Valerie Fitzgerald (1)
Author of Zemindar
For other authors named Valerie Fitzgerald, see the disambiguation page.
Works by Valerie Fitzgerald
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Fitzgerald, Valerie
- Birthdate
- 20th century
- Gender
- female
- Birthplace
- India
- Short biography
- Valerie Fitzgerald's novel, Zemindar, won in 1980 the Georgette Heyer Historical Novel prize and in 1982 the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association. This incomparable saga of love and war, tragedy and trumph, is drawn from personal experience. Her grandmother lived through the Indian mutiny so vividly recreated in this splendid novel. And when Ms. Fitzgerald's soldier father was posted to Luchnow during World War II, she spent her adolescent years in the city and her summers on a zemindari estate similar to Oliver Erskin's fabulous realm.
Valerie says of the writing of Zemindar which took place over a span of nine years, "l have no recollection of just when, or more important, why l set about telling the story of the Siege. l suppose it was because l realized l had the right background - and because no one else, as far as I knew, had ever tried it."
She thinks that the British and, by turn, the American fascination with India is rather simple. "I don't think there's any deep psychological reason," she said from Ottawa. "It isn't comparable, say, to America's involvement with Vietnam and the emotional scars that that has left behind. A much more cogent way of looking at it is that the British have suddenly realized that they have their own equivalent of the perennial western. We have an immense, extremely colorful, diverse history of the empire, and I think people are just beginning to realize that there are jolly good stories there for the telling."
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Statistics
- Works
- 1
- Members
- 199
- Popularity
- #110,457
- Rating
- 4.3
- Reviews
- 9
- ISBNs
- 19
- Languages
- 2
I finished the book in just 3 days. The story moved along quickly but there was a lull in the action when the characters were escaping from Hassanganj, which was about 200 pages long. Other than that, Zemindar was a captivating read. The characters were well developed and all of them were kindhearted to each other. They had opposite personalities which gave the novel some flavor. Laura is the main character and her point of view dominates. She is the character who grew the most during her nine months in India. Laura had an independent mind before the trip. Her cousin Emily and husband Charles were stuck in the rigid mindset of the British upper classes and could not adjust to India's culture. Oliver was the villain of the story but he wasn't really a villain. His reputation was rough, having had many sexual affairs with both British and Indian women. Even though he was born into a wealthy British family, he was raised in India and spent his entire life there. He understood the importance of independence to the Indians as well as their customs. Oliver was respected by them for accommodating their religious traditions but also by living their lifestyle. The reader learns about their side of the story on independence from Oliver's dialogue. The reader also learns about the history of the Mutiny, although it is from the point of view of the British. Still, there are aspects of what happened that are true to history.
The descriptions of India were on point. It is an exotic destination for me and I never tire reading about it. In every book set in India that I have read, the British characters are incredibly bored. None of them have much to do and partying becomes a must. Zemindar shows this the best, perhaps because of the page count. The oppressive heat in India is best described here also. The author has the characters removing their excessive clothing at certain times of the day, napping during the warmest part of the day and sipping water at the right times in order to stay healthy.… (more)