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Loading... The Siege of Krishnapur (Empire Trilogy) (original 1973; edition 2004)by J.G. Farrell (Author), Pankaj Mishra (Introduction)
Work InformationThe Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell (1973)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. I enjoyed this book. Though a work of fiction, JG Farrell made extensive use of contemporary diaries and accounts written by English residents at the time of the Indain Mutiny, to enable him to write authentically about the imaginary siege which is the subject of this book. At times I found it hard to believe that he had not passed significant periods of his life in India. His account of day-to-day life, and specifically his feel for the lives of the British in 19th century colonial India seemed authentic (as if I know anything much myself!). Though his characters are drawn with affection, there is something of the feeling of caricature in many of them, and in particular for the very few Indians depicted in the book. Several of the personalities are at once heroic and near-insane, but the abiding impression is that The Empire doesn't come out of this at all well, though individuals may. ( ) Fantastic read... I had this book my kindle for about half a decade but could never manage to go beyond a couple of pages. I decided to persist and finished reading it in a couple of days. I loved it. The book has all the hallmarks that would one expect from British Raj era and it is also a treatise on the White Man's Burden. This is the only time I sided with the British despite being an Indian :) This was enjoyable reading, based on the true story of the mutiny at Cawnpur. I'm surprised any English People survived at all, so vastly were they outnumbered. I can't help but wonder what did the English think would happen? Taking away a people's culture and freedom and letting them know you believe they are inferior to you? Come on!
Farrell is the funniest novelist in English since Evelyn Waugh, with the same eye for the absurd as Tom Sharpe. This is the fictitious account, hilarious and horrifying by turns, of a besieged British garrison which held out for four months in the summer of 1857, the year of the Great Indian Mutiny, against a horde of native Sepoys. Despite the omens, the young British cavalry officers continue to indulge their taste for galloping into the nearest memsahib's drawing room, jumping over the sofas and then filling their sola topis with champagne instead of water to quench their horses' thirst. It is left to the Governor of Krishnapur, a sensitive, cultured man with a collection of treasures in his residence, to prepare for the siege. By the end of it cholera, starvation and the Sepoys have done for most of the inhabitants, who are reduced to eating beetles and, in the absence of powder and shot, loading their cannons with monogrammed silver cutlery and false teeth. The final retreat of the British, still doggedly stiff-upper-lipped, through the pantries, laundries, music rooms and ballroom of the residency, using chandeliers and violins as weapons, is a comic delight. And so is the usually serious Tim Pigott-Smith, whose repertoire of characters, from petulant maharajas to pink-faced subalterns - "I say, may we come in, we've come to relieve you" - is dazzling. 1974-09-30 Farrell can write with a fury to match his theme. As spectacle, The Siege of Krishnapur has the blaze and the agony of a scenario for hell. But as moral commentary, it is overcalculated—and its ironies unsuitably neat. Is contained inHas as a student's study guideAwardsNotable Lists
"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 subcontinent. Rumors of strife filter in from afar, and yet the members of the colonial community remain confident of their military and, above all, moral superiority. But when they find themselves under actual siege, the true character of their dominion - at once brutal, blundering, and wistful - is soon revealed." "The Siege of Krishnapur is a companion to Troubles, about the Easter 1916 rebellion in Ireland, and The Singapore Grip, which takes place just before World War II, as the sun begins to set upon the British Empire. Together these three novels offer a picture of the follies of empire."--BOOK JACKET. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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