. All of the characters, at one point or another, have to examine how they feel about their position in both India and in the greater construct of "civilization." There is a lot of pride, of course. Farrell does an excellent job displaying that pride with ironic undertones. For example, when one soldier dies:

"Providence has denied his country the privilege of decking his youthful brow with the chaplets which belong to the sons of victory and of fame, but his deeds can never die. The pages of history will record and rehearse them far and wide, and every Englishman, whether in his island home or a wanderer on some foreign shore, will relate with admiration what George Foxlett Cutter did at the siege of Krishnapur!"

Since the book takes place soon after the Great Exhibition, that event provides a nice backdrop to the conversation. However, much of the book felt disconnected from its history, and I felt a strong desire to get more of an epic feel. Then again, the book is about an isolated siege that has turned out to be rather insignificant even in its own time. This feeling of isolation fits nicely with that.(less)

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Nov 12, 2007

Quinn rated it

It's Madame Bovary meets The Dawn of the Dead. The backdrop is a British outpost during the 1857 Indian Rebellion, or "Great Mutiny", of Indian soldiers against their British leaders which left tens of thousands dead in fighting and retribution and led to the formal annexation of India into the British Empire. The besieged outpost acts as the shopping mall in the zombie movie. With a set number of characters forced to interact with one another under steadily deteriorating living co...more

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Nov 30, 2008

Adele rated it

As with "Troubles" the first in the Empire trilogy, the extreme depressing nature of "The Siege of Krishnapur" creeps up on the reader. I expect this would have been even truer if I'd read the book during the current sieges in Mumbai, but I read it about a month ago, so any parallels I might draw are retroactive. The scene of the story is nineteenth century colonial India. We begin in Calcutta, meeting high society Brits visiting India for the first time, as well as expats...more

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Jan 22, 2012

Laura rated it

· review of another edition

I am not one to set herself reading projects (it was bad enough at uni, having to read A Journal of the Plague Year), but I intend to read the full Empire trilogy by Farrell. Now I only have The Singapore Grip to go, but not quite yet, as I love the feeling of looking forward to something so greatly enjoyable.
And yet the topic is grim. I understand all three novels focus on a moment when hold of the British over one of their colonies begins to weaken. His trilogy doesn´t tell us the story ...moreI am not one to set herself reading projects (it was bad enough at uni, having to read A Journal of the Plague Year), but I intend to read the full Empire trilogy by Farrell. Now I only have The Singapore Grip to go, but not quite yet, as I love the feeling of looking forward to something so greatly enjoyable.
And yet the topic is grim. I understand all three novels focus on a moment when hold of the British over one of their colonies begins to weaken. His trilogy doesn´t tell us the story of the natives rebelling or taking control over their destiny; the protagonists of his books are the British rulers: the wiltering British Ascendancy in Ireland, and here, the employees of the East India Company, the Collector, the railway engineers, the soldiers and all their families, wives and chidren who often have never set foot in Great Britain, being born in the colony.
The Siege of Krishnapur is set at the time of the Great Mutiny of the sepoys in 1857 and starts in a familiar way: while most of the British refuse to feel threatened by the rumours of trouble coming, the Collector feels uneasy and starts building up some defenses in Krishnapur, only to be considered as an excentric. But trouble does indeed come and the Residency of Krishnapur is sieged by fighting sepoys.
The novel is a magnificent portrayal of the British upper classes in India: their apparent superficiality and snobbishness at the start, during the Season in Calcutta, where women are set on the hunt for a husband; their resiliance and resourcefulness during the siege, perhaps akin to that displayed in the homefront during the Second World War. The experience of the siege unsettles the beliefs and manners of many of the inhabitants of the Residency. And yet when everything is over, generally speaking, they all return to their previous lives with apparent ease. I do admire in the British their ability to "keep calm and carry on", and in this novel, like in my daily life, I can see many examples.
It is a very philosophical novel, in a Shakespearean sort of way. In one particular scene, the Collector digs graves with the priest while musing on the sense of it all, just like Hamlet. Illness and death are a continuous subject and undercurrent, a practicality to deal with as much as grounds for meditation and despair. The characters often talk about the Great Exhibition, the advances of industry and the power and responsibility of the Empire to civilize their colonies. But they also find trouble to reconcile this with religiousness, morality or a more personal way to relate to God.
It may seem that because of the topic the plot would feel stagnant and slow, but Farrell is a master at narration and his tale of the siege shows various stages and developments that, small as they may seem to be, move the events forwards, such as losing part of the residency to the sepoys, the onset of cholera, or running out of drinking water. All this had an effect on the people besieged, in their personality, ideals or health, in a way linking them to one another, making them a group. This becomes especially clear when relief finally arrives, and there is such a strong contrast between the famished remaining population of the Residency, and the fresh, healthy, well-fed soldiers, for whom life as it used to be, has continued as normal. The rescuers even feel repelled by their dirtiness or "indecent" tattered attire. Luckily, things are soon restored to normal.
Although focused on the British, there are some interesting glimpses of the native population: the determined sepoys, the onlookers, or the Anglicized young prince held captive for a while at the Residency, as well as some other people who remained loyal to the British, such as the Sikhs. There is a beautiful love story too, where an insecure, apparently unmanly upper class youth reveals his tenderness in sacrificing his ration in order to make something similar to a birthday cake for the lady he loves.
And the dogs, let us not forget the dogs.(less)

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Dec 19, 2011

Steven Langdon rated it

· review of another edition

The Farrell trilogy on the decline of the British Empire is an excellent series of novels. This novel is in historical timeframe the first of the set, and the first I read, and it captured me quickly, despite the quite frustrating set of characters that play out the major roles in the book. That is part of what Farrell is on about, of course -- the unheroic human material from which supposedly great historical moments are made. In many respects, the siege of Krishnapur can be thought o...more

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Sep 25, 2011

Jennyreadsexcessively rated it

A siege always makes for good storytelling. How long will the fortress's inhabitants hold on? Will they run out of food and amunition before the rescue party arrives? And most interestingly, how will characters develop and change as they are faced with such terrifying odds of survival?

J. G. Farrell's novel is based on the true story of the Muslim Sapoy uprising in British Colonial India in 1857. The author makes the decision (and to my mind, mistake) of not introducing any native Ind...more

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Aug 10, 2011

Cyndie rated it

In 1857, the Victorian Era of empire building is in its ascendance. The nearly 200 year old British East India Company has long controlled India with its military and administrative presence. Just as they are dealing with China’s efforts to stop the lucrative opium trade the first of India’s rebellions seeking freedom from these Europeon interlopers erupts in the Gangetic Plain. Farrell reveals a world of British privilege besieged by Sepoys, the Indian military that had grown dissatisfied w...more

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May 26, 2011

David rated it

Shelves: desert-island, read-2011

Farrell was a genius. _Troubles_ had me thinking it, this book confirms it. Watching him juggle the horrifying and the hilarious for over 300 pages is amazing. This is a much more suspenseful, harrowing read than that equally great study of disintegration and the End of Empire. But taken together they're a wonder. (I took some time off after Troubles, knowing I wanted to be able to savor rather than gulp Farrell's other great works. I will, again, now take some time before finishing the trilogy....more

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Nov 04, 2010

Tony added it

Shelves: fiction-mainstream

Farrell, J. G. THE SIEGE OF KRISHNAPUR. (1973). *****. This is the second novel in Farrell’s trilogy dealing with Britain during the Empire. This time, as you might guess, the location is India, at a small outpost named Krishnapur, where the offices of the East India Company were manned by the necessary officials overseeing the production and sales of two of their most important commidities, opium and salt. The year is 1857, the year of the Indian rebellion, also known as the Sepoy Rebelli...more

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Aug 05, 2010

Denerick rated it

Farrell is rapidly becoming my favourite author. This is the second installment of the 'Empire Trilogy', 'Troubles' being the first, and 'Singapore Grip' being the last. The series examines the decline of the British Empire, this based during the Great Indian mutiny of 1854. In the enclave of Krishnapur, surrounded by angry mutinous Sepoy soldiers, a small force of British colonials, soldiers, their wives and relatives, loyal natives, Shiekhs, and some other strange characters eke out an e...more

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Apr 12, 2010

Arukiyomi rated it

Shelves: 1001bookstoreadbeforeyoudie

Back in early 1995, I was walking up a path in the Himalayan foothills with an Indian friend. I mentioned that I’d recently read Christopher Hibbert’s fantastic book The Great Mutiny: India 1857 and asked him what his perspective on the Indian Mutiny was. “Oh,” he replied coolly, “You mean the First War of Independence.” I’ve never forgotten that lesson in historical perspective. Farrell gives us another lesson with this remarkable novel.

Farrell’s written a great book here. It deals wi...moreBack in early 1995, I was walking up a path in the Himalayan foothills with an Indian friend. I mentioned that I’d recently read Christopher Hibbert’s fantastic book The Great Mutiny: India 1857 and asked him what his perspective on the Indian Mutiny was. “Oh,” he replied coolly, “You mean the First War of Independence.” I’ve never forgotten that lesson in historical perspective. Farrell gives us another lesson with this remarkable novel.

Farrell’s written a great book here. It deals with the human condition so very well against a startlingly vivid backdrop through a medium of wit, irony and deep insight. It seems a very worthy winner of the Booker. I enjoyed it immensely and found it a much more satisfying read than The Singapore Grip.

It’s the characterisation that makes Siege an improvement on Grip, principal among the nameless Collector who oversees a residency under siege. He is rendered exceedingly well as a man whose religion of rational culturalism is, as we know from our perspective, doomed. Farrell tells the story with pathos, wit and with some wonderfully ironic passages scattered with healthy doses of cynicism.

To illustrate this, take The Collector’s pride and joy: his hoard of cultural artifacts brought over at great expense from Europe in the hopes that some of their beauty will rub off on the natives and thus raise them from their morass. In desperation however, The Collector ends up ordering them to be used either as shot for the cannon or to shore up the earthen ramparts. In other words, he uses his art to either kill the natives or to hide behind. Fantastic imagery.

There are some great passages about religious and scientific discussions of the day which, as they would have done in reality, polarise the community under siege. Towards the end, the two doctors end up at loggerheads over how to treat cholera and throughout the Padre demonstrates the inanities of religion in various forms. Hardly anything isn’t dealt with: religion, sexuality, culture, science, civilisation, relationships… Farrell weaves them all in seamlessly. I’m very glad I read it.(less)

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Dec 23, 2010

Stephen rated it

Set in India in 1857, the story focuses on the siege of a British (East India Company) outpost. The author has a nice, sardonic, often humorous way of writing. It beings with clueless English persons. They are more or less unaware of Indians, indifferent too them, and foppish. They are concerned with fashion, etiquette, civilization, material progress, and many seem to believe they are bringing these White virtues to the Indians. But, during the siege, some of these English grow and ...more Set in India in 1857, the story focuses on the siege of a British (East India Company) outpost. The author has a nice, sardonic, often humorous way of writing. It beings with clueless English persons. They are more or less unaware of Indians, indifferent too them, and foppish. They are concerned with fashion, etiquette, civilization, material progress, and many seem to believe they are bringing these White virtues to the Indians. But, during the siege, some of these English grow and change and others don’t.
The book is not only a stinging indictment of the Company and its English workers, but it is also a story of how some people change for the better (not completely) in dire circumstances, and others don’t.
Dr. Dunstable, Lucille and Harry are a family. The doctor sticks to his belief that a miasma causes cholera, and he eventually dies in this belief. Lucille, who was initially only concerned with her beauty, and attracting men’s glances, becomes resourceful when necessary. Harry, who is a silly adventurer, turns in to a good fighter and soldier. He does what has to be done.
The Collector runs the entire compound. He believes, in the beginning, that English material progress can be brought to everyone, and this is for the good. Over the course of the siege, he become less enthused, and by the end, he is skeptical and cynical.
Dr. McNabb is the scientist doctor. He knows what he is going, and he understands what causes cholera.
Fleury is a completely foppish person at the start. He so admires Lucille. Over the course of the siege, he actually learns to do some things (although often with funny false starts) and by the end of the siege he is carrying more than his fair share of the load. He believes that the key to civilization is the spirit and the enlightened soul, and that materialism serves these ends. And, he is willing to lecture on this at the drop of a hat. He continues with these attitudes, but as things move on, he is resourceful. After the siege, he marries Lucille.
Lucy is the fallen woman. She apparently had a child of wedlock. She is ostracized at the beginning, but in due course she does her part, and she becomes part of the group. Harry eventually marries her.
The magistrate is the cynical atheist.
The opium producer is the worst person. Not only does he, as a matter of fact, make his money in drug trade (and sees nothing wrong with this), but he also tries to buy all the food stuff at an auction to resell to his comrades. The Collector prohibits this.
The pastor is a silly person, and he believes that it is sin that has brought this on. He grows very little.
Some of the funnier parts are when there is a document snowstorm, and when they have to use all their prized items of culture and civilization to use as cannon fodder.
(less)

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Oct 11, 2011

Sue rated it

The Siege of Krishnapur is nearly a 5 star. It is rich in almost everything I love in a book; delicious ironies, delightfully flawed characters, historical interest and an endlessly thought-provoking sub-text. What is missing is narrative drive, that relentless quality whereby a book colonises the imagination and clamours for attention when you should really be thinking of other things.

Krishnapur is a fictional town, although the events that take place are based on actual events dur...moreThe Siege of Krishnapur is nearly a 5 star. It is rich in almost everything I love in a book; delicious ironies, delightfully flawed characters, historical interest and an endlessly thought-provoking sub-text. What is missing is narrative drive, that relentless quality whereby a book colonises the imagination and clamours for attention when you should really be thinking of other things.

Krishnapur is a fictional town, although the events that take place are based on actual events during the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, and in particular during the Siege of Lucknow. It is important to the novel that the setting is fictional, because it is very much not an attempt at realism; those hoping for a tale of military derring-do, or a feel of "what it was really like" to be besieged would probably be disappointed. The siege is instead a vehicle for exploring the absurdity of the British in India; it is absurd that these palid ladies and gentleman from a small wet island, in their layers of wool and velvet, took it upon themselves to exploit and rule this vast, broiling continent; it is absurd that they did so in the belief that they were doing the Indians a huge favour in giving them what the British saw as the unquestionable benefits of European religion, science, administration, art and culture. However as the besieged Britons in Krishnapur, or the more thoughtful amongst them, come to realise many of those ideas are in fact questionable, and dogmatic adherence to them self-defeating. It is their ideology which is under siege. The main components of their belief system are personified in the Collector, the Magistrate, the Padre, Dr McNab and Fleury, the poet. Although they disagree with one another on many points, one thing they all agree on is the role of the ladies, ie that ladies have no role other than to please the gentlemen (but in only the seemliest of ways, of course). As the siege gets under way, the sole contribution it is thought the ladies can offer is to attempt to make roly-poly puddings; but as the siege continues, they are to be found making cartridges for the guns and working tirelessly in the grimly bloody hospital - their supposed weakness and inferiority just one of the many sacred cows the gentleman find dead or dying at their feet. However, though we may chortle at these laughable Victorians, Farrell’s theme is very much that we should look to ourselves, whoever we are; are not our own assumptions and prejudices as likely to be judged as absurd and misguided by future generations?

(less)

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May 26, 2008

Beverley rated it

My book group read this years ago when I was away. It has sat on my shelves unread as I regarded it as 'a bit of a boys book'. It is really worth reading. I knew nothing about the British in India, (well apart from 'A passage to India' and watching Gandhi. This is a very serious story which had me laughing out loud. The social comments take you in to another world. A real page turning read and my husband will enjoy it!

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Feb 03, 2011

Paul rated it

· review of another edition

This is an excellent read and captures well the British in India in the nineteenth century with historical accuracy. There is great wit and humour in the book and some genuinely funny moments; however it is also a very brutal book with some grim scenarios. It captures well the British approach to empire in the characters of those caught in the siege and watching their gradual deterioration physically and mentally is fascinating. One of the characters has many antiques and artifacts from the Grea...more

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Jul 06, 2011

Jogle rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, booker-winner, 1001-books2readb4udie

I picked up this book second-hand on the basis that it had won the Booker and J.G. Farrell had made the news with his posthumous winning of the ‘Lost Booker’ – if he had won it back in 1973 with ‘Troubles’ then ‘The siege of Krishnapur’ would have made him the first author to win twice. Tragically he died in a boating accident a few years after writing the novels. I have now realised what a great loss that was to literature.

With little expectation of the book (a bit bored at the time w...more

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Aug 21, 2009

Bettie rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Bettie by: Indian Lit Group here on GR

Shelves: subcontinent, adventure, books-with-a-passport, historical-fiction, pulitzer, one-penny-wonder, war, published-1973, victoriana, satire, plague-disease

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Jul 16, 2010

Frederick rated it

Only an Englishman could write a book about the Western colonial experience as dryly funny, self-critical, non-moralizing and cinematically charged as this. Set during the Indian Mutiny of 1857, the fictional siege of a British community in the middle of nowhere turns out to be the perfect backdrop for examining Western prejudices, hypocrisies and self-serving rationalizations, as well as the halting march of human progress. And while there are plenty of interesting discourses on religion, sci...more

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Nov 20, 2008

Martin rated it

Shelves: book-club

Who would not like a historical novel about Victorian English in India? No matter the premise, this is something I love reading. This novel is based on true events and was written from recovered journals, notes, personal memoirs and history. The characters are amazingly engaging throughout this dense, suprisingly funny novel. The humor is masked under extreme suffering on the part of the English while the natives sit back and watch their little part of England in the middle of India implode on...more

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Nov 08, 2010

Emily rated it

After the Booker Prize was awarded this year, I read this fascinating article that interviewed past Booker Judges, which explained the award, the judging process, etc. It was fascinating, and thus put me on this Booker Prize kick. This book was my second one in less thank two weeks, and already I think I need a break! From the article, I think I understand the Booker now. It's not so much rating the book itself but the author. Also, the books are all by British authors, so they exude a certai...more

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Sep 13, 2011

Megan Baxter rated it

Yet another book that I liked but didn't love. There were times when I found it hard to go back to - there was never, for me, any drive to see what happened next.

The book takes a curiously meandering approach to the English under siege in Krishnapur. Maybe that's what a siege is like - long days of nothing, followed by attacks, followed by more nothing, all the while slowly running out of food and people.

The Siege of Krishnapur also takes long detours into late-Victorian...more

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Oct 29, 2011

Nick rated it

· review of another edition

A Swiftean satire, this novel looks squarely at the British Raj and the shortcomings of the English soldiers, bureaucrats and their wives who peopled it. It's not a pretty sight, though for his sheer dottiness, the anti-hero of the story, the Collector who is in charge of the victims of the siege, wins your heart in the end. But before we get there, many innocuous British citizens -- and uncounted numbers of Sepoys -- have to die, mostly in horrible ways, because the British have such a feeble...more

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Mar 19, 2011

Liz Nutting rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction, kindle

This book wasn't what I was expecting. That can often be a good thing, but in this case, I was a tad disappointed.

Little by little, I've become fascinated by the history of the British occupation of India. It's one of those fascinations that creeps up on me, bit by bit--a book on mountain climbing peaks my interest in the topography of the Hundu Kush; a favorite mystery writer sets a story during the period of The Great Game, prompting me to finally read Kipling's Kim; trying to und...moreThis book wasn't what I was expecting. That can often be a good thing, but in this case, I was a tad disappointed.

Little by little, I've become fascinated by the history of the British occupation of India. It's one of those fascinations that creeps up on me, bit by bit--a book on mountain climbing peaks my interest in the topography of the Hundu Kush; a favorite mystery writer sets a story during the period of The Great Game, prompting me to finally read Kipling's Kim; trying to understand the current war in Afghanistan bleeds into a more historical interest in South Asia. Having eschewed academics for the time being, I don't want to work as hard as I must to plow through heavily footnoted histories. So I turn to the work of lay historians, reporters and novelists.

The Seize of Krishnapur is in that last category, part of a trilogy by Irish writer J.G. Farrell exploring, critiquing and poking fun at the British Empire's glory days. The Seize of Krishnapur is set in Northern India in 1957, at the time of the Sepoy Mutiny, when native Indian soldiers serving in the private army of the British East India Company rose up against their white British masters. In Farrell's fictional region of Krishnapur, an odd collection of East Indian Company employees, their wives and daughters, British soldiers, and naive tourists come under seige at the Company's compound. As fighting intensifies and supplies run scarce, disease and famine sneak in and the human toll mounts, exposing the arrogance and naivté of the "company men" claiming Western superiority of mind and history.

What I wasn't prepared for was the poking fun part. Farrell's book is satire. His characters are caricatures, each exposing some aspect of the arrogance of Empire: The Collector, champion of 19th Century scientific and industrial progress; Fleury, the effete, idealistic Romantic who in the course of the seige discovers the joys of a more muscular approach; Drs. McNab and Dunstable, one embracing the emerging medical theories for treatment of disease, the other insisting on "bad air" as the cause of illness; the Padre, enemy of any secular theory of progress; Lucy, the "fallen woman" with the good heart.

Perhaps if I were reading this when it was first published 40-some years ago, I would have found its critique bold and new; perhaps if I were expecting satire instead of a more stratighforward narrative, I would have enjoyed the caricature more. I came perilously close to adding this to my "suspended for now" Goodreads shelf, but I had long plane rides and the recommendation of a friend to keep me plowing forward. In the end, I did enjoy the book, which if nothing else was well-researched and captured the essence of the time and place. That's what I'd wanted in the first place--a reasonably trustworthy narrative that could give me glimpse into a period about which I know little and want to know more. But I still think Kim offers a far more pointed satire. (less)

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About J.G. Farrell

James Gordon Farrell (25 January 1935 – 11 August 1979), known as J.G. Farrell, was a Liverpool-born novelist of Irish descent. Farrell gained prominence for his historical fiction, most notably his Empire Trilogy (Troubles, The Siege of Krishnapur and The Singapore Grip), dealing with the political and human consequences of British colonial rule. The Siege of Krishnapur won the 1973 Booker Prize....more

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The Empire Trilogy: The Siege of Krishnapur, Troubles, and The Singapore Grip

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“Why do people insist on defending their ideas and opinions with such ferocity, as if defending honour itself? What could be easier to change than an idea?” — 2 people liked it

“The British could leave and half India wouldn't notice us leaving just as they didn't notice us arriving. All our reforms of administration might be reforms on the moon for all it has to do with them..” — 1 person liked it

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