Be Specific About Books As A Division of the Spoils (The Raj Quartet #4)
| Original Title: | A Division of the Spoils |
| ISBN: | 0226743446 (ISBN13: 9780226743448) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | The Raj Quartet #4 |
| Characters: | Mohammed Ali Kasim, Count Bronowsky, Sarah Layton, Susan Layton, Ronald Merrick, Ahmed Kasim, Fenella Grace, Guy Perron, Leonard Purvis, Nigel Rowan, Sayed Kasim |
| Setting: | India,1945 |
Paul Scott
Paperback | Pages: 608 pages Rating: 4.39 | 1124 Users | 74 Reviews
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After exploiting India's divisions for years, the British depart in such haste that no one is prepared for the Hindu-Muslim riots of 1947. The twilight of the raj turns bloody. Against the backdrop of the violent partition of India and Pakistan, A Division of the Spoils illuminates one last bittersweet romance, revealing the divided loyalties of the British as they flee, retreat from, or cling to India.
Define Containing Books A Division of the Spoils (The Raj Quartet #4)
| Title | : | A Division of the Spoils (The Raj Quartet #4) |
| Author | : | Paul Scott |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 608 pages |
| Published | : | May 22nd 1998 by University of Chicago Press (first published 1975) |
| Categories | : | Historical. Historical Fiction. Fiction. Cultural. India. Classics. Literature |
Rating Containing Books A Division of the Spoils (The Raj Quartet #4)
Ratings: 4.39 From 1124 Users | 74 ReviewsCommentary Containing Books A Division of the Spoils (The Raj Quartet #4)
This--The Raj Quartet--is an amazing series. I'm shocked, and a little embarrassed, that I only recently discovered it, thanks to watching the three-decades-old television series (The Jewel in the Crown, named after the first novel). So, generally late to the party! But what a party it is. A magnificent series of novels, matching the enormity of the topic--India, England, and the legacy of colonialism. When you think about it, how could England essentially rule India for several hundred years?The four volumes of the Raj Quartet overlap and complement one another, while at the same time forwarding the main storyline of the slow twilight of the British ascendancy in India, always with the rape of a white girl by Indian men as the central lodestone everpresent in the background, the nightmare which is seldom mentioned but which none can drive from their minds. Events occur, are discussed, witnessed as newspaper reports, court documents, interviews, vague recollections from years later,
[More like 3.5 stars, really.]Having finished the Raj Quartet, I have to ask: was a quartet really necessary? The first book, "The Jewel in the Crown", was very good both as a book and as the kind of panoramic overview of British India that Scott is aiming for. It had the central crime to keep it moving while still providing room for the viewpoints of a wide variety of other characters, all of them interesting and at least a tiny bit sympathetic. Even the main villain, Ronald Merrick, was still
The End of the RajFinally, after tackling the four volumes with a friend at three-month intervals, I come to the end of Paul Scott's Raj Quartet. It brings the story of this particular group of Englishmen in India, which had begun with an alleged rape in 1942, up to 1947, when the British withdrew and India split into two separate countries, India and Pakistan. Whatever the strengths and weaknesses of individual sections, this final volume brings a great sense of completion, not merely of a
Scott spent time in the army in the 1940s as a commissioned officer in British India. This is how he came by the material he used to write The Raj Quartet. I so far have only read the last two volumes of this work, and I want to complete the Quartet and also read "Staying On," his book about those English who stayed on in India after the British took their (bloody) hands off the Indian affairs they had so mucked up. Before England colonized India, it was a rich country. England raped it, and had
[More like 3.5 stars, really.]Having finished the Raj Quartet, I have to ask: was a quartet really necessary? The first book, "The Jewel in the Crown", was very good both as a book and as the kind of panoramic overview of British India that Scott is aiming for. It had the central crime to keep it moving while still providing room for the viewpoints of a wide variety of other characters, all of them interesting and at least a tiny bit sympathetic. Even the main villain, Ronald Merrick, was still
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