With Clive in India

by G.A. Henty

The period between the landing of Clive in India and the close of his career was eventful in the extreme. At its commencement the English were traders existing on sufferance of the native princes; at its close they were masters of Bengal and of the greater part of Southern India. The author has given a full account of the events of that stirring time...

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, War, Adventure, Classics, India

240 pages, Paperback

First published September 24, 1883

About the author

George Alfred Henty, better known as G.A. Henty, began his storytelling career with his own children. After dinner, he would spend and hour or two in telling them a story that would continue the next day. Some stories took weeks! A friend was present one day and watched the spell-bound reaction of his children suggesting Henty write down his stories so others could enjoy them. He did. Henty wrote approximately 144 books in addition to stories for magazines and was known as "The Prince of Story-Tellers" and "The Boy's Own Historian." One of Mr. Henty's secretaries reported that he would quickly pace back and forth in his study dictating stories as fast as the secretary could record them.

Henty's stories revolve around fictional boy heroes during fascinating periods of history. His heroes are diligent, intelligent, and dedicated to their country and cause in the face, at times, of great peril... Henty's heroes fight wars, sail the seas, discover land, conquer evil empires, prospect for gold, and a host of other exciting adventures. Along the way, they meet famous personages... In short, Henty's heroes live through tumultuous historic eras meeting leaders of that time. Understanding the culture of the time period becomes second nature as well as comparing/contrasting the society of various cultures.

Reviews

[Amit · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 ⭐

GENRE - FICTION/HISTORICAL DRAMA.

I brought this Book foolishly looking at the title "With Clive of India" almost a decade ago, those were the days where I would simply buy the book without checking for reviews or the Brief description of what the book was all about.I wanted to study about Robert Clive, the Major General who is given the credit of laying the foundation stone of the British Rule in India along with Warren Hastings. I tried to read this book many times in the past but would often get bored.

Now about the book, It's about the Adventure of Charlie Marryat who is sent upon to India after the sudden death of his father on the request of his mother to her uncle who is a very influential Londoner since their financial condition hasn't been any great and Charlie a 15 year old boy being now the head of the family needs to take up that responsibility.
CHARLIE'S mother's uncle finds a job for him in the British East India Company branch in Madras, designation of a Writer (Clerk).Upon his arrival to Madras charlie embarks on an adventure with lots of ups and a few downs. Honestly the book should have been titled "Adventures of Charlie" 🤣.To know about his adventures and success story take the pain to read the 📖.

I read alot of reviews about this book and I came across people being disappointed however I would like to share my views of this book, this book aint Fiction honestly, apart from Charlie 90% of the events like Battles, Wars, Names of warriors, generals, nawabs, kings are real.Alot of words are spent wrongly like Nababs which is spelled as Nawab, Maratta which is Maratha, Suraja-u-Dowlah which is Siraj-ud-Daulah and so on.As being an indian Native and studying and being interested in history I was pretty fascinated with the book.

Accounts of Robert Clive forging a plot to deceive Nawab Siraj -ud- Daulah by cheating a native trader Omichand who was a British Supporter but never admitted it publicly are accurate infact I have also in my research found out that Robert Clive Two years after the government's enquiry into the EIC's affairs, died, aged 49. As a youth, he had twice attempted suicide and he had suffered poor health in adulthood. On leaving no suicide note, his contemporaries commonly interpreted his death as the result of a guilty conscience.
Other events in the book like "The Black Hole of Calcutta" was also another true event.

My understanding of this book is that the author G.A. Henty, since he being a war correspondent, followed these events in india during his stay in India and than created a fictional character and adding some spice to his character merged it with real events that happened in India.

I must agree that it isn't an easy read and this book is not meant for everyone specifically for those who don't wish to read about war war and war all long from the 2nd chapter of the book until the 29th chapter. As a fictional read I would rate this book just 1⭐ but as a non fiction historical novel I will rate it as I did above.The book has dragged and emphasized on a lot of unwanted things which fails it to be a fictional novel.

I could only enjoy this book although in bits and pieces only because I have a liking for history and world politics. I Myself belong to a family where my mother has Portuguese ancestors while my dad is native Indian, hence any book which has something to talk about British East India Company, Dutch East India Company, Portuguese or French business in Indian Sub Continent excites me moreover the events in this book were very much true being the reason I could take a liking for it. 🙂

Thanks 😊

[Lazy Linesman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just because something was written over a century ago, that does not mean it was written well. That has been hammered home in ‘With Clive in India’.

It is one of the books freely available on ManyBooks.net, though I picked my copy up a few years ago in Poundland. Three nineteenth-century stories in one volume, the others being ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ and ‘King Solomon’s Mines’. I love the latter and have glanced briefly at the former; I made the assumption that this story would be similar enough to appeal to my tastes. Alas, it did not. While it was not quite as painful as the worst book to have plagued my eyes, it did its best.

It is a piece of historical fiction, the Sharpe of its day. It claims to follow the life of fictional Charlie Marryat from the fatherless youngster sent to the employ of the East India Company to the battle-hardened soldier who just cannot put a foot wrong. His rise essentially follows in the shadow of Clive’s own rising star.

Now, I am far from adverse to historical fiction: I have devoured pretty much every single Bernard Cornwell work that has crossed my path. But I do not like historical fiction which seems unable to make up its mind whether it wants focus more on the fiction or the history. ‘With Clive in India’ is incredibly unevenly structured: it flicks with no warning from Charlie’s story to the account of Clive’s military ventures and back again. These are not brief forays into the realm of fact either – they are many thousand-word breaks away from the fiction.

This perhaps would not have been so blatant if G. A. Henty was able to hold his readers’ attention with this long historical narrative. Unfortunately, his prose reads far too much like a history book, which requires a particular frame of mind to absorb. The aforementioned flicking from one genre to another gives little time to prepare such a mindset. Having detailed Charlie’s arrival in India, it introduces the character of Mr Johnson. Charlie asks him why Britain interferes in the affairs of Indian politics. Mr Johnson’s response is basically to give him the entire history of the past few months. A conservative estimate suggests that this book has 450 words to a page, which means that this reply consisted of 5000 words of almost pure narrative. And this was one of the short ones. Elsewhere you just get battle, battle, battle, battle, battle, kill snake in servant’s bed, battle, battle, battle.

One particular danger when covering national events in a country unfamiliar to the reader is the local names – those of the places and the people. I could reel off a number of Mexican towns, cities and regions – in fact, let us try it:

Comalcalco, Tuxtla, Puerto Ceiba, Huimanguillo, Campeche, Veracruz, Taxco, Cardenas, Oaxaca, Parangaricutirimicuaro.

I imagine you probably stopped registering them after the third one. I know I would have done. Now, a couple of people:

Diego Rivera, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, José María Morelos, Benito Juárez, Ignacio de Allende, Frida Kahlo.

Without looking, try and recall the place names. Good, now the individuals.

They probably mean nothing to the majority of you and, consequently, I dare say few of them really stuck in your mind. Perhaps you might be more able to recall them if you were warned before reading them. But you did not expect to have a memory exercise while reading a book review blog, did you? Similarly, one’s mind is not in gear having just read about pirate attacks to memorise a political history.

Such is the scale of the events Henty tries to include that the reader is simply inundated Indian names, mixed in with a couple of French and English, and there is no real time invested in building up an image for each one. To use the Mexican names again, if I told you that Diego Rivera was a portly gentleman with a fantastic range of facial expressions, and it was he who painted many of Mexico’s famous murals, and that Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla was a Catholic priest-turned-revolutionary who bore quite a remarkable resemblence to ‘Back to the Future’s’ Doctor Emmert Brown, would those names not be more likely to linger in the memory? Alas, Henty gives no such reading aid. I cannot remember one thing about Clive’s battles in India, other than the French were involved.

What makes this lack of structure all the more galling is the fact that Henty occasionally displays an ability to tell a good battle. He desribes an occasion when Clive’s camp was infiltrated and attacked by a combination of French and Indian troops headed up by British deserters. It is an engaging account; he gives an overview of what was going on as well as detailing individual events within the battleground itself. He uses the scenario to give us an idea of what, which has until now been pretty much absent, Clive is actually like as a person: calm, measured but not all-knowing, quick-witted enough to bluff his way away a large group of Indian soldiers. Unfortunately, this is 3 pages of story almost hidden away within 28 pages of exposition.

In fact, though the bulk of this review has been raging against how the book was put together, the fiction which was told was not up to much either. As much as I enjoy ‘King Solomon’s Mines’, I do not have it down as the best-written of books. It is, however, far better than this. Henty does not buy into the idea of subtlety. While the phrase “Show, Don’t Tell” was yet been coined, even debutant writers like Rider Haggard, writing just one year after this, had grasped the concept. Doctor Rae has just been told, by Captain Clive, what the plan of attack is, and its many risks. This plan was thought up by Clive himself. The Doctor’s perfectly natural-sounding response is thus:

“To attack Arcot?” Doctor Rae said, astonished. “That does indeed appear a desperate enterprise, with such a small body as you have at your command, and these, entirely new recruits. But I recognise the importance of the enterprise. If you should succeed, it will draw off Chunda Sahib from Trichinopoli. It’s a grand idea, Captain Clive, a grand idea, though I own it seems to me a desperate one.”

Simple. Explanatory. Believable. Yeah...

I realise this review has merely deteriorated a rather long rant. I shall complain about just one last flaw.

The characterisation, frankly, sucked. Charlie Marryat, the protagonist, is as realistic as a bowl of jelly belting out some Gilbert & Sullivan. He has no flaws at all. He is handsome, good at sports, intelligent yet does not look down on others, brave, a natural with languages (as a language graduate, this one particularly rankles), easy-going yet hard working, just, wise beyond his years, bland. Oh so bland. Nothing makes this guy bat an eyelid: he deals fearlessly with pirates, soldiers, assassins and wild animals. There is no depth to him. Or any of the characters, for that matter. His Irish servant Tim is idiotic. His Uncle Tufton is pompous. Doctor Rae is reasonable. Each of them are almost entirely summed up with these single adjectives.

Bah, enough is enough. Writing this just makes me angry. Simply put, the book is just badly written:

“Yes, I have cast my Slough,” Captain Clive said, laughing, “and have, thank God, exchanged my pen for a sword, for good.”
“You were able to fight, though, as a civilian,” Doctor Rae said, laughing.

Gah! The repetition! It burns!





Probably did not help that this was pretty much the running theme of the book:

“It is singular that, contemptible as are these natives of India when officered by men of their own race and religion, they will fight to the death when led by us.”

I am off to read ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ for recuperation.

[Lydia Willcock · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars
As with all Henty’s books, I found this one very hard to get into – in fact, I’m not sure I ever really did. I tried to read this about two years ago, and I actually ended up giving up on it and putting it aside for later – a thing I very rarely do.
This year, however, I decided to give it one more try, but I admit there were several times when I very nearly gave up on it again. I tried to keep in mind that all Henty’s books had started this way, and I had usually ended up really enjoying them by the end.
Well, I can’t say that was true of this one, although I admit there were parts – particularly around the middle of the book – which I really liked. I was satisfied with the way it ended; the story was a good one, no doubt; but... I just couldn’t get into it.
For one thing, I got annoyed at the long stretches (sometimes entire chapters or more) with no dialogue whatsoever, and sometimes even no mention of the hero or what he is doing. Instead, pages on end are devoted to extremely detailed accounts of battles and sieges, army positions, regiment strengths, etc. And that’s all very well for a history book, but not for an adventure novel as With Clive in India claimed to be. After a while, it just became monotonous, and I started glazing over while reading and letting my thoughts wander elsewhere, which I hate doing.

Secondly, I felt that the characters, with only one or two exceptions, were not well developed. Action and battles begin in the first chapter, but the reader has not seen enough of Charlie to feel drawn into them, or even really to care all that much what happens to him. As for Peters, despite the role he plays in the story, we are not even given his first name. We know practically nothing about him until towards the very end, and even then, his background, such as it is, is only mentioned casually in passing. And characters such as Dr Rae seem unnecessary to the story, appearing for a short time in the beginning, not contributing terribly much to the plot (what little plot there was, between the endless battles and sieges) and then disappearing from the story never to be mentioned again.
Now, I might have missed something – and feel free to correct me if I did – but it seemed to me as if Hossein literally sprang up out of nowhere, described as Charlie’s ‘faithful servant’, and I was left scratching my head and wondering where he had come from. I liked him very much, and along with Tim Kelly was one of the few characters I felt much interest in, but who he was and just why he was so faithful was something that was either never explained or explained so briefly that I missed it altogether.
I liked Ada, of course (although I would have liked her to be in the story a little more often), and one of the few parts I started really getting into were the scenes featuring her and the thread near the middle of the book, where for a while I thought I might enjoy the rest after all, but after those scenes I began to lose interest in the story again.

So no, while I didn’t hate it, it was probably my least favourite if all Henty’s books, and I doubt that I’ll ever read it again.

[Czarny Pies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five stars on the children's literature scale.
This novel is a fabulous introduction to the lunatic work of G.A. Henty the great laudator of the British Empire. My favorite chapter is on the Black Hole of Calcutta.
In 1884 when this book was published, Imperialism was wildly popular. The British believed that they had the means and the moral authority to rule the world. Parents throughout the Empire purchased Henty's books for their children to encourage them to take pride in being British. These books are well enough written for the target audience. The prime reason for parents to give Henty's books to their in the twenty-first century is to show them how times change.

[Thomas Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first G. A. Henty novel; and having now finished it, I’m left with fairly mixed feelings.

The book follows real historical events, centring around the battles, sieges and military campaigns of Robert Clive in mid 18th century India, at a time when the British, Dutch, and French, East India companies were all vying for commercial and territorial hegemony of the lucrative Indian subcontinent.

Starting with what the author does well: There is no doubt that G. A. Henty had a great talent for writing a gripping, and yet at the same time intellectually stimulating, adventure story; the pace never lets up, and the battles - of which the story mostly consists - in particular, are narrated in fascinating detail; strategic circumstances and tactical considerations being mapped out vividly; and critical developments and decisions explained with such clarity and depth, that one feels as though one has been placed inside the mind of the commander, and is seeing the battle through his eyes.

The second point in Henty’s favour, is awarded for the historical accuracy; and thus educational value, of his work. Reading stories like ‘With Clive in India’ serves as a much more compelling, and memorable, way to become first acquainted with key historical episodes, periods and events than reading even the best written, most lavishly illustrated, non-fiction tomes. In fact, I understand that many modern homeschooling organisations in the United States champion the use of G. A. Henty’s works for just this purpose; having even gone so far as putting his entire corpus back into print. And one can certainly foresee how a child, having already enjoyed a great many stories of this kind at an earlier age; later, embarking upon a more formal and detailed study of history, by means of more traditional non-fiction books; might find the subject that much more interesting and compelling, for having already been personally and intimately exposed, to many of the key periods, personages, and events, by way of early experiences reading Hentyesque fiction.

That said, the Achilles heel of this book for me, lies in its disingenuous and rather shameless glorification of war and imperial plunder. Its depictions of battles and military campaigns whilst being rich in both tactical and historical detail are without nuance, and Henty shies away entirely from portraying any of the horrors or evils of war. Perhaps this is down to the era in which this work was written; perhaps, exploring the far from glamorous, facets of war and of empire would have interfered with an overarching goal of immortalising and glorifying British imperial/military achievements...

The book also lacks emotional depth and sensitivity, all of the emphasis being placed on the development and progress of external events, and almost none on the presence or progress of internal ones.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for free through Project Gutenberg. It's an enjoyable way to get a bit of history of early British affairs in India. The Victorian author, Henty (who wrote lots of similar stuff), has no pretensions at writing high literature or analytical history, and the protagonist is pretty one-dimensional (more a perspective-marker than a human being with intricate or fascinating psychology). But, as a popularized, somewhat fictionalized history, it achieves its goals: it presents a lot of interesting historical information while at the same time piecing together an engaging narrative.

[Michi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried to read this but got bored very soon and couldn’t finish it. A historical background can be fun, but the author just seemed to forget that he actually had a protagonist about half the time and just decided to talk about all of these battles from an entirely impersonal “historical report” point of view. What exactly is the point of introducing a protagonist if you’re just going to forget about him a couple of chapters in. If I’d wanted that, I’d read a non-fictional history book, not a novel.

[Panda Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Engaging historical fiction based on the adventures of central characters Charlie Marryat & his sidekicks Peters, Tim & Hossein, inserted into Clive's campaigns in India. At times the extreme details of so many battles, though adding to the air of authenticity, were a bit tedious

[Katja Labonté · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. I enjoyed this fast-paced, interesting book. Clive had, as all men, his virtues and his vices, and alternates between being admirable (a splendid general) and disgusting (an unscrupulous deceiver). Tim & Charlie ofteb consist of a hilarious duo, and Hossein has wonderful virtues. <3 The whole war consist of brilliant achievements and admirable sacrifices, and saddening deceits and hypocrisy. [Mentions of smoking, men in loincloths, & drinking; some euphemisms; derogatory terms for Indians by Britishers; disrespectfully humorous mention of a river (on which Indians set their dead adrift instead of burying them) full of dead.] All in all, it is humorous, interesting, and full of thought-provoking incidents.

A Favourite Quote: “Dalton then marched to Samieaveram, and placed his force at Clive's disposal; and, to prevent any disputes arising as to precedence and rank, offered himself to serve under him as a volunteer.”
A Favourite Humourous Quote: “Manak Chand ordered his cavalry to charge, but just as he did so, a cannonball from one of Clive's field pieces passed close to his head. The sensation was so unpleasant that he at once changed his mind.”

[Luke Meinders · Rating 2 out of 5]

As with any G.A Henty book I really enjoyed the book however there were parts of this book that made this one worse than his more popular ones in my opinion. The good about the book was the historical facts were very interesting and learning more details on the fights was extremely intriguing. The bad was the lack of focus on the actual storyline of the characters in the book. At the beginning they didn't give enough details into the characters in the story to make me invested in them. In the middle there were good parts that were interesting but they were quite brief. The last part was the part I disliked the most, there seemed to be a complete lack of care for how the story ended with how short and forced the ending was.

[Viva · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been going through a bunch of GA Henty's books which I got from Amazon. Usually the book follows a protagonist through some notable period in British history and we get a story as well as a history lesson. In this book we look at Clive and more so the beginnings of Britain supremacy in India. Unfortunately, the story of Charlie Marryat the protagonist takes a back seat. He isn't even part of some of the chapters. Though I enjoyed the history lesson and learned a lot about the beginning of the British in India I didn't come here to read history, I came here to read a story. In the end, I dnf'd the book at about 90% since I can read history somewhere else and though informative, I had my fill. After reading about 10 books I'm going to take a break from Henty and read something else.

[Rupert Grech · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book extraordinary. A great find for €0.30 at a second-hand book sale. It began interestingly enough but I almost gave up on it after a couple of early chapters that were little more than a very detailed blow-by-blow account of battles albeit well-written and easy to follow. I am glad I didn’t, as the narrative became much more interesting (although there still appeared the same long and detailed descriptions of battles and sieges here and there). The book vividly describes the complexity of this period of English/Indian history and was a revelation. I suspect it is a 5-star book to students of military history but would be incomprehensible to many of the cancel culture persuasion.

[Elena Hebson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exceptional overview of this period in history that I had not known much about before. Clive is an interesting character who seems to be capable of both wonderfully courageous acts and despicable deceptions. The only parts that were a bit harder to get through were some of the descriptions of the movements in the battles - I am a very visual person when it comes to that sort of thing and take a long time to sort things out in my head without a map :)

[Curtiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful tale of adventure during the age of British expansion into India, with daring and romance surrounding the real-life career of Clive, of India.

[Farhan Sobhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The translation it not that good

[Lincoln · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought is was interesting, engaging, and kind of horrifying. I knew little about the British colonization of India. The author seems to assume the British East India Company had every right to have its mercenaries colonize India. Lots of folks die towards the goal of establishing British dominance there, but it's still painted as a glorious and noble struggle. There are many quite detailed battle narratives; more than I strictly required, but I understand the author was sticking closely to the historical unfolding of events at that time. I find this historical fiction genre a good way to pick up historical information, so I think I will try to find another of the 100+ other historical fiction books G.A. Henty has written.

[Philip Lane · Rating 3 out of 5]

The life of Charlie Marryat was interesting but as the title indicates most of the book is about the military campaigns that he was party to. I don't really enjoy the accounts of battles so the story left me cold quite a lot of the time. If you enjoy that sort of thing then this is the book for you.

[Bharati Shroff · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book was more like "with Charlie" rather than with Clive for which reason I had purchased this book!!!

Extremely disappointing. Too much detail about trivial battles when the real reason I wanted to read this book was to discover how Clive began the empire in India.On the whole there must have been about 10 pages of Clive!!!

[Richard Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a pretty good book overall. I really enjoyed the middle section of the books like his time in Ambur and Calcutta, I just worse he spend less time on the battles and history. That made it a bit hard to read but still a good book. And I mean he even warns us in the preface that he spend less time on the hero.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this one!