Saturday 11 October 2008

 

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Michael Henderson

Michael Henderson suggests


The Raj Quartet 1: The Jewel in the Crown, A Division of the Spoils

When the sun finally set

Paul Scott, introduced by Hilary Spurling
Everyman, 1032pp, £14.99,
Margaret MacMillan
Tuesday, 11th December 2007

Margaret MacMillan

I first read the Raj Quartet in the early 1970s, when Paul Scott’s decision to set his novels in the dying days of the British Raj in India seemed an eccentric choice, almost as though he did not want readers. The British were tired of their imperial past. Who wanted to know the names of the long gone empire builders whose statues dotted cities and towns? Only a few students wanted to study imperial history. (I was one, perhaps because Canadians were acutely aware of how being part of a great empire had shaped them.) The empire to most people in Britain was an embarrassment, a joke, and a bore. It must have been galling to Scott that critical recognition of what is an extraordinary contribution to English literature was so slow in coming. It was only in 1977, shortly before he died, that the moving but lesser postscript to the series, Staying On, won the Booker Prize.

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Magwa

December 29th, 2007 3:24pm

I purchased this on the the Spectator's advice. I'm very glad I did. The book is wonderful.

The Spectator Parliamentarian Awards
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