Time for another round of Bookshelf Traveling in Insane Times which is being hosted by Judith at Reader in the Wilderness. The idea is to share one of your neglected bookshelves or perhaps a new pile of books.
Judith mentioned M.M. Kaye’s mysteries recently and that sent me to my India bookshelf. In the early days of HBO, coverage included Wimbledon and my family subscribed because we were big tennis fans. HBO also aired its first miniseries, The Far Pavilions, based on Kaye’s 1978 novel and starring Ben Cross, Amy Irving, and Omar Sharif (when I checked the cast, I saw there is talk of a remake). The cinematography would have made it worth watching even if the story and acting hadn’t been very compelling! The next day I went to the library to get a copy of the book, set in the 19th century Raj about a young Englishman born in India but raised in England; when he returns to India as an officer he falls in love with an Indian princess and struggles with cultural divides. Kaye also wrote a well-reviewed three-book memoir, beginning with The Sun in the Morning (1990) about her childhood in India. One critic wrote, "No romance in the novels of M.M. Kaye... could equal her love for India." Shadow of the Moon, one of her other historicals, is just as good or better than The Far Pavilions, however.
Rumer (better known for her children’s books about dolls) and her sister Jon Godden are writers also influenced by their childhood in India, who wrote a memoir called Two Under the Indian Sun (1966). Their father was an agent for a British Steamer Company in what is now Bangladesh.
Until the end of the British Raj , young women who could not find a husband in England might get sent to visit friends in India, where there was less competition for the many single young Englishmen in the military or in business. This has been much described in historical fiction and was captured in The Fishing Fleet: Husband-Hunting in the Raj by Anne de Courcey (2015), nonfiction which should be on this shelf but is in a TBR pile in my bedroom!
Other than M.M. Kaye, two of the best historical novels set in India are Zemindar and Olivia and Jai. I was fortunate to find a copy of Zemindar by Valerie Fitzgerald (1981) at a book sale after it was recommended by my Goodreads friend Misfit who shares my love of this genre. Fitzgerald based the book on her grandmother's experiences during the Sepoy Mutiny in 1857: Englishwoman Laura Hewitt accompanies her newly engaged cousin to India, first to Calcutta and then to the fabled fiefdom of Oliver Erskine, Zemindar – or hereditary ruler – of a private kingdom with its own army. But India is on the verge of the Mutiny, which will sweep them all up in its chaos.
The beautiful cover of Olivia and Jai by Rebecca Ryman (1990) caught my eye when it first came out and the story unusually features an American heroine: Headstrong young American Olivia O'Rouke--stifled by the restrictive British colonial society--finds forbidden romance and betrayal with Jai Raventhorne, the illegitimate half-caste son of an Englishman and a native Indian girl. I remember being irritated by the New York Public Library because it owned about 20 copies of this book but hadn’t bothered to purchase the second!
A more recent addition to this shelf are two books by Thalassa Ali (where is the first book in this trilogy, A Singular Hostage?) about a young Englishwoman who is supposed to find a suitable husband in India but prefers to study Urdu with a wise man or hang out with the elephants. Her long-for adventure begins when she becomes the guardian of a child believed by a dying maharajah to be endowed with magical gifts. I must find a copy of this first book before I can return to this series!
If you also like this genre, you can check out my India Bookshelf on Goodreads. Please let me know if I’ve missed any you like!
These books certainly do sound interesting, and I like historical fiction. I don't know a lot about India, except that my father was stationed there during World War II.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you mentioned M.M. Kaye's books again. I had forgotten about Judith's post. I would probably try the mysteries first, but everything she has written sounds good.
I loved The Far Pavilions but I haven't read any of her other books. I think Shadow of the Moon sounds good. I have read The Fishing Fleet too - it took me ages!
ReplyDeleteHave you read Paul Scott's Raj Quartet - I've read the first one The Jewel in the Crown, which I loved, but not the other three.
Lovely shelf! I'm also fascinated by India, I would love to travel there someday. I've read a few of the books from your Goodreads shelf. I also liked The Jewel in the Crown but I haven't read any of the rest of the series yet. And I have a different book by Rumer Godden about India called The Peacock Spring, I picked up at a used bookstore last year for $2. I also really want to read A Suitable Boy but it's more than 1000 pages!
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't already read it - E.M. Forster's A Passage to India, Breakfast with the Nikolides by Rumer Godden and obviously books by Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth. I enjoyed Noble Descents by Gerald Hanley and if you want classics you might like Rudyard Kipling.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic shelf! I used to enjoy books about India but haven't read one in a while. I have actually read Sun in the Morning by M.M. Kaye, about 30 years ago, I thought it was wonderful. I never did get around to reading the two sequels, I must look them up.
ReplyDeleteTracy, as I recall, Kaye's mysteries were somewhat interchangeable but definitely worth reading. It is interesting about your father having been stationed in India. Did he talk about it at all? There are so many things I wish I had asked my father now that it is too late.
ReplyDeleteKaren and Margaret, I too loved the Jewel in the Crown miniseries, and I did read the books but for once I thought the dramatization was much better.
A Suitable Boy is so long that I suspect no one in my book group finished it years ago - I know I didn't!
Katrina, I haven't read that Godden or maybe just don't remember it. She never avoids the realities of life - did you read The Dolls' House? That was a shocker at 8 years old! I have read A Passage to India and Kim (both of which I think I'd like much more now than I did in high school).
Constance, I am sure my father did tell us about his time in India, but I don't remember much. I agree with you so much, I wish I had asked my father about his experiences then and later in the late 1950s in Germany, and written it down.
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