European Royalty discussion

***TOPIC - 19th Century India***

Hello all! It's time for the second historical fiction book nomination cycle.

As a reminder, the nominations and voting will work the same way for this book as it does for our other book selection, but on a staggered schedule. The nomination thread will be posted on or about the 11th of the month, with voting to start on the 15th. We will vote until the 20th and then start reading together on the 1st. This should allow those who are interested to read both books along with the group.

I thought it would be fun to read a book that's completely unrelated to the US or Europe this time. I saw that Misfit had made some good suggestions already for this topic, so thought we would run with it. I'm excited to explore a new culture and the history of a country that I'm entirely unfamiliar with. Hope you are, too!

As always, please try to check Amazon or some other site to make sure the book is easily available - the last thing we want is to nominate some great book that no one can get! Also, if the book doesn't fit the theme, I won't add it to this month's voting list, but I will carry it over to the next theme that it does fit under if you would like.

This time, let's only have one nomination per person. If we don't get enough nominations, I'll open it up to more than 1 per person.

Feel free to nominate one book of your choice in this thread until December 15th, 9pm Eastern.

At around that time, I'll make a voting thread and list all the nominated books, and people can vote for one book off of that list until December 20th around 9pm Eastern. Discussion can start on January 1, 2009!!! Looking forward to it! What a great way to start a new year!

Awesome topic!!! I'm going to nominate:

White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India



by William Dalrymple

The title states 18th century, but the book is actually of the turn of the 18th-19th century. A decent amount seems to take place in the early 19th century, so I thought it would be okay.

This is from Amazon: "Dalrymple ... anchors himself in India around the turn of the 19th century to focus on James Kirkpatrick, an officer for the East India Company and the British Resident, representing the British government, in the Indian city-state of Hyderabad. Kirkpatrick, who converted to Islam and, after a celebrated and notorious romance, married Khair un-Nissa, the teenage great-niece of the region's prime minister, exemplifies the "White Mughals," British colonialists who "went native." One of the book's strengths is its stunningly detailed depiction of day-to-day life-gardens, food, sexual mores, modes of travel and architecture-and portraits of British governors-general, Indian politicians, their wives and families, and adventurers. It is also an astute study of the political complications Kirkpatrick faced because of his conversion and cross-cultural marriage, and the difficulties his divided loyalties caused him in his role as agent of the increasingly imperialistic British. But most suspenseful is the fate of Kirkpatrick's willful and charismatic wife, just 19 when he died in 1805, and the fate of their children."

Ooh, Sarah that looks interesting. So many of my favorite books on 19C India are out of print so I daren't nominate any of those (although do check out Zemindar and Olivia and Jai).

I know it's long but it's well worth it and sorry I waited 20 years to read it again.

The Far Pavilions

When The Far Pavilions was first published nineteen years ago, it moved the critic Edmund Fuller to write this: "Were Miss Kaye to produce no other book, The Far Pavilions might stand as a lasting accomplishment in a single work comparable to Margaret Mitchell's achievement in Gond With the Wind."

From its beginning in the foothills of the towering Himalayas, M.M. Kaye's masterwork is a vast, rich and vibrant tapestry of love and war that ranks with the greatest panoramic sagas of modern fiction.

The Far Pavilions is itself a Himalayan achievement, a book we hate to see come to an end. it is a passionate, triumphant story that excites us, fills us with joy, move us to tears, satisfies us deeply, and helps us remember just what it is we want most from a novel.

Kaye spent most of her life in the far east, as did her father and her knowledge of the people and the culture shines through in all her books.

I've been dying to read this book: The Siege of Krishnapur





From Barnes & Noble.com:

Winner of the booker prize.

India, 1857—the year of the Great Mutiny, when Muslim soldiers turned in bloody rebellion on their British overlords. This time of convulsion is the subject of J. G. Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur, widely considered one of the finest British novels of the last fifty years.

Farrell's story is set in an isolated Victorian outpost on the subcontinent. Rumors of strife filter in from afar, and yet the members of the colonial community remain confident of their military and, above all, moral superiority. But when they find themselves under actual siege, the true character of their dominion—at once brutal, blundering, and wistful—is soon revealed. The Siege of Krishnapur is a companion to Troubles, about the Easter 1916 rebellion in Ireland, and The Singapore Grip, which takes place just before World War II, as the sun begins to set upon the British Empire. Together these three novels offer an unequaled picture of the follies of empire.

From Amazon:

By turns witty and compassionate, The Siege of Krishnapur comprises the best of all fictional worlds: unforgettable characters, an epic adventure, and at its heart a cultural clash for the ages. Quite simply, this is a splendid novel.

I found copies of Olivia and Jai on Abebooks.com. But I've only seen 1990 and1991 in fair or good condition. The better condition copies get a bit pricey.

There's some copies on Half.com that look decent...OK I officially nominate Olivia and Jai by Rebecca Ryman

Amazon has some too btw....from their site..:
From Publishers Weekly
Set against an exotic background complete with a tiger hunt and the opium trade of 19th-century India, a tragedy of surprising scope is played out here. In the center is pseudonymous Ryman's heroine, freethinking American Olivia O'Rourke, who comes to Calcutta's "village of palaces" to visit her relatives Sir Joshua and Lady Bridget Templewood. Her radiant innocence proves out of place in the stiflingly proper atmosphere, and from the moment her path crosses that of the enigmatic Eurasian Jai Raventhorne she is caught up in an obsessive affair, with only her formidable intelligence and courage enabling her to endure Jai's savage betrayal of herself, her aunt and her uncle. Yet her romantic ordeal transforms Olivia into as ruthless an adversary as the man to whom she gave her love and trust, and out of the ill-fated choices she must make a great cynicism is forged. Beneath the propriety of the staid expatriate British community in Calcutta fester secrets of unspeakable defilements, and Ryman, a spellbinding storyteller, captivates the reader from the first page.


Olivia and Jai

Someone else who has read Olivia and Jai. Loved loved loved it - and what a twist in the middle, eh?

Thriftbooks has several copies as well, including hardback at $.01.

Good scouting people! I'm all for reading out of print books if I know where to order them from. I think every book nominated this round is going on my to-read shelf regardless of which one is voted for in the end.

Nominations closed. Lots of great ones this time!