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Rating: 
Summary: a millennial work
Review: An outstanding piece of writing and a masterpiece, the Quartet compresses in four novels the essence of individual lives caught in the matrix of history. What is karma and dharma? The novels examine these as best Scott can in trying to articulate his artistic vision of the tragedy of history and of individual lives. History is impersonal and is from a God's-eye view, our own lives are subjective and given differing perspectives and are all that we have to imperfectly cling to. In that personal vantage point is salvation and hell all in one. Check out Scott's "Staying On" as well which is his farewell to the Indian scene and the characters we've come to know. A sliding farewell into oblivion, just as Scott himself fell into his twilight years.
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Summary: The Raj Quartet is the greatest novel ever written.
Review: Paul Scott's brilliant saga of the death of English imperialism resonates deeply for any American who has ever worried that Britain's shrunken global influence foreshadows our own destiny as a nation -- despite our current standing as the world's only "superpower." His indictment of racism is complicated and unsparing. In addition to his marvelous villain, Ronald Merrick, his female characters are so richly drawn, so simultaneously appalling, frustrating, and likable, that they dominate all four books of the Quartet and make it difficult to believe they were written by a man. The very appealing character of Guy Perron, whom the reader first meets in Volume IV, is, I believe, Scott himself -- serving as an academic observer who attempts to translate, and make sense of, the complex, emotional, and tightly interwoven events through which the first three volumes have carried us.I reread the Quartet frequently and get something new out of it every time. It inspires me to write.
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Summary: The Art of the Novel
Review: The Raj Quartet (comprised of four novels) is in my ultimate top ten of great novels and my favourite work of fiction for the twentieth century. Paul Scott is up there up with Tolstoy and Jane Austen. The Raj Quartet is exquisite to read, every word and every sentence appears to have the perfection that Jane Austen bestowed on her works but on the majestic scale of Tolstoy's War and Peace. The Raj Quartet is multi-layered, complex, beyond the apparent. Is it about a country? Or is it about two countries? Paul Scott deals with the years of the "great divorce" as it were, but now at the beginning of a new century the continuing implications of the historic British occupation are as fresh as ever, both in India and the UK, one example being the the unforseen post war immigration and lifting of racial barriers between two peoples (I myself am a product of a post war marriage between an Indian father and British mother). The question of identity is explored. What makes an Indian? (still a relevant question in a subcontinent of such diverse cultures, religions, languages, outlooks, etc). What happens to a group (the Raj British) who are no longer needed in either India or Britain? (I recommend Staying On by Paul Scott which deals with a minor character who does stay on in India.) Beyond the themes of history, colonialism and imperialism, there is the theme of the universal human experience. Who are we all really? Should we let our nationality and culture define who we are? Or as one character, Sarah Layton, finally have the courage to break free and define our own identity. Sarah at first is apart from "the other", then in one revealing scene (the ride with Ahmed) she subconsciously turns to face "the other" though unsuccessfully and finally in the beautifully written and incredibly sensual scene where she decides to dive into the forbidden (the seduction by Clark, who I see myself as Eros or the Hindu God of Love, Kama) she breaks through into her individuality, her "grace".
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