The Jewel In The Crown (The Raj quartet)
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Review
"A mighty literary experience."
--"The Times"
"Quite simply, monumental."
--"Washington Post"
--"The Times"
"Quite simply, monumental."
--"Washington Post"
Book Description
The opening title of Paul Scott's masterpiece, The Raj Quartet, dramatised by Radio 4
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
What a marvellous work! My copy has the words, "Dazzling" (Guardian), on the front cover, and on the back cover it is lauded by The Times and the New York Times; it would be impertinent to offer any other opinion. I did not watch the BBC dramatisation, and having now read the novel I cannot conceive how a television adaptation could convey more than a tiny part of its myriad strands. The central story is quite slight, but it is a metaphor for the larger picture, and what grips are the context and the backgrounds. The context, of course, is the burgeoning national consciousness that will lead to the independence of India; but along with that there is the slipping through the imperial fingers of the jewel itself, and the inevitability of the decline of all that was British, all that was Empire. Against this huge backdrop, with all its ramifications for global politics, is played out the drama of Daphne Manners and her rape. The balance is perfect: the subjugation and exploitation of a vast, impoverished country by a small, rich European one - and by the British Empire in all its self-deluding glory - versus the violation of one young Englishwoman by natives of that very country. The story itself is told from several perspectives - Edwina Crane, Lily Chatterjee, Brigadier Reid - each fleshed out in intricate, touching and perceptive detail. There are glorious descriptive touches, too: the magnificent description of the Macgregor House early on, for example. Read it like you would drink a premier cru: slowly, savouring the flavour, relaxing and wondering at the skill that has gone into making it.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"The Jewel in the Crown" combines an almost impossibly deep understanding of India and her colonial rulers with fictional characters of such colour and complexity that it beggars belief they are not and have never been flesh. The decline of British rule and the rise of Indian nationalism forms the background for a novel of astonishing depth and imagination. I cannot wait to read the rest of the books in the series.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Jewel in the Crown is a novel that combines a story of romantic love, a heinous crime and its consequences, and a detailed account of the social and political aspects of life in Colonial India, at a time when British rule was nearing collapse. It also presents the reader with several ironical situations which, if they accomplish nothing in their own right, serve to heighten one's understanding of the hopelessness of any form of reconciliation between the Britons and Indians that could erase more than a century of colonial oppression and native resistance. However, behind all of this, and also in front of it, one basic theme dominates the scene: As Mr. Scott writes in Part Five, the section devoted to 'Young Kumar', 'In India an Indian and an Englishman could never meet on the same terms.' This inescapable fact is what dooms the relationship between Daphne Manners, an English girl living in Mayapore, India, and Hari Kumar, an Indian who was brought up in England. It is Miss Crane's failure to recognise this unequivocal rule that leads to her undoing. It is possible that Paul Scott's main goal in publishing The Jewel in the Crown was to prove that by 1942, after a long history of racism, colonial oppression, and violent native uprisings, the British had no choice but to 'Quit India.' The time when the turbulent events of Great Britain and India's common history could still have been resolved had long since passed. The story was closed; the outcome inevitable. Daphne and Hari's failed attempt to break the old social barrier pushes the reader's hope of British-Indian reconciliation to the ground, and the terrible and ironic fate of the two lovers, and of Miss Crane, all champions of tolerance and understanding among the English and Indian populations living in India, drives that hope into the dust.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Melancholy, ambitious with long lasting consequences.
`The Jewel in the Crown' (Vol 1 The Raj Quartet) gives a deep understanding of India and her colonial rulers set against a background of declining British rule, colonial... Read more
Published 25 days ago by David Ogilvy
Compelling
It is the Second World War and India is starting to ferment. Anxious to start ruling their own country, the Indian people are persuaded to delay their ambitions on account of the... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Clive A. H. Still
Where race and class are currency
Paul Scott's The Jewel In The Crown is the first of his tetralogy of novels on British India. These really were the last days of the Raj. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Philip Spires
Read and learn . . .
The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott - some of it a bit dry and repetitive which I think imprints the atmosphere of India on you but the section on Hari Kumar is exquisitively... Read more
Published 24 months ago by Fay Farrell
Outstanding
The whole of the Raj Quartet is excellent, but Jewel is the very best of the four. It focuses on India and its tensions in the years leading up to partition, but is so much more... Read more
Published on 11 Dec 2009 by T. Ryder
such a good idea
Although it starts off in a very traditional format, don't be fooled - this is a postmodern novel that jumps from here to there and everywhere, keeping you guessing as to its... Read more
Published on 19 Oct 2008 by daisyrock
The Jewel is the book itself
The first book in the "Raj" quartet, it is set in India during the second world war, at a time when Britain's colony was stirring itself towards independence. Read more
Published on 18 April 2008 by S. Diment
The decline of the British Raj in India
In the India of 1942 two rapes take place at the same time - that of the English girl Daphne Manners in Mayapore and that of India by the British. Read more
Published on 14 Mar 2007 by HORAK
So sad
I was so sad about ending. It's an excellent story though. I hoped in the end that the baby was Hari Kumar's baby. It's a shame Daphne and Hari had to suffer so much. Read more
Published on 15 May 2005 by Marie
AN UNFORGETTABLE MAGNUM OPUS
Contempt & Fear, as put in the mouth of the colonial police officer by the author, contempt of the British rulers for the Indians they ruled and the fear of the ruled under... Read more
Published on 13 Mar 2000
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