The Raj Quartet, Volume 1 : The Jewel in the Crown (Phoenix Fiction Series)

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful book
Review: This is one of the finest novels I have ever read. An article I discovered recently referred to the Raj Quartet of Paul Scott as "operatic", and I can think of no better term to describe book 1 of his tetrology. Daphne Manners and Hari Kumar are two of the most sympathetic and appealing figures I have encountered in some time. Daphne is a simple hero - a woman of character, humor, dignity and empathy. Hari is noble and humane man - Scott potently describes the changes thrust upon him, and I strongly felt his helplessness and hopelessness. The supporting characters are unforgettable - they are all symbols of the massive upheaval taking place during the twilight of an empire and the heart of a war, yet each is fully three-dimensional and unique. I grew to care deeply about them. Even Ronald Merrick inspires a kind of pitiful sympathy, as Scott employs objectivity brilliantly, allowing humanity to appear in the most surprising places (Merrick's date with Daphne is beautifully realized). Paul Scott writes of tragedy, passion, bigotry and pride in a gentle manner that nevertheless imparts a heavy moral burden on the reader as well as the characters. Questions are answered as the book goes on, but these answers parthenogenize deeper, more troubling questions. It surprised me, then, that I felt content as the book concluded. I think that the shear goodness and strength of Daphne Manners helped to overshadow the most onerous of the events described in such fascinating detail in the novel. Her love and respect for Hari last to the end, through terrible discrimination and trauma, and although her experience clashes with the final nature of the British-Indian relationship at the close of 1942, it is a small but stable foundation for the future. "The Jewel in the Crown" is an epic of huge moral, historical, and humanistic dimensions.

Rating:
Summary: Miraculous
Review: This story is about India the way War and Peace is about Russia. For the exploration of a region as vast and complex as the human heart, a vast country can be a useful metaphor. But Tolstoy never took me where Paul Scott did. (I finished War and Peace only because I promised my Great Books group that I would. I have now read The Raj Quartet twice, and I'm ready to go again.) The first page of the first book in the quartet brings to our notice a young Indian girl's singing a morning raga, and indeed the whole four-volume story could be seen as a raga--melodic lines with theme and variation that circle and turn back again and again, each time taking a deeper cut into the mystery of what it means to be human. The characters are compelling, their voices individual and authentic. The structure is nothing short of a miracle. Just give yourself to it. Make no mistake: It may be set in India, but the book is about all of us.

Rating:
Summary: Miraculous
Review: This story is about India the way War and Peace is about Russia. For the exploration of a region as vast and complex as the human heart, a vast country can be a useful metaphor. But Tolstoy never took me where Paul Scott did. (I finished War and Peace only because I promised my Great Books group that I would. I have now read The Raj Quartet twice, and I'm ready to go again.) The first page of the first book in the quartet brings to our notice a young Indian girl's singing a morning raga, and indeed the whole four-volume story could be seen as a raga--melodic lines with theme and variation that circle and turn back again and again, each time taking a deeper cut into the mystery of what it means to be human. The characters are compelling, their voices individual and authentic. The structure is nothing short of a miracle. Just give yourself to it. Make no mistake: It may be set in India, but the book is about all of us.