Set in Authority

by Sara Jeannette Duncan, Germaine Warkentin

In 1906, two years after the appearance of her best-known novel, The Imperialist , Duncan published its darker twin, an Anglo-Indian novel which returns to political themes but with a deeper and more clinical irony than in her previous work. Set in Authority is about the imperial illusions of those who rule and are ruled; the illusions of families about their members; the illusions of men and women about each other. The setting moves between the political drawing rooms of London and the English station at Pilaghur in the province of Ghoom, where the murder of a native by an English soldier changes the lives of a cast of ruthlessly observed characters. Duncan, who grew up in Ontario, led a remarkably varied life, working as a political correspondent (writing for the Washington Post , the Toronto Globe and the Montreal Star ) and living in India for over twenty years. She is increasingly being regarded as deserving of a place among the first rank of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century novelists; the re-publication of Set in Authority will do nothing to dispel that view.

343 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1906

About the author

Canadian born author and journalist.

After her marriage to Everard Charles Cotes she spent most of her time between England & India.
Duncan had been treated for tuberculosis in 1900, spending the summer out of doors in the fresh air of Simla, as chronicled in On the Other Side of the Latch (1901), published in the United States and Canada as The Crow's Nest. Duncan died of chronic lung disease on 22 July 1922 at Ashtead, Surrey, whence she and her husband had moved in 1921.

In 2016, she was named a National Historic Person on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

information extracted from Wikipedia
a.k.a.:
Mrs. Everard Cotes
Sara Everard Cotes
Sara Jeannette Duncan Cotes

This author also writes under the pseudonym Mrs Everard Cotes.

Reviews

[Ronald Christ]

The most remarkable traditional novel that I've read in years: sort of E.M. Forster's India (he visited Duncan) without the caves' boom. You have to rely on the gloassary for the Indian terms, but no matter: this book has a Jamesian reflectiveness and a terrific plot.
I think you can skip the over-roasted Introduction, which certainly needs editing; but Duncan, who has other novels, should be on your list.

[S. Minsos]

"Set In Authority" (1906, India) is a complex novel about the failing British Empire. The Canadian perspective of the author shines through the imperial complexities. George Orwell's essay on Burma, "Shooting an Elephant" (1936) is a worthy little companion piece.

[Pascale]

A forgotten treasure which really belongs in NYRB Classics or Persephone.
The story revolves around the trial of a Tommy accused of killing a native in India. The soldier is initially sentenced to 2 years in prison by a court presided by a native judge, Sir Ahmed Hossein, who is thereafter accepted into the white Pilaghur Club. However, the Viceroy, Lord Thame, wants to make an example of Henry Morgan and puts pressure on the Chief Commissionner, Eliot Arden, to reopen the case of Henry Morgan. The Viceroy wants to send a signal to the native population that the British army is under control and cannot randomly mistreat them without serious consequences. Meanwhile all the brass and most of the white population of India do not want to see one of them hanged for dispatching a native whose wife was supposedly his mistress. What is very clever is that neither Lord Thame nor Henry Morgan is ever seen in the course of the story. Both of them are extolled or vilified by people pursuing their own agenda without any real concern for the facts of the case or the actual motives of the principals. Duncan gives a brilliant analysis of how a fait divers can turn into a cause célèbre without anyone controlling the process. Furthermore, there is a thrilling plot twist towards the end which adds a whole other layer of irony to the story.
Spoiler alert: Morgan turns out to be none other than the disgraced brother of the girl Lord Thame was said to have wooed unsuccessfully at the beginning of the book. Besides, Morgan/Herbert was framed in retaliation by a native whose uncles had been killed by members of Morgan's regiment. The native assaulted by Morgan survived and an unrelated corpse provided so that Morgan would face murder charges. Only a lady doctor who followed the case closely ever gets to know all the facts, but she desists from telling Victoria that her fiancé was responsible for her beloved bother's death (Herbert committed suicide in prison a few hours before his scheduled execution) on the grounds that there is no point in making more people unhappy over the wretched business.
Not only does this book provide a razor-sharp analysis of colonial India but the points she makes about how societies work are applicable today.

[Vin]

Not bad but not exactly an exciting reading experience either.