Tears of the Rajas: Mutiny, Money and Marriage in India 1805-1905 - Rilegato

Mount, Ferdinand

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 1471129454 ISBN 13: 9781471129452

Casa editrice: SIMON & SCHUSTER, 2015

Riassunto

The Tears of the Rajasis a sweeping history of the British in India, seen through the experiences of a single Scottish family. For a century the Lows of Clatto survived mutiny, siege, debt and disease, everywhere from the heat of Madras to the Afghan snows. They lived through the most appalling atrocities and retaliated with some of their own. Each of their lives, remarkable in itself, contributes to the story of the whole fragile and imperilled, often shockingly oppressive and devious but now and then heroic and poignant enterprise.

On the surface, John and Augusta Low and their relations may seem imperturbable, but in their letters and diaries they often reveal their loneliness and desperation and their doubts about what they are doing in India. The Lows are the family of the author's grandmother, and a recurring theme of the book is his own discovery of them and of those parts of the history of the British in India which posterity has preferred to forget.

The book brings to life not only the most dramatic incidents of their careers - the massacre at Vellore, the conquest of Java, the deposition of the boy-king of Oudh, the disasters in Afghanistan, the Reliefs of Lucknow and Chitral - but also their personal ordeals: the bankruptcies in Scotland and Calcutta, the plagues and fevers, the deaths of children and deaths in childbirth. And it brings to life too the unrepeatable strangeness of their lives: the camps and the palaces they lived in, the balls and the flirtations in the hill stations, and the hot slow rides through the dust. An epic saga of love, war, intrigue and treachery, The Tears of the Rajas is surely destined to become a classic of its kind.

Su questo libro

Recensione

'As with William Dalrymple's recent masterly account of the 19th-century invasion of Afghanistan, its relevance today is compelling' Miranda Seymour, The Sunday Times

'Mount relates this remarkable story with a gentle wit, a lightness of touch, a boyish enthusiasm as well as a genius for the telling pen-portrait... It is a remarkable story, and cumulatively amounts to an epic panorama of British Indian history much more substantial than the 'collection of Indian tales, a human jungle book', which Mount modestly describes as his aim in the introduction.' --William Dalrymple, The Spectator

'What [Mount] provides instead is of far greater value: a perceptive antidote to nationalistic prejudicial thinking, and an opportunity for a greater understanding of the aftereffects of British imperialism in some of the world's most troubled regions.' Sunday Times

'Although Tears of the Rajas is replete with stirring tales of adventure, it is a deeply humane book. Mount's heart is at all times with the people of India, whose lives are turned upside down by blundering attempts at modernisation.' The Times

'Mount is a skilled and fluent writer who does his subject justice' --Literary Review

'Mount has produced a gripping and finely nuanced account of the British imperial experience that is, to my mind, unique.' Saul David, Evening Standard

'Mount's even-handed description of this horrific event is the best I have read and a fitting conclusion to this splendid history' Independent

'In The Tears of the Rajas, this scion of empire provides a warts-and-all account of his ancestry's involvement in India' Prospect

'Wonderfully detailed, fascinating, intelligent and level-headed history of a century of empire...' The Scotsman

'Impressively researched ... eminently readable ... epic account of the British in 19th-century India.' --David Goodall, Country Life

L'autore

Ferdinand Mount was born in 1939. For many years he was a columnist at the Spectator and then the Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times . In between, he was head of the Downing Street Policy Unit and then editor of the Times Literary Supplement . He is now a prize-winning novelist, author of the bestselling memoir Cold Cream , and most recently the controversial The New Few . He lives in London.

Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: SIMON & SCHUSTER
• Data di pubblicazione: 2015
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 1471129454
• ISBN 13: 9781471129452
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 784
• Contatto del produttore: EDIZIONI CLICHY; casetta@mondadori.it; ; Via Mondadori 1,; Segrate Milano; 20090; Italia