What do you think?
The Mark of the Warrior
Pan G296 2nd edition 1962 printing paperback, fine Burma In stock shipped from our UK warehouse
- GenresFiction
188 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
About the author
Paul Scott
184 books173 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Paul Mark Scott was an English novelist best known for his tetralogy The Raj Quartet. In the last years of his life, his novel Staying On won the Booker Prize (1977). The series of books was dramatised by Granada Television during the 1980s and won Scott the public and critical acclaim that he had not received during his lifetime.
Born in suburban London, Scott was posted to India, Burma and Malaya during World War II. On return to London he worked as a notable literary agent, before deciding to write full time from 1960. In 1964 he returned to India for a research trip, though he was struggling with ill health and alcoholism. From the material gathered he created the novels that would become The Raj Quartet. In the final years of his life he accepted a visiting professorship at the University of Tulsa, where much of his private archive is held.
Paul Mark Scott was an English novelist best known for his tetralogy The Raj Quartet. In the last years of his life, his novel Staying On won the Booker Prize (1977). The series of books was dramatised by Granada Television during the 1980s and won Scott the public and critical acclaim that he had not received during his lifetime.
Born in suburban London, Scott was posted to India, Burma and Malaya during World War II. On return to London he worked as a notable literary agent, before deciding to write full time from 1960. In 1964 he returned to India for a research trip, though he was struggling with ill health and alcoholism. From the material gathered he created the novels that would become The Raj Quartet. In the final years of his life he accepted a visiting professorship at the University of Tulsa, where much of his private archive is held.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 1, 2018
He looked at this loneliness closely and found that it was one of the things he had wanted.
The thought came: In the night a man is more himself.
☽☾
an absorbingly eerie novel with an unexpected narrative.
love may be as important as death; but during war, love is but a weakness.
a man must transform into himself, no matter the cost.
the prologue contains the sole battle; the rest is mere exercise. if "mere" can include wrenching tragedy. a certain nature - a certain mark - within one character is discovered and then fostered by another. the young military recruit Ramsay will follow in his dead brother's dark footsteps. the humane Commandant Craig will do all he can to transform this boy into a warrior, into the sort of person he is not, into the kind of man that war needs. a warrior who will protect the soldiers under his charge; the sort of individual who belongs in the jungle and eschews such human concepts as empathy and kindness. the Mark of the Warrior is a death-mark; it forecasts a lonely, terrible destiny.
Paul Scott's writing is elegant and dreamlike. much as describing one's dream, it is difficult to specify how his effects are achieved. characters think and talk to one another as if they were characters in a play, or as if they doubt their own reality. the prose moves fluidly from terse and manly to gently winding and feminine. Scott plays all sides; each of the characters in his chamber piece is both mysterious and recognizable, including the sole female character.
Sadly, Scott lets down his tense, compelling story with a tragic ending that unfortunately undercuts the whole purpose of the book. still, the novel is a remarkable one in many ways and its themes are fascinating to contemplate.
The thought came: In the night a man is more himself.
☽☾
an absorbingly eerie novel with an unexpected narrative.
love may be as important as death; but during war, love is but a weakness.
a man must transform into himself, no matter the cost.
the prologue contains the sole battle; the rest is mere exercise. if "mere" can include wrenching tragedy. a certain nature - a certain mark - within one character is discovered and then fostered by another. the young military recruit Ramsay will follow in his dead brother's dark footsteps. the humane Commandant Craig will do all he can to transform this boy into a warrior, into the sort of person he is not, into the kind of man that war needs. a warrior who will protect the soldiers under his charge; the sort of individual who belongs in the jungle and eschews such human concepts as empathy and kindness. the Mark of the Warrior is a death-mark; it forecasts a lonely, terrible destiny.
Paul Scott's writing is elegant and dreamlike. much as describing one's dream, it is difficult to specify how his effects are achieved. characters think and talk to one another as if they were characters in a play, or as if they doubt their own reality. the prose moves fluidly from terse and manly to gently winding and feminine. Scott plays all sides; each of the characters in his chamber piece is both mysterious and recognizable, including the sole female character.
Sadly, Scott lets down his tense, compelling story with a tragic ending that unfortunately undercuts the whole purpose of the book. still, the novel is a remarkable one in many ways and its themes are fascinating to contemplate.
May 9, 2021
In The Mark of the Warrior by Paul Scott, there is an epigraph at the beginning of the book, which bears quoting in full, since it gets at the core of this novel.
Three things are to be considered:
a man’s estimate of himself,
the face he presents to the world,
the estimate of that man made by other men.
Combined they form an aspect of truth.
It is 1942 and the British are fighting the Japanese in Burma. A 35-man unit of mixed Indian and British service men, including a subaltern named John Ramsay, becomes separated from its battalion and is trying to evade discovery by the Japanese. Major Colin Craig is leading these men through the jungle when they encounter a deep river swollen by rains. Craig knows they must cross the river despite having ten non-swimmers in the unit. With ropes and a hastily constructed raft, Craig formulates a scheme whereby all men can get to the opposite bank.
But “in midstream the raft disintegrated” and men are sent adrift. At the same time, a six-man enemy patrol spots the accident and opens fire, mortally wounding subaltern John Ramsay. Four of the non-swimmers drown in the skirmish, but Ramsay and all others make it safely across. With Ramsay on a stretcher, the unit continues its journey through the jungle and the rain. When the unit stops to rest, author Paul Scott bluntly and laconically states, “The subaltern had borne pain stoically, but now he slipped into unconsciousness and Craig stayed with him until he died.”
Years later, at an Officer Training School in India, Craig finds himself in charge of Bob Ramsay, John Ramsay’s younger brother. It is some time until Craig realizes who he is, but then immediately admits to Bob Ramsay that he was with his brother when he died. Bob is curious for details, but Craig is hesitant with answers. A question even surfaces as to whether Craig, in an act of mercy, killed John since he was mortally wounded anyway, and was slowing down the unit. Still Craig is noncommittal.
Meanwhile, in a final training exercise, Bob reveals himself to be a brilliant leader of men and an instinctive soldier in strategy and tactics. He inspires his men with the best balance of brotherly camaraderie and nonnegotiable command. In an impressive display of out-thinking the “enemy force” of the exercise, Craig discerns in Ramsay a natural-born leader. Though merely an exercise, Ramsay is intensely focused on achieving the set objectives. Inevitably, one objective turns out to be the crossing of a river, a replay of the real-life river-crossing scenario undertaken by John Ramsay in 1942.
In a stunning denouement, author Scott masterfully resolves the novel’s plotlines. Throughout the narrative, Scott’s signature skill with long, riveting dialogues is abundantly manifest (nowhere is this better illustrated than in his monumental tetralogy, The Raj Quartet). Particularly penetrating in psychological insight are those conversations between Craig and Ramsay, but also between Craig and his peers, and Craig and his wife. The actions of the Ramsay brothers, though separated by five or six years, ultimately bring the words of the novel’s epigraph into sharp visibility in a way guaranteed to leave readers satisfied.
Three things are to be considered:
a man’s estimate of himself,
the face he presents to the world,
the estimate of that man made by other men.
Combined they form an aspect of truth.
It is 1942 and the British are fighting the Japanese in Burma. A 35-man unit of mixed Indian and British service men, including a subaltern named John Ramsay, becomes separated from its battalion and is trying to evade discovery by the Japanese. Major Colin Craig is leading these men through the jungle when they encounter a deep river swollen by rains. Craig knows they must cross the river despite having ten non-swimmers in the unit. With ropes and a hastily constructed raft, Craig formulates a scheme whereby all men can get to the opposite bank.
But “in midstream the raft disintegrated” and men are sent adrift. At the same time, a six-man enemy patrol spots the accident and opens fire, mortally wounding subaltern John Ramsay. Four of the non-swimmers drown in the skirmish, but Ramsay and all others make it safely across. With Ramsay on a stretcher, the unit continues its journey through the jungle and the rain. When the unit stops to rest, author Paul Scott bluntly and laconically states, “The subaltern had borne pain stoically, but now he slipped into unconsciousness and Craig stayed with him until he died.”
Years later, at an Officer Training School in India, Craig finds himself in charge of Bob Ramsay, John Ramsay’s younger brother. It is some time until Craig realizes who he is, but then immediately admits to Bob Ramsay that he was with his brother when he died. Bob is curious for details, but Craig is hesitant with answers. A question even surfaces as to whether Craig, in an act of mercy, killed John since he was mortally wounded anyway, and was slowing down the unit. Still Craig is noncommittal.
Meanwhile, in a final training exercise, Bob reveals himself to be a brilliant leader of men and an instinctive soldier in strategy and tactics. He inspires his men with the best balance of brotherly camaraderie and nonnegotiable command. In an impressive display of out-thinking the “enemy force” of the exercise, Craig discerns in Ramsay a natural-born leader. Though merely an exercise, Ramsay is intensely focused on achieving the set objectives. Inevitably, one objective turns out to be the crossing of a river, a replay of the real-life river-crossing scenario undertaken by John Ramsay in 1942.
In a stunning denouement, author Scott masterfully resolves the novel’s plotlines. Throughout the narrative, Scott’s signature skill with long, riveting dialogues is abundantly manifest (nowhere is this better illustrated than in his monumental tetralogy, The Raj Quartet). Particularly penetrating in psychological insight are those conversations between Craig and Ramsay, but also between Craig and his peers, and Craig and his wife. The actions of the Ramsay brothers, though separated by five or six years, ultimately bring the words of the novel’s epigraph into sharp visibility in a way guaranteed to leave readers satisfied.
March 9, 2023
A tale of two very manly English brothers serving in an officer cadet training camp under the same major in World War II India begins straightforwardly, but takes a mystical turn.
October 17, 2012
Set in Burma during WW2, the novel's title aptly describes the main theme of the book – those soldiers who have what it takes ( and more) and those who haven't.
I enjoyed the characterization in the novel, the psychology behind the battle plans etc. But I could not follow the actual plans themselves or picture in that context what I ought to have been able to capture in my mind's eye. I haven't the right sort of mind to do that. Parts of the book were lost to me therefore and frankly a little tedious.
I enjoyed the characterization in the novel, the psychology behind the battle plans etc. But I could not follow the actual plans themselves or picture in that context what I ought to have been able to capture in my mind's eye. I haven't the right sort of mind to do that. Parts of the book were lost to me therefore and frankly a little tedious.
Read
February 5, 2020An officer trains the younger brother of a soldier he lost in battle during WWII, contemplates the essential qualities of the warrior archetype, in this short novel by the author of the Raj Quartet. Scott was a great talent, with a distinct genius for illuminating the side corners of great human events. Good stuff.
October 23, 2023
Not a bad read.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews